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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
2.1.1
Thus far the tilth of fields and stars of heaven;
2.1.2
Now will I sing thee, Bacchus, and, with thee,
2.1.3
The forest's young plantations and the fruit
2.1.4
Of slow-maturing olive. Hither haste,
2.1.5
O Father of the wine-press; all things here
2.1.6
Teem with the bounties of thy hand; for thee
2.1.7
With viny autumn laden blooms the field,
2.1.8
And foams the vintage high with brimming vats;
2.1.9
Hither, O Father of the wine-press, come,
2.1.10
And stripped of buskin stain thy bared limbs
2.1.11
In the new must with me.
2.9.12
First, nature's law
2.9.13
For generating trees is manifold;
2.9.14
For some of their own force spontaneous spring,
2.9.15
No hand of man compelling, and possess
2.9.16
The plains and river-windings far and wide,
2.9.17
As pliant osier and the bending broom,
2.9.18
Poplar, and willows in wan companies
2.9.19
With green leaf glimmering gray; and some there be
2.9.20
From chance-dropped seed that rear them, as the tall
2.9.21
Chestnuts, and, mightiest of the branching wood,
2.9.22
Jove's Aesculus, and oaks, oracular
2.9.23
Deemed by the Greeks of old. With some sprouts forth
2.9.24
A forest of dense suckers from the root,
2.9.25
As elms and cherries; so, too, a pigmy plant,
2.9.26
Beneath its mother's mighty shade upshoots
2.9.27
The bay-tree of Parnassus. Such the modes
2.9.28
Nature imparted first; hence all the race
2.9.29
Of forest-trees and shrubs and sacred groves
2.9.30
Springs into verdure. Other means there are,
2.9.31
Which use by method for itself acquired.
2.9.32
One, sliving suckers from the tender frame
2.9.33
Of the tree-mother, plants them in the trench;
2.9.34
One buries the bare stumps within his field,
2.9.35
Truncheons cleft four-wise, or sharp-pointed stakes;
2.9.36
Some forest-trees the layer's bent arch await,
2.9.37
And slips yet quick within the parent-soil;
2.9.38
No root need others, nor doth the pruner's hand
2.9.39
Shrink to restore the topmost shoot to earth
2.9.40
That gave it being. Nay, marvellous to tell,
2.9.41
Lopped of its limbs, the olive, a mere stock,
2.9.42
Still thrusts its root out from the sapless wood,
2.9.43
And oft the branches of one kind we see
2.9.44
Change to another's with no loss to rue,
2.9.45
Pear-tree transformed the ingrafted apple yield,
2.9.46
And stony cornels on the plum-tree blush.
2.35.47
Come then, and learn what tilth to each belongs
2.35.48
According to their kinds, ye husbandmen,
2.35.49
And tame with culture the wild fruits, lest earth
2.35.50
Lie idle. O blithe to make all Ismarus
2.35.51
One forest of the wine-god, and to clothe
2.35.52
With olives huge Tabernus! And be thou
2.35.53
At hand, and with me ply the voyage of toil
2.35.54
I am bound on, O my glory, O thou that art
2.35.55
Justly the chiefest portion of my fame,
2.35.56
Maecenas, and on this wide ocean launched
2.35.57
Spread sail like wings to waft thee. Not that I
2.35.58
With my poor verse would comprehend the whole,
2.35.59
Nay, though a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths
2.35.60
Were mine, a voice of iron; be thou at hand,
2.35.61
Skirt but the nearer coast-line; see the shore
2.35.62
Is in our grasp; not now with feigned song
2.35.63
Through winding bouts and tedious preludings
2.35.64
Shall I detain thee.
2.47.65
Those that lift their head
2.47.66
Into the realms of light spontaneously,
2.47.67
Fruitless indeed, but blithe and strenuous spring,
2.47.68
Since Nature lurks within the soil. And yet
2.47.69
Even these, should one engraft them, or transplant
2.47.70
To well-drilled trenches, will anon put of
2.47.71
Their woodland temper, and, by frequent tilth,
2.47.72
To whatso craft thou summon them, make speed
2.47.73
To follow. So likewise will the barren shaft
2.47.74
That from the stock-root issueth, if it be
2.47.75
Set out with clear space amid open fields:
2.47.76
Now the tree-mother's towering leaves and boughs
2.47.77
Darken, despoil of increase as it grows,
2.47.78
And blast it in the bearing. Lastly, that
2.47.79
Which from shed seed ariseth, upward wins
2.47.80
But slowly, yielding promise of its shade
2.47.81
To late-born generations; apples wane
2.47.82
Forgetful of their former juice, the grape
2.47.83
Bears sorry clusters, for the birds a prey.
2.47.84
Soothly on all must toil be spent, and all
2.47.85
Trained to the trench and at great cost subdued.
2.47.86
But reared from truncheons olives answer best,
2.47.87
As vines from layers, and from the solid wood
2.47.88
The Paphian myrtles; while from suckers spring
2.47.89
Both hardy hazels and huge ash, the tree
2.47.90
That rims with shade the brows of Hercules,
2.47.91
And acorns dear to the Chaonian sire:
2.47.92
So springs the towering palm too, and the fir
2.47.93
Destined to spy the dangers of the deep.
2.47.94
But the rough arbutus with walnut-fruit
2.47.95
Is grafted; so have barren planes ere now
2.47.96
Stout apples borne, with chestnut-flower the beech,
2.47.97
The mountain-ash with pear-bloom whitened o'er,
2.47.98
And swine crunched acorns 'neath the boughs of elms.
2.73.99
Nor is the method of inserting eyes
2.73.100
And grafting one: for where the buds push forth
2.73.101
Amidst the bark, and burst the membranes thin,
2.73.102
Even on the knot a narrow rift is made,
2.73.103
Wherein from some strange tree a germ they pen,
2.73.104
And to the moist rind bid it cleave and grow.
2.73.105
Or, otherwise, in knotless trunks is hewn
2.73.106
A breach, and deep into the solid grain
2.73.107
A path with wedges cloven; then fruitful slips
2.73.108
Are set herein, and—no long time—behold!
2.73.109
To heaven upshot with teeming boughs, the tree
2.73.110
Strange leaves admires and fruitage not its own.
2.83.111
Nor of one kind alone are sturdy elms,
2.83.112
Willow and lotus, nor the cypress-trees
2.83.113
Of Ida; nor of self-same fashion spring
2.83.114
Fat olives, orchades, and radii
2.83.115
And bitter-berried pausians, no, nor yet
2.83.116
Apples and the forests of Alcinous;
2.83.117
Nor from like cuttings are Crustumian pears
2.83.118
And Syrian, and the heavy hand-fillers.
2.83.119
Not the same vintage from our trees hangs down,
2.83.120
Which Lesbos from Methymna's tendril plucks.
2.83.121
Vines Thasian are there, Mareotids white,
2.83.122
These apt for richer soils, for lighter those:
2.83.123
Psithian for raisin-wine more useful, thin
2.83.124
Lageos, that one day will try the feet
2.83.125
And tie the tongue: purples and early-ripes,
2.83.126
And how, O Rhaetian, shall I hymn thy praise?
2.83.127
Yet cope not therefore with Falernian bins.
2.83.128
Vines Aminaean too, best-bodied wine,
2.83.129
To which the Tmolian bows him, ay, and king
2.83.130
Phanaeus too, and, lesser of that name,
2.83.131
Argitis, wherewith not a grape can vie
2.83.132
For gush of wine-juice or for length of years.
2.83.133
Nor thee must I pass over, vine of Rhodes,
2.83.134
Welcomed by gods and at the second board,
2.83.135
Nor thee, Bumastus, with plump clusters swollen.
2.83.136
But lo! how many kinds, and what their names,
2.83.137
There is no telling, nor doth it boot to tell;
2.83.138
Who lists to know it, he too would list to learn
2.83.139
How many sand-grains are by Zephyr tossed
2.83.140
On Libya's plain, or wot, when Eurus falls
2.83.141
With fury on the ships, how many waves
2.83.142
Come rolling shoreward from the Ionian sea.
2.109.143
Not that all soils can all things bear alike.
2.109.144
Willows by water-courses have their birth,
2.109.145
Alders in miry fens; on rocky heights
2.109.146
The barren mountain-ashes; on the shore
2.109.147
Myrtles throng gayest; Bacchus, lastly, loves
2.109.148
The bare hillside, and yews the north wind's chill.
2.109.149
Mark too the earth by outland tillers tamed,
2.109.150
And Eastern homes of Arabs, and tattooed
2.109.151
Geloni; to all trees their native lands
2.109.152
Allotted are; no clime but India bears
2.109.153
Black ebony; the branch of frankincense
2.109.154
Is Saba's sons' alone; why tell to thee
2.109.155
Of balsams oozing from the perfumed wood,
2.109.156
Or berries of acanthus ever green?
2.109.157
Of Aethiop forests hoar with downy wool,
2.109.158
Or how the Seres comb from off the leaves
2.109.159
Their silky fleece? Of groves which India bears,
2.109.160
Ocean's near neighbour, earth's remotest nook,
2.109.161
Where not an arrow-shot can cleave the air
2.109.162
Above their tree-tops? yet no laggards they,
2.109.163
When girded with the quiver! Media yields
2.109.164
The bitter juices and slow-lingering taste
2.109.165
Of the blest citron-fruit, than which no aid
2.109.166
Comes timelier, when fierce step-dames drug the cup
2.109.167
With simples mixed and spells of baneful power,
2.109.168
To drive the deadly poison from the limbs.
2.109.169
Large the tree's self in semblance like a bay,
2.109.170
And, showered it not a different scent abroad,
2.109.171
A bay it had been; for no wind of heaven
2.109.172
Its foliage falls; the flower, none faster, clings;
2.109.173
With it the Medes for sweetness lave the lips,
2.109.174
And ease the panting breathlessness of age.
2.136.175
But no, not Mede-land with its wealth of woods,
2.136.176
Nor Ganges fair, and Hermus thick with gold,
2.136.177
Can match the praise of Italy; nor Ind,
2.136.178
Nor Bactria, nor Panchaia, one wide tract
2.136.179
Of incense-teeming sand. Here never bulls
2.136.180
With nostrils snorting fire upturned the sod
2.136.181
Sown with the monstrous dragon's teeth, nor crop
2.136.182
Of warriors bristled thick with lance and helm;
2.136.183
But heavy harvests and the Massic juice
2.136.184
Of Bacchus fill its borders, overspread
2.136.185
With fruitful flocks and olives. Hence arose
2.136.186
The war-horse stepping proudly o'er the plain;
2.136.187
Hence thy white flocks, Clitumnus, and the bull,
2.136.188
Of victims mightiest, which full oft have led,
2.136.189
Bathed in thy sacred stream, the triumph-pomp
2.136.190
Of Romans to the temples of the gods.
2.136.191
Here blooms perpetual spring, and summer here
2.136.192
In months that are not summer's; twice teem the flocks;
2.136.193
Twice doth the tree yield service of her fruit.
2.136.194
But ravening tigers come not nigh, nor breed
2.136.195
Of savage lion, nor aconite betrays
2.136.196
Its hapless gatherers, nor with sweep so vast
2.136.197
Doth the scaled serpent trail his endless coils
2.136.198
Along the ground, or wreathe him into spires.
2.136.199
Mark too her cities, so many and so proud,
2.136.200
Of mighty toil the achievement, town on town
2.136.201
Up rugged precipices heaved and reared,
2.136.202
And rivers undergliding ancient walls.
2.136.203
Or should I celebrate the sea that laves
2.136.204
Her upper shores and lower? or those broad lakes?
2.136.205
Thee, Larius, greatest and, Benacus, thee
2.136.206
With billowy uproar surging like the main?
2.136.207
Or sing her harbours, and the barrier cast
2.136.208
Athwart the Lucrine, and how ocean chafes
2.136.209
With mighty bellowings, where the Julian wave
2.136.210
Echoes the thunder of his rout, and through
2.136.211
Avernian inlets pours the Tuscan tide?
2.136.212
A land no less that in her veins displays
2.136.213
Rivers of silver, mines of copper ore,
2.136.214
Ay, and with gold hath flowed abundantly.
2.136.215
A land that reared a valiant breed of men,
2.136.216
The Marsi and Sabellian youth, and, schooled
2.136.217
To hardship, the Ligurian, and with these
2.136.218
The Volscian javelin-armed, the Decii too,
2.136.219
The Marii and Camilli, names of might,
2.136.220
The Scipios, stubborn warriors, ay, and thee,
2.136.221
Great Caesar, who in Asia's utmost bounds
2.136.222
With conquering arm e'en now art fending far
2.136.223
The unwarlike Indian from the heights of Rome.
2.136.224
Hail! land of Saturn, mighty mother thou
2.136.225
Of fruits and heroes; 'tis for thee I dare
2.136.226
Unseal the sacred fountains, and essay
2.136.227
Themes of old art and glory, as I sing
2.136.228
The song of Ascra through the towns of Rome.
2.177.229
Now for the native gifts of various soils,
2.177.230
What powers hath each, what hue, what natural bent
2.177.231
For yielding increase. First your stubborn lands
2.177.232
And churlish hill-sides, where are thorny fields
2.177.233
Of meagre marl and gravel, these delight
2.177.234
In long-lived olive-groves to Pallas dear.
2.177.235
Take for a sign the plenteous growth hard by
2.177.236
Of oleaster, and the fields strewn wide
2.177.237
With woodland berries. But a soil that's rich,
2.177.238
In moisture sweet exulting, and the plain
2.177.239
That teems with grasses on its fruitful breast,
2.177.240
Such as full oft in hollow mountain-dell
2.177.241
We view beneath us—from the craggy heights
2.177.242
Streams thither flow with fertilizing mud—
2.177.243
A plain which southward rising feeds the fern
2.177.244
By curved ploughs detested, this one day
2.177.245
Shall yield thee store of vines full strong to gush
2.177.246
In torrents of the wine-god; this shall be
2.177.247
Fruitful of grapes and flowing juice like that
2.177.248
We pour to heaven from bowls of gold, what time
2.177.249
The sleek Etruscan at the altar blows
2.177.250
His ivory pipe, and on the curved dish
2.177.251
We lay the reeking entrails. If to rear
2.177.252
Cattle delight thee rather, steers, or lambs,
2.177.253
Or goats that kill the tender plants, then seek
2.177.254
Full-fed Tarentum's glades and distant fields,
2.177.255
Or such a plain as luckless Mantua lost
2.177.256
Whose weedy water feeds the snow-white swan:
2.177.257
There nor clear springs nor grass the flocks will fail,
2.177.258
And all the day-long browsing of thy herds
2.177.259
Shall the cool dews of one brief night repair.
2.177.260
Land which the burrowing share shows dark and rich,
2.177.261
With crumbling soil—for this we counterfeit
2.177.262
In ploughing—for corn is goodliest; from no field
2.177.263
More wains thou'lt see wend home with plodding steers;
2.177.264
Or that from which the husbandman in spleen
2.177.265
Has cleared the timber, and o'erthrown the copse
2.177.266
That year on year lay idle, and from the roots
2.177.267
Uptorn the immemorial haunt of birds;
2.177.268
They banished from their nests have sought the skies;
2.177.269
But the rude plain beneath the ploughshare's stroke
2.177.270
Starts into sudden brightness. For indeed
2.177.271
The starved hill-country gravel scarce serves the bees
2.177.272
With lowly cassias and with rosemary;
2.177.273
Rough tufa and chalk too, by black water-worms
2.177.274
Gnawed through and through, proclaim no soils beside
2.177.275
So rife with serpent-dainties, or that yield
2.177.276
Such winding lairs to lurk in. That again,
2.177.277
Which vapoury mist and flitting smoke exhales,
2.177.278
Drinks moisture up and casts it forth at will,
2.177.279
Which, ever in its own green grass arrayed,
2.177.280
Mars not the metal with salt scurf of rust—
2.177.281
That shall thine elms with merry vines enwreathe;
2.177.282
That teems with olive; that shall thy tilth prove kind
2.177.283
To cattle, and patient of the curved share.
2.177.284
Such ploughs rich Capua, such the coast that skirts
2.177.285
Thy ridge, Vesuvius, and the Clanian flood,
2.177.286
Acerrae's desolation and her bane.
2.226.287
How each to recognize now hear me tell.
2.226.288
Dost ask if loose or passing firm it be—
2.226.289
Since one for corn hath liking, one for wine,
2.226.290
The firmer sort for Ceres, none too loose
2.226.291
For thee, Lyaeus?—with scrutinizing eye
2.226.292
First choose thy ground, and bid a pit be sunk
2.226.293
Deep in the solid earth, then cast the mould
2.226.294
All back again, and stamp the surface smooth.
2.226.295
If it suffice not, loose will be the land,
2.226.296
More meet for cattle and for kindly vines;
2.226.297
But if, rebellious, to its proper bounds
2.226.298
The soil returns not, but fills all the trench
2.226.299
And overtops it, then the glebe is gross;
2.226.300
Look for stiff ridges and reluctant clods,
2.226.301
And with strong bullocks cleave the fallow crust.
2.226.302
Salt ground again, and bitter, as 'tis called—
2.226.303
Barren for fruits, by tilth untamable,
2.226.304
Nor grape her kind, nor apples their good name
2.226.305
Maintaining—will in this wise yield thee proof:
2.226.306
Stout osier-baskets from the rafter-smoke,
2.226.307
And strainers of the winepress pluck thee down;
2.226.308
Hereinto let that evil land, with fresh
2.226.309
Spring-water mixed, be trampled to the full;
2.226.310
The moisture, mark you, will ooze all away,
2.226.311
In big drops issuing through the osier-withes,
2.226.312
But plainly will its taste the secret tell,
2.226.313
And with a harsh twang ruefully distort
2.226.314
The mouths of them that try it. Rich soil again
2.226.315
We learn on this wise: tossed from hand to hand
2.226.316
Yet cracks it never, but pitch-like, as we hold,
2.226.317
Clings to the fingers. A land with moisture rife
2.226.318
Breeds lustier herbage, and is more than meet
2.226.319
Prolific. Ah I may never such for me
2.226.320
O'er-fertile prove, or make too stout a show
2.226.321
At the first earing! Heavy land or light
2.226.322
The mute self-witness of its weight betrays.
2.226.323
A glance will serve to warn thee which is black,
2.226.324
Or what the hue of any. But hard it is
2.226.325
To track the signs of that pernicious cold:
2.226.326
Pines only, noxious yews, and ivies dark
2.226.327
At times reveal its traces.
2.259.328
All these rules
2.259.329
Regarding, let your land, ay, long before,
2.259.330
Scorch to the quick, and into trenches carve
2.259.331
The mighty mountains, and their upturned clods
2.259.332
Bare to the north wind, ere thou plant therein
2.259.333
The vine's prolific kindred. Fields whose soil
2.259.334
Is crumbling are the best: winds look to that,
2.259.335
And bitter hoar-frosts, and the delver's toil
2.259.336
Untiring, as he stirs the loosened glebe.
2.259.337
But those, whose vigilance no care escapes,
2.259.338
Search for a kindred site, where first to rear
2.259.339
A nursery for the trees, and eke whereto
2.259.340
Soon to translate them, lest the sudden shock
2.259.341
From their new mother the young plants estrange.
2.259.342
Nay, even the quarter of the sky they brand
2.259.343
Upon the bark, that each may be restored,
2.259.344
As erst it stood, here bore the southern heats,
2.259.345
Here turned its shoulder to the northern pole;
2.259.346
So strong is custom formed in early years.
2.259.347
Whether on hill or plain 'tis best to plant
2.259.348
Your vineyard first inquire. If on some plain
2.259.349
You measure out rich acres, then plant thick;
2.259.350
Thick planting makes no niggard of the vine;
2.259.351
But if on rising mound or sloping bill,
2.259.352
Then let the rows have room, so none the less
2.259.353
Each line you draw, when all the trees are set,
2.259.354
May tally to perfection. Even as oft
2.259.355
In mighty war, whenas the legion's length
2.259.356
Deploys its cohorts, and the column stands
2.259.357
In open plain, the ranks of battle set,
2.259.358
And far and near with rippling sheen of arms
2.259.359
The wide earth flickers, nor yet in grisly strife
2.259.360
Foe grapples foe, but dubious 'twixt the hosts
2.259.361
The war-god wavers; so let all be ranged
2.259.362
In equal rows symmetric, not alone
2.259.363
To feed an idle fancy with the view,
2.259.364
But since not otherwise will earth afford
2.259.365
Vigour to all alike, nor yet the boughs
2.259.366
Have power to stretch them into open space.
2.288.367
Shouldst haply of the furrow's depth inquire,
2.288.368
Even to a shallow trench I dare commit
2.288.369
The vine; but deeper in the ground is fixed
2.288.370
The tree that props it, aesculus in chief,
2.288.371
Which howso far its summit soars toward heaven,
2.288.372
So deep strikes root into the vaults of hell.
2.288.373
It therefore neither storms, nor blasts, nor showers
2.288.374
Wrench from its bed; unshaken it abides,
2.288.375
Sees many a generation, many an age
2.288.376
Of men roll onward, and survives them all,
2.288.377
Stretching its titan arms and branches far,
2.288.378
Sole central pillar of a world of shade.
2.298.379
Nor toward the sunset let thy vineyards slope,
2.298.380
Nor midst the vines plant hazel; neither take
2.298.381
The topmost shoots for cuttings, nor from the top
2.298.382
Of the supporting tree your suckers tear;
2.298.383
So deep their love of earth; nor wound the plants
2.298.384
With blunted blade; nor truncheons intersperse
2.298.385
Of the wild olive: for oft from careless swains
2.298.386
A spark hath fallen, that, 'neath the unctuous rind
2.298.387
Hid thief-like first, now grips the tough tree-bole,
2.298.388
And mounting to the leaves on high, sends forth
2.298.389
A roar to heaven, then coursing through the boughs
2.298.390
And airy summits reigns victoriously,
2.298.391
Wraps all the grove in robes of fire, and gross
2.298.392
With pitch-black vapour heaves the murky reek
2.298.393
Skyward, but chiefly if a storm has swooped
2.298.394
Down on the forest, and a driving wind
2.298.395
Rolls up the conflagration. When 'tis so,
2.298.396
Their root-force fails them, nor, when lopped away,
2.298.397
Can they recover, and from the earth beneath
2.298.398
Spring to like verdure; thus alone survives
2.298.399
The bare wild olive with its bitter leaves.
2.315.400
Let none persuade thee, howso weighty-wise,
2.315.401
To stir the soil when stiff with Boreas' breath.
2.315.402
Then ice-bound winter locks the fields, nor lets
2.315.403
The young plant fix its frozen root to earth.
2.315.404
Best sow your vineyards when in blushing Spring
2.315.405
Comes the white bird long-bodied snakes abhor,
2.315.406
Or on the eve of autumn's earliest frost,
2.315.407
Ere the swift sun-steeds touch the wintry Signs,
2.315.408
While summer is departing. Spring it is
2.315.409
Blesses the fruit-plantation, Spring the groves;
2.315.410
In Spring earth swells and claims the fruitful seed.
2.315.411
Then Aether, sire omnipotent, leaps down
2.315.412
With quickening showers to his glad wife's embrace,
2.315.413
And, might with might commingling, rears to life
2.315.414
All germs that teem within her; then resound
2.315.415
With songs of birds the greenwood-wildernesses,
2.315.416
And in due time the herds their loves renew;
2.315.417
Then the boon earth yields increase, and the fields
2.315.418
Unlock their bosoms to the warm west winds;
2.315.419
Soft moisture spreads o'er all things, and the blades
2.315.420
Face the new suns, and safely trust them now;
2.315.421
The vine-shoot, fearless of the rising south,
2.315.422
Or mighty north winds driving rain from heaven,
2.315.423
Bursts into bud, and every leaf unfolds.
2.315.424
Even so, methinks, when Earth to being sprang,
2.315.425
Dawned the first days, and such the course they held;
2.315.426
'Twas Spring-tide then, ay, Spring, the mighty world
2.315.427
Was keeping: Eurus spared his wintry blasts,
2.315.428
When first the flocks drank sunlight, and a race
2.315.429
Of men like iron from the hard glebe arose,
2.315.430
And wild beasts thronged the woods, and stars the heaven.
2.315.431
Nor could frail creatures bear this heavy strain,
2.315.432
Did not so large a respite interpose
2.315.433
'Twixt frost and heat, and heaven's relenting arms
2.315.434
Yield earth a welcome.
2.346.435
For the rest, whate'er
2.346.436
The sets thou plantest in thy fields, thereon
2.346.437
Strew refuse rich, and with abundant earth
2.346.438
Take heed to hide them, and dig in withal
2.346.439
Rough shells or porous stone, for therebetween
2.346.440
Will water trickle and fine vapour creep,
2.346.441
And so the plants their drooping spirits raise.
2.346.442
Aye, and there have been, who with weight of stone
2.346.443
Or heavy potsherd press them from above;
2.346.444
This serves for shield in pelting showers, and this
2.346.445
When the hot dog-star chaps the fields with drought.
2.354.446
The slips once planted, yet remains to cleave
2.354.447
The earth about their roots persistently,
2.354.448
And toss the cumbrous hoes, or task the soil
2.354.449
With burrowing plough-share, and ply up and down
2.354.450
Your labouring bullocks through the vineyard's midst,
2.354.451
Then too smooth reeds and shafts of whittled wand,
2.354.452
And ashen poles and sturdy forks to shape,
2.354.453
Whereby supported they may learn to mount,
2.354.454
Laugh at the gales, and through the elm-tops win
2.354.455
From story up to story.
2.362.456
Now while yet
2.362.457
The leaves are in their first fresh infant growth,
2.362.458
Forbear their frailty, and while yet the bough
2.362.459
Shoots joyfully toward heaven, with loosened rein
2.362.460
Launched on the void, assail it not as yet
2.362.461
With keen-edged sickle, but let the leaves alone
2.362.462
Be culled with clip of fingers here and there.
2.362.463
But when they clasp the elms with sturdy trunks
2.362.464
Erect, then strip the leaves off, prune the boughs;
2.362.465
Sooner they shrink from steel, but then put forth
2.362.466
The arm of power, and stem the branchy tide.
2.371.467
Hedges too must be woven and all beasts
2.371.468
Barred entrance, chiefly while the leaf is young
2.371.469
And witless of disaster; for therewith,
2.371.470
Beside harsh winters and o'erpowering sun,
2.371.471
Wild buffaloes and pestering goats for ay
2.371.472
Besport them, sheep and heifers glut their greed.
2.371.473
Nor cold by hoar-frost curdled, nor the prone
2.371.474
Dead weight of summer upon the parched crags,
2.371.475
So scathe it, as the flocks with venom-bite
2.371.476
Of their hard tooth, whose gnawing scars the stem.
2.371.477
For no offence but this to Bacchus bleeds
2.371.478
The goat at every altar, and old plays
2.371.479
Upon the stage find entrance; therefore too
2.371.480
The sons of Theseus through the country-side—
2.371.481
Hamlet and crossway—set the prize of wit,
2.371.482
And on the smooth sward over oiled skins
2.371.483
Dance in their tipsy frolic. Furthermore
2.371.484
The Ausonian swains, a race from Troy derived,
2.371.485
Make merry with rough rhymes and boisterous mirth,
2.371.486
Grim masks of hollowed bark assume, invoke
2.371.487
Thee with glad hymns, O Bacchus, and to thee
2.371.488
Hang puppet-faces on tall pines to swing.
2.371.489
Hence every vineyard teems with mellowing fruit,
2.371.490
Till hollow vale o'erflows, and gorge profound,
2.371.491
Where'er the god hath turned his comely head.
2.371.492
Therefore to Bacchus duly will we sing
2.371.493
Meet honour with ancestral hymns, and cates
2.371.494
And dishes bear him; and the doomed goat
2.371.495
Led by the horn shall at the altar stand,
2.371.496
Whose entrails rich on hazel-spits we'll roast.
2.397.497
This further task again, to dress the vine,
2.397.498
Hath needs beyond exhausting; the whole soil
2.397.499
Thrice, four times, yearly must be cleft, the sod
2.397.500
With hoes reversed be crushed continually,
2.397.501
The whole plantation lightened of its leaves.
2.397.502
Round on the labourer spins the wheel of toil,
2.397.503
As on its own track rolls the circling year.
2.397.504
Soon as the vine her lingering leaves hath shed,
2.397.505
And the chill north wind from the forests shook
2.397.506
Their coronal, even then the careful swain
2.397.507
Looks keenly forward to the coming year,
2.397.508
With Saturn's curved fang pursues and prunes
2.397.509
The vine forlorn, and lops it into shape.
2.397.510
Be first to dig the ground up, first to clear
2.397.511
And burn the refuse-branches, first to house
2.397.512
Again your vine-poles, last to gather fruit.
2.397.513
Twice doth the thickening shade beset the vine,
2.397.514
Twice weeds with stifling briers o'ergrow the crop;
2.397.515
And each a toilsome labour. Do thou praise
2.397.516
Broad acres, farm but few. Rough twigs beside
2.397.517
Of butcher's broom among the woods are cut,
2.397.518
And reeds upon the river-banks, and still
2.397.519
The undressed willow claims thy fostering care.
2.397.520
So now the vines are fettered, now the trees
2.397.521
Let go the sickle, and the last dresser now
2.397.522
Sings of his finished rows; but still the ground
2.397.523
Must vexed be, the dust be stirred, and heaven
2.397.524
Still set thee trembling for the ripened grapes.
2.420.525
Not so with olives; small husbandry need they,
2.420.526
Nor look for sickle bowed or biting rake,
2.420.527
When once they have gripped the soil, and borne the breeze.
2.420.528
Earth of herself, with hooked fang laid bare,
2.420.529
Yields moisture for the plants, and heavy fruit,
2.420.530
The ploughshare aiding; therewithal thou'lt rear
2.420.531
The olive's fatness well-beloved of Peace.
2.426.532
Apples, moreover, soon as first they feel
2.426.533
Their stems wax lusty, and have found their strength,
2.426.534
To heaven climb swiftly, self-impelled, nor crave
2.426.535
Our succour. All the grove meanwhile no less
2.426.536
With fruit is swelling, and the wild haunts of birds
2.426.537
Blush with their blood-red berries. Cytisus
2.426.538
Is good to browse on, the tall forest yields
2.426.539
Pine-torches, and the nightly fires are fed
2.426.540
And shoot forth radiance. And shall men be loath
2.426.541
To plant, nor lavish of their pains? Why trace
2.426.542
Things mightier? Willows even and lowly brooms
2.426.543
To cattle their green leaves, to shepherds shade,
2.426.544
Fences for crops, and food for honey yield.
2.426.545
And blithe it is Cytorus to behold
2.426.546
Waving with box, Narycian groves of pitch;
2.426.547
Oh! blithe the sight of fields beholden not
2.426.548
To rake or man's endeavour! the barren woods
2.426.549
That crown the scalp of Caucasus, even these,
2.426.550
Which furious blasts for ever rive and rend,
2.426.551
Yield various wealth, pine-logs that serve for ships,
2.426.552
Cedar and cypress for the homes of men;
2.426.553
Hence, too, the farmers shave their wheel-spokes, hence
2.426.554
Drums for their wains, and curved boat-keels fit;
2.426.555
Willows bear twigs enow, the elm-tree leaves,
2.426.556
Myrtle stout spear-shafts, war-tried cornel too;
2.426.557
Yews into Ituraean bows are bent:
2.426.558
Nor do smooth lindens or lathe-polished box
2.426.559
Shrink from man's shaping and keen-furrowing steel;
2.426.560
Light alder floats upon the boiling flood
2.426.561
Sped down the Padus, and bees house their swarms
2.426.562
In rotten holm-oak's hollow bark and bole.
2.426.563
What of like praise can Bacchus' gifts afford?
2.426.564
Nay, Bacchus even to crime hath prompted, he
2.426.565
The wine-infuriate Centaurs quelled with death,
2.426.566
Rhoetus and Pholus, and with mighty bowl
2.426.567
Hylaeus threatening high the Lapithae.
2.458.568
Oh! all too happy tillers of the soil,
2.458.569
Could they but know their blessedness, for whom
2.458.570
Far from the clash of arms all-equal earth
2.458.571
Pours from the ground herself their easy fare!
2.458.572
What though no lofty palace portal-proud
2.458.573
From all its chambers vomits forth a tide
2.458.574
Of morning courtiers, nor agape they gaze
2.458.575
On pillars with fair tortoise-shell inwrought,
2.458.576
Gold-purfled robes, and bronze from Ephyre;
2.458.577
Nor is the whiteness of their wool distained
2.458.578
With drugs Assyrian, nor clear olive's use
2.458.579
With cassia tainted; yet untroubled calm,
2.458.580
A life that knows no falsehood, rich enow
2.458.581
With various treasures, yet broad-acred ease,
2.458.582
Grottoes and living lakes, yet Tempes cool,
2.458.583
Lowing of kine, and sylvan slumbers soft,
2.458.584
They lack not; lawns and wild beasts' haunts are there,
2.458.585
A youth of labour patient, need-inured,
2.458.586
Worship, and reverend sires: with them from earth
2.458.587
Departing justice her last footprints left.
2.475.588
Me before all things may the Muses sweet,
2.475.589
Whose rites I bear with mighty passion pierced,
2.475.590
Receive, and show the paths and stars of heaven,
2.475.591
The sun's eclipses and the labouring moons,
2.475.592
From whence the earthquake, by what power the seas
2.475.593
Swell from their depths, and, every barrier burst,
2.475.594
Sink back upon themselves, why winter-suns
2.475.595
So haste to dip 'neath ocean, or what check
2.475.596
The lingering night retards. But if to these
2.475.597
High realms of nature the cold curdling blood
2.475.598
About my heart bar access, then be fields
2.475.599
And stream-washed vales my solace, let me love
2.475.600
Rivers and woods, inglorious. Oh for you
2.475.601
Plains, and Spercheius, and Taygete,
2.475.602
By Spartan maids o'er-revelled! Oh, for one,
2.475.603
Would set me in deep dells of Haemus cool,
2.475.604
And shield me with his boughs' o'ershadowing might!
2.475.605
Happy, who had the skill to understand
2.475.606
Nature's hid causes, and beneath his feet
2.475.607
All terrors cast, and death's relentless doom,
2.475.608
And the loud roar of greedy Acheron.
2.475.609
Blest too is he who knows the rural gods,
2.475.610
Pan, old Silvanus, and the sister-nymphs!
2.475.611
Him nor the rods of public power can bend,
2.475.612
Nor kingly purple, nor fierce feud that drives
2.475.613
Brother to turn on brother, nor descent
2.475.614
Of Dacian from the Danube's leagued flood,
2.475.615
Nor Rome's great State, nor kingdoms like to die;
2.475.616
Nor hath he grieved through pitying of the poor,
2.475.617
Nor envied him that hath. What fruit the boughs,
2.475.618
And what the fields, of their own bounteous will
2.475.619
Have borne, he gathers; nor iron rule of laws,
2.475.620
Nor maddened Forum have his eyes beheld,
2.475.621
Nor archives of the people. Others vex
2.475.622
The darksome gulfs of Ocean with their oars,
2.475.623
Or rush on steel: they press within the courts
2.475.624
And doors of princes; one with havoc falls
2.475.625
Upon a city and its hapless hearths,
2.475.626
From gems to drink, on Tyrian rugs to lie;
2.475.627
This hoards his wealth and broods o'er buried gold;
2.475.628
One at the rostra stares in blank amaze;
2.475.629
One gaping sits transported by the cheers,
2.475.630
The answering cheers of plebs and senate rolled
2.475.631
Along the benches: bathed in brothers' blood
2.475.632
Men revel, and, all delights of hearth and home
2.475.633
For exile changing, a new country seek
2.475.634
Beneath an alien sun. The husbandman
2.475.635
With hooked ploughshare turns the soil; from hence
2.475.636
Springs his year's labour; hence, too, he sustains
2.475.637
Country and cottage homestead, and from hence
2.475.638
His herds of cattle and deserving steers.
2.475.639
No respite! still the year o'erflows with fruit,
2.475.640
Or young of kine, or Ceres' wheaten sheaf,
2.475.641
With crops the furrow loads, and bursts the barns.
2.519.642
Winter is come: in olive-mills they bruise
2.519.643
The Sicyonian berry; acorn-cheered
2.519.644
The swine troop homeward; woods their arbutes yield;
2.519.645
So, various fruit sheds Autumn, and high up
2.519.646
On sunny rocks the mellowing vintage bakes.
2.519.647
Meanwhile about his lips sweet children cling;
2.519.648
His chaste house keeps its purity; his kine
2.519.649
Drop milky udders, and on the lush green grass
2.519.650
Fat kids are striving, horn to butting horn.
2.519.651
Himself keeps holy days; stretched o'er the sward,
2.519.652
Where round the fire his comrades crown the bowl,
2.519.653
He pours libation, and thy name invokes,
2.519.654
Lenaeus, and for the herdsmen on an elm
2.519.655
Sets up a mark for the swift javelin; they
2.519.656
Strip their tough bodies for the rustic sport.
2.519.657
Such life of yore the ancient Sabines led,
2.519.658
Such Remus and his brother: Etruria thus,
2.519.659
Doubt not, to greatness grew, and Rome became
2.519.660
The fair world's fairest, and with circling wall
2.519.661
Clasped to her single breast the sevenfold hills.
2.519.662
Ay, ere the reign of Dicte's king, ere men,
2.519.663
Waxed godless, banqueted on slaughtered bulls,
2.519.664
Such life on earth did golden Saturn lead.
2.519.665
Nor ear of man had heard the war-trump's blast,
2.519.666
Nor clang of sword on stubborn anvil set.
2.541.667
But lo! a boundless space we have travelled o'er;
2.541.668
'Tis time our steaming horses to unyoke.