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MELIBŒUS. TITYRUS, thou in the shade of a spreading beech tree reclining | |
| Meditatest, with slender pipe, the Muse of the woodlands. | |
| We our country’s bounds and pleasant pastures relinquish, | |
| We our country fly; thou, Tityrus, stretched in the shadow, | |
| Teachest the woods to resound with the name of the fair Amaryllis. | 5 |
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TITYRUS. O Melibœus, a god for us this leisure created, | |
| For he will be unto me a god forever; his altar | |
| Oftentimes shall imbue a tender lamb from our sheepfolds. | |
| He, my heifers to wander at large, and myself, as thou seest, | |
| On my rustic reed to play what I will, hath permitted. | 10 |
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MELIBŒUS. Truly I envy not, I marvel rather; on all sides | |
| In all the fields is such trouble. Behold, my goats I am driving, | |
| Heartsick, further away; this one scarce, Tityrus, lead I; | |
| For having here yeaned twins just now among the dense hazels, | |
| Hope of the flock, ah me! on the naked flint she hath left them. | 15 |
| Often this evil to me, if my mind had not been insensate, | |
| Oak trees stricken by heaven predicted, as now I remember; | |
| Often the sinister crow from the hollow ilex predicted. | |
| Nevertheless, who this god may be, O Tityrus, tell me. | |
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TITYRUS. O Melibœus, the city that they call Rome, I imagined, | 20 |
| Foolish I! to be like this of ours, where often we shepherds | |
| Wonted are to drive down of our ewes the delicate offspring. | |
| Thus whelps like unto dogs had I known, and kids to their mothers, | |
| Thus to compare great things with small had I been accustomed. | |
| But this among other cities its head as far hath exalted | 25 |
| As the cypresses do among the lissome viburnums. | |
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MELIBŒUS. And what so great occasion of seeing Rome hath possessed thee? | |
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TITYRUS. Liberty, which, though late, looked upon me in my inertness, | |
| After the time when my beard fell whiter from me in shaving, | |
| Yet she looked upon me, and came to me after a long while, | 30 |
| Since Amaryllis possesses and Galatea hath left me. | |
| For I will even confess that while Galatea possessed me | |
| Neither care of my flock nor hope of liberty was there. | |
| Though from my wattled folds there went forth many a victim, | |
| And the unctuous cheese was pressed for the city ungrateful, | 35 |
| Never did my right hand return home heavy with money. | |
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MELIBŒUS. I have wondered, why sad thou invokedst the gods, Amaryllis, | |
| And for whom thou didst suffer the apples to hang on the branches! | |
| Tityrus hence was absent! Thee, Tityrus, even the pine trees, | |
| Thee the very fountains, the very copses were calling. | 40 |
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TITYRUS. What could I do? No power had I to escape from my bondage, | |
| Nor had I power elsewhere to recognize gods so propitious. | |
| Here I beheld that youth, to whom each year, Melibœus, | |
| During twice six days ascends the smoke of our altars. | |
| Here first gave he response to me soliciting favor: | 45 |
| “Feed as before your heifers, ye boys, and yoke up your bullocks.” | |
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MELIBŒUS. Fortunate old man! So then thy fields will be left thee, | |
| And large enough for thee, though naked stone and the marish | |
| All thy pasture-lands with the dreggy rush may encompass. | |
| No unaccustomed food thy gravid ewes shall endanger, | 50 |
| Nor of the neighboring flock the dire contagion infect them. | |
| Fortunate old man! Here among familiar rivers, | |
| And these sacred founts, shalt thou take the shadowy coolness. | |
| On this side, a hedge along the neighboring cross-road, | |
| Where Hyblæan bees ever feed on the flower of the willow, | 55 |
| Often with gentle susurrus to fall asleep shall persuade thee. | |
| Yonder, beneath the high rock, the pruner shall sing to the breezes, | |
| Nor meanwhile shall thy heart’s delight, the hoarse wood-pigeons, | |
| Nor the turtle-dove cease to mourn from aerial elm trees. | |
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TITYRUS. Therefore the agile stags shall sooner feed in the ether, | 60 |
| And the billows leave the fishes bare on the sea-shore, | |
| Sooner, the border-lands of both overpassed, shall the exiled | |
| Parthian drink of the Soane, or the German drink of the Tigris, | |
| Than the face of him shall glide away from my bosom! | |
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MELIBŒUS. But we hence shall go, a part to the thirsty Africs, | 65 |
| Part to Scythia come, and the rapid Cretan Oaxes, | |
| And to the Britons from all the universe utterly sundered. | |
| Ah, shall I ever, a long time hence, the bounds of my country | |
| And the roof of my lowly cottage covered with greensward | |
| Seeing, with wonder behold,—my kingdoms, a handful of wheat-ours! | 70 |
| Shall an impious soldier possess these lands newly cultured, | |
| And these fields of corn a barbarian? Lo, whither discord | |
| Us wretched people hath brought! for whom our fields we have planted! | |
| Graft, Melibœus, thy pear trees now, put in order thy vineyards. | |
| Go, my goats, go hence, my flocks so happy aforetime. | 75 |
| Never again henceforth outstretched in my verdurous cavern | |
| Shall I behold you afar from the bushy precipice hanging. | |
| Songs no more shall I sing; not with me, ye goats, as your shepherd, | |
| Shall ye browse on the bitter willow or blooming laburnum. | |
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TITYRUS. Nevertheless, this night together with me canst thou rest thee | 80 |
| Here on the verdant leaves; for us there are mellowing apples, | |
| Chestnuts soft to the touch, and clouted cream in abundance; | |
| And the high roofs now of the villages smoke in the distance, | |
| And from the lofty mountains are falling larger the shadows. | |
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