Bernardo Tasso (1493–1569)

Translated by James Glassford, of Dougalston

FREE to thy flocks, O wandering shepherd, still

Are my green banks, with herb and flower inlaid,

And free the olive and the mulberry shade,

Whose aged boughs adorn this lovely hill.

But trouble not the crystal drops that spill

From my clear fountain, by the muses made

Sacred, nor these my sparkling springs invade,

Whose cooling draughts the heavenly dream instil.

Here drinks Apollo, here the sister train,

The loves unblemished, and the maidens chaste;

Perchance a milk-white swan of gentle brood:—

If thou art ought but shepherd base and rude,

Here may’st thou sing some sweetly moving strain,

Then largely of my lucid waters taste.