Vergilius Maro, Publius; Maillol, Aristide: The eclogues of Vergil: in the original Latin with an English prose translation (London, 1927)

P, VERGILIUS MARO : FIRST ECLOGUE
MELIBOEUS AND TITYRUS

ELIBOEUS: Tityrus, lying at ease in
the shade of the beechwood tree, you
play over and over again on your slender
pipe a rustic song, Our sad lot is to leave
our homeland, and the fields we loved, and to wend
our way to a foreign land. You, at your ease in the
shade, fill the woods with your songs of the lovely
Amaryllis,
TITYRUS : Friend Meliboeus, it was a god, who
granted me this happy ease. Yes, I will ever worship
him as a god, and his altar shall oft-times redden with
the sacrifice of a tender lamb from my sheepfold. By
his gracious will my cattle pasture freely, as you see,
while I spend the time playing my favourite tunes on
a rustic reed,
MELIBOEUS 11 do not envy your happiness, only
marvel; for on all sides far and near there is confusion
in the countryside. Look at me, ill m myself I drive
on my goats, and I wearily drag this one along. Poor
thing! Just a little while ago she bore twins among the
hazel thickets, the finest hope of my flock, Alas! we
left them on the flinty wayside. Yet I remember the
oaks struck by lightning would often have warned
me of this disaster, if I had not been blind to the omens.
But tell me, Tityrus, who is he whom you call a god ?
TITYRUS: Meliboeus, m my stupid ignorance, I


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