《the georgics》

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the georgics- 第14部分


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  Till all the region with her wrongs o'erflows。

  No love; no new desire; constrained his soul:

  By snow…bound Tanais and the icy north;

  Far steppes to frost Rhipaean forever wed;

  Alone he wandered; lost Eurydice

  Lamenting; and the gifts of Dis ungiven。

  Scorned by which tribute the Ciconian dames;

  Amid their awful Bacchanalian rites

  And midnight revellings; tore him limb from limb;

  And strewed his fragments over the wide fields。

  Then too; even then; what time the Hebrus stream;

  Oeagrian Hebrus; down mid…current rolled;

  Rent from the marble neck; his drifting head;

  The death…chilled tongue found yet a voice to cry

  'Eurydice! ah! poor Eurydice!'

  With parting breath he called her; and the banks

  From the broad stream caught up 'Eurydice!'〃

    So Proteus ending plunged into the deep;

  And; where he plunged; beneath the eddying whirl

  Churned into foam the water; and was gone;

  But not Cyrene; who unquestioned thus

  Bespake the trembling listener: 〃Nay; my son;

  From that sad bosom thou mayst banish care:

  Hence came that plague of sickness; hence the nymphs;

  With whom in the tall woods the dance she wove;

  Wrought on thy bees; alas! this deadly bane。

  Bend thou before the Dell…nymphs; gracious powers:

  Bring gifts; and sue for pardon: they will grant

  Peace to thine asking; and an end of wrath。

  But how to approach them will I first unfold…

  Four chosen bulls of peerless form and bulk;

  That browse to…day the green Lycaean heights;

  Pick from thy herds; as many kine to match;

  Whose necks the yoke pressed never: then for these

  Build up four altars by the lofty fanes;

  And from their throats let gush the victims' blood;

  And in the greenwood leave their bodies lone。

  Then; when the ninth dawn hath displayed its beams;

  To Orpheus shalt thou send his funeral dues;

  Poppies of Lethe; and let slay a sheep

  Coal…black; then seek the grove again; and soon

  For pardon found adore Eurydice

  With a slain calf for victim。〃

                         No delay:

  The self…same hour he hies him forth to do

  His mother's bidding: to the shrine he came;

  The appointed altars reared; and thither led

  Four chosen bulls of peerless form and bulk;

  With kine to match; that never yoke had known;

  Then; when the ninth dawn had led in the day;

  To Orpheus sent his funeral dues; and sought

  The grove once more。 But sudden; strange to tell

  A portent they espy: through the oxen's flesh;

  Waxed soft in dissolution; hark! there hum

  Bees from the belly; the rent ribs overboil

  In endless clouds they spread them; till at last

  On yon tree…top together fused they cling;

  And drop their cluster from the bending boughs。

    So sang I of the tilth of furrowed fields;

  Of flocks and trees; while Caesar's majesty

  Launched forth the levin…bolts of war by deep

  Euphrates; and bare rule o'er willing folk

  Though vanquished; and essayed the heights of heaven。

  I Virgil then; of sweet Parthenope

  The nursling; wooed the flowery walks of peace

  Inglorious; who erst trilled for shepherd…wights

  The wanton ditty; and sang in saucy youth

  Thee; Tityrus; 'neath the spreading beech tree's shade。





                               …THE END…


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