第15章 GEORGIC III(4)

But at day's hottest seek a shadowy vale, Where some vast ancient-timbered oak of Jove Spreads his huge branches, or where huddling black Ilex on ilex cowers in awful shade.

Then once more give them water sparingly, And feed once more, till sunset, when cool eve Allays the air, and dewy moonbeams slake The forest glades, with halcyon's song the shore, And every thicket with the goldfinch rings.

Of Libya's shepherds why the tale pursue?

Why sing their pastures and the scattered huts They house in? Oft their cattle day and night Graze the whole month together, and go forth Into far deserts where no shelter is, So flat the plain and boundless. All his goods The Afric swain bears with him, house and home, Arms, Cretan quiver, and Amyclaean dog;As some keen Roman in his country's arms Plies the swift march beneath a cruel load;Soon with tents pitched and at his post he stands, Ere looked for by the foe. Not thus the tribes Of Scythia by the far Maeotic wave, Where turbid Ister whirls his yellow sands, And Rhodope stretched out beneath the pole Comes trending backward. There the herds they keep Close-pent in byres, nor any grass is seen Upon the plain, nor leaves upon the tree:

But with snow-ridges and deep frost afar Heaped seven ells high the earth lies featureless:

Still winter? still the north wind's icy breath!

Nay, never sun disparts the shadows pale, Or as he rides the steep of heaven, or dips In ocean's fiery bath his plunging car.

Quick ice-crusts curdle on the running stream, And iron-hooped wheels the water's back now bears, To broad wains opened, as erewhile to ships;Brass vessels oft asunder burst, and clothes Stiffen upon the wearers; juicy wines They cleave with axes; to one frozen mass Whole pools are turned; and on their untrimmed beards Stiff clings the jagged icicle. Meanwhile All heaven no less is filled with falling snow;The cattle perish: oxen's mighty frames Stand island-like amid the frost, and stags In huddling herds, by that strange weight benumbed, Scarce top the surface with their antler-points.

These with no hounds they hunt, nor net with toils, Nor scare with terror of the crimson plume;But, as in vain they breast the opposing block, Butcher them, knife in hand, and so dispatch Loud-bellowing, and with glad shouts hale them home.

Themselves in deep-dug caverns underground Dwell free and careless; to their hearths they heave Oak-logs and elm-trees whole, and fire them there, There play the night out, and in festive glee With barm and service sour the wine-cup mock.

So 'neath the seven-starred Hyperborean wain The folk live tameless, buffeted with blasts Of Eurus from Rhipaean hills, and wrap Their bodies in the tawny fells of beasts.

If wool delight thee, first, be far removed All prickly boskage, burrs and caltrops; shun Luxuriant pastures; at the outset choose White flocks with downy fleeces. For the ram, How white soe'er himself, be but the tongue 'Neath his moist palate black, reject him, lest He sully with dark spots his offspring's fleece, And seek some other o'er the teeming plain.

Even with such snowy bribe of wool, if ear May trust the tale, Pan, God of Arcady, Snared and beguiled thee, Luna, calling thee To the deep woods; nor thou didst spurn his call.

But who for milk hath longing, must himself Carry lucerne and lotus-leaves enow With salt herbs to the cote, whence more they love The streams, more stretch their udders, and give back A subtle taste of saltness in the milk.

Many there be who from their mothers keep The new-born kids, and straightway bind their mouths With iron-tipped muzzles. What they milk at dawn, Or in the daylight hours, at night they press;What darkling or at sunset, this ere morn They bear away in baskets- for to town The shepherd hies him- or with dash of salt Just sprinkle, and lay by for winter use.

Nor be thy dogs last cared for; but alike Swift Spartan hounds and fierce Molossian feed On fattening whey. Never, with these to watch, Dread nightly thief afold and ravening wolves, Or Spanish desperadoes in the rear.

And oft the shy wild asses thou wilt chase, With hounds, too, hunt the hare, with hounds the doe;Oft from his woodland wallowing-den uprouse The boar, and scare him with their baying, and drive, And o'er the mountains urge into the toils Some antlered monster to their chiming cry.

Learn also scented cedar-wood to burn Within the stalls, and snakes of noxious smell With fumes of galbanum to drive away.

Oft under long-neglected cribs, or lurks A viper ill to handle, that hath fled The light in terror, or some snake, that wont 'Neath shade and sheltering roof to creep, and shower Its bane among the cattle, hugs the ground, Fell scourge of kine. Shepherd, seize stakes, seize stones!

And as he rears defiance, and puffs out A hissing throat, down with him! see how low That cowering crest is vailed in flight, the while, His midmost coils and final sweep of tail Relaxing, the last fold drags lingering spires.

Then that vile worm that in Calabrian glades Uprears his breast, and wreathes a scaly back, His length of belly pied with mighty spots-While from their founts gush any streams, while yet With showers of Spring and rainy south-winds earth Is moistened, lo! he haunts the pools, and here Housed in the banks, with fish and chattering frogs Crams the black void of his insatiate maw.

Soon as the fens are parched, and earth with heat Is gaping, forth he darts into the dry, Rolls eyes of fire and rages through the fields, Furious from thirst and by the drought dismayed.

Me list not then beneath the open heaven To snatch soft slumber, nor on forest-ridge Lie stretched along the grass, when, slipped his slough, To glittering youth transformed he winds his spires, And eggs or younglings leaving in his lair, Towers sunward, lightening with three-forked tongue.