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第4节

the georgics-第4节

小说: the georgics 字数: 每页4000字

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  And to the month's end those that spring from it;

  Rainless and windless be; while safe ashore

  Shall sailors pay their vows to Panope;

  Glaucus; and Melicertes; Ino's child。

    The sun too; both at rising; and when soon

  He dives beneath the waves; shall yield thee signs;

  For signs; none trustier; travel with the sun;

  Both those which in their course with dawn he brings;

  And those at star…rise。 When his springing orb

  With spots he pranketh; muffled in a cloud;

  And shrinks mid…circle; then of showers beware;

  For then the South comes driving from the deep;

  To trees and crops and cattle bringing bane。

  Or when at day…break through dark clouds his rays

  Burst and are scattered; or when rising pale

  Aurora quits Tithonus' saffron bed;

  But sorry shelter then; alack I will yield

  Vine…leaf to ripening grapes; so thick a hail

  In spiky showers spins rattling on the roof。

  And this yet more 'twill boot thee bear in mind;

  When now; his course upon Olympus run;

  He draws to his decline: for oft we see

  Upon the sun's own face strange colours stray;

  Dark tells of rain; of east winds fiery…red;

  If spots with ruddy fire begin to mix;

  Then all the heavens convulsed in wrath thou'lt see…

  Storm…clouds and wind together。 Me that night

  Let no man bid fare forth upon the deep;

  Nor rend the rope from shore。 But if; when both

  He brings again and hides the day's return;

  Clear…orbed he shineth;idly wilt thou dread

  The storm…clouds; and beneath the lustral North

  See the woods waving。 What late eve in fine

  Bears in her bosom; whence the wind that brings

  Fair…weather…clouds; or what the rain South

  Is meditating; tokens of all these

  The sun will give thee。 Who dare charge the sun

  With leasing? He it is who warneth oft

  Of hidden broils at hand and treachery;

  And secret swelling of the waves of war。

  He too it was; when Caesar's light was quenched;

  For Rome had pity; when his bright head he veiled

  In iron…hued darkness; till a godless age

  Trembled for night eternal; at that time

  Howbeit earth also; and the ocean…plains;

  And dogs obscene; and birds of evil bode

  Gave tokens。 Yea; how often have we seen

  Etna; her furnace…walls asunder riven;

  In billowy floods boil o'er the Cyclops' fields;

  And roll down globes of fire and molten rocks!

  A clash of arms through all the heaven was heard

  By Germany; strange heavings shook the Alps。

  Yea; and by many through the breathless groves

  A voice was heard with power; and wondrous…pale

  Phantoms were seen upon the dusk of night;

  And cattle spake; portentous! streams stand still;

  And the earth yawns asunder; ivory weeps

  For sorrow in the shrines; and bronzes sweat。

  Up…twirling forests with his eddying tide;

  Madly he bears them down; that lord of floods;

  Eridanus; till through all the plain are swept

  Beasts and their stalls together。 At that time

  In gloomy entrails ceased not to appear

  Dark…threatening fibres; springs to trickle blood;

  And high…built cities night…long to resound

  With the wolves' howling。 Never more than then

  From skies all cloudless fell the thunderbolts;

  Nor blazed so oft the comet's fire of bale。

  Therefore a second time Philippi saw

  The Roman hosts with kindred weapons rush

  To battle; nor did the high gods deem it hard

  That twice Emathia and the wide champaign

  Of Haemus should be fattening with our blood。

  Ay; and the time will come when there anigh;

  Heaving the earth up with his curved plough;

  Some swain will light on javelins by foul rust

  Corroded; or with ponderous harrow strike

  On empty helmets; while he gapes to see

  Bones as of giants from the trench untombed。

  Gods of my country; heroes of the soil;

  And Romulus; and Mother Vesta; thou

  Who Tuscan Tiber and Rome's Palatine

  Preservest; this new champion at the least

  Our fallen generation to repair

  Forbid not。 To the full and long ago

  Our blood thy Trojan perjuries hath paid;

  Laomedon。 Long since the courts of heaven

  Begrudge us thee; our Caesar; and complain

  That thou regard'st the triumphs of mankind;

  Here where the wrong is right; the right is wrong;

  Where wars abound so many; and myriad…faced

  Is crime; where no meet honour hath the plough;

  The fields; their husbandmen led far away;

  Rot in neglect; and curved pruning…hooks

  Into the sword's stiff blade are fused and forged。

  Euphrates here; here Germany new strife

  Is stirring; neighbouring cities are in arms;

  The laws that bound them snapped; and godless war

  Rages through all the universe; as when

  The four…horse chariots from the barriers poured

  Still quicken o'er the course; and; idly now

  Grasping the reins; the driver by his team

  Is onward borne; nor heeds the car his curb。

  GEORGIC II



  Thus far the tilth of fields and stars of heaven;

  Now will I sing thee; Bacchus; and; with thee;

  The forest's young plantations and the fruit

  Of slow…maturing olive。 Hither haste;

  O Father of the wine…press; all things here

  Teem with the bounties of thy hand; for thee

  With viny autumn laden blooms the field;

  And foams the vintage high with brimming vats;

  Hither; O Father of the wine…press; come;

  And stripped of buskin stain thy bared limbs

  In the new must with me。

                         First; nature's law

  For generating trees is manifold;

  For some of their own force spontaneous spring;

  No hand of man compelling; and possess

  The plains and river…windings far and wide;

  As pliant osier and the bending broom;

  Poplar; and willows in wan companies

  With green leaf glimmering gray; and some there be

  From chance…dropped seed that rear them; as the tall

  Chestnuts; and; mightiest of the branching wood;

  Jove's Aesculus; and oaks; oracular

  Deemed by the Greeks of old。 With some sprouts forth

  A forest of dense suckers from the root;

  As elms and cherries; so; too; a pigmy plant;

  Beneath its mother's mighty shade upshoots

  The bay…tree of Parnassus。 Such the modes

  Nature imparted first; hence all the race

  Of forest…trees and shrubs and sacred groves

  Springs into verdure。

                         Other means there are;

  Which use by method for itself acquired。

  One; sliving suckers from the tender frame

  Of the tree…mother; plants them in the trench;

  One buries the bare stumps within his field;

  Truncheons cleft four…wise; or sharp…pointed stakes;

  Some forest…trees the layer's bent arch await;

  And slips yet quick within the parent…soil;

  No root need others; nor doth the pruner's hand

  Shrink to restore the topmost shoot to earth

  That gave it being。 Nay; marvellous to tell;

  Lopped of its limbs; the olive; a mere stock;

  Still thrusts its root out from the sapless wood;

  And oft the branches of one kind we see

  Change to another's with no loss to rue;

  Pear…tree transformed the ingrafted apple yield;

  And stony cornels on the plum…tree blush。

    Come then; and learn what tilth to each belongs

  According to their kinds; ye husbandmen;

  And tame with culture the wild fruits; lest earth

  Lie idle。 O blithe to make all Ismarus

  One forest of the wine…god; and to clothe

  With olives huge Tabernus! And be thou

  At hand; and with me ply the voyage of toil

  I am bound on; O my glory; O thou that art

  Justly the chiefest portion of my fame;

  Maecenas; and on this wide ocean launched

  Spread sail like wings to waft thee。 Not that I

  With my poor verse would comprehend the whole;

  Nay; though a hundred tongues; a hundred mouths

  Were mine; a voice of iron; be thou at hand;

  Skirt but the nearer coast…line; see the shore

  Is in our grasp; not now with feigned song

  Through winding bouts and tedious preludings

  Shall I detain thee。

                         Those that lift their head

  Into the realms of light spontaneously;

  Fruitless indeed; but blithe and strenuous spring;

  Since Nature lurks within the soil。 And yet

  Even these; should one engraft them; or transplant

  To well…drilled trenches; will anon put of

  Their woodland temper; and; by frequent tilth;

  To whatso craft thou summon them; make speed

  To follow。 So likewise will the barren shaft

  That from the stock…root issueth; if it be

  Set out with clear space amid open fields:

  Now the tree…mother's towering leaves and boughs

  Darken; despoil of increase as it grows;

  And blast it in the bearing。 Lastly; that

  Which from shed seed ariseth; upward wins

  But slowly; yielding promise of its shade

  To late…born generations; apples wane

  Forgetful of their former juice; the grape

  Bears sorry clusters; for the birds a prey。

    Soothly on all must toil be spent; and all

  Trained to the trench and at great cost subdued。

  But reared from trun

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