the georgics-第4节
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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