the georgics-第5节
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Soothly on all must toil be spent; and all
Trained to the trench and at great cost subdued。
But reared from truncheons olives answer best;
As vines from layers; and from the solid wood
The Paphian myrtles; while from suckers spring
Both hardy hazels and huge ash; the tree
That rims with shade the brows of Hercules;
And acorns dear to the Chaonian sire:
So springs the towering palm too; and the fir
Destined to spy the dangers of the deep。
But the rough arbutus with walnut…fruit
Is grafted; so have barren planes ere now
Stout apples borne; with chestnut…flower the beech;
The mountain…ash with pear…bloom whitened o'er;
And swine crunched acorns 'neath the boughs of elms。
Nor is the method of inserting eyes
And grafting one: for where the buds push forth
Amidst the bark; and burst the membranes thin;
Even on the knot a narrow rift is made;
Wherein from some strange tree a germ they pen;
And to the moist rind bid it cleave and grow。
Or; otherwise; in knotless trunks is hewn
A breach; and deep into the solid grain
A path with wedges cloven; then fruitful slips
Are set herein; and… no long time… behold!
To heaven upshot with teeming boughs; the tree
Strange leaves admires and fruitage not its own。
Nor of one kind alone are sturdy elms;
Willow and lotus; nor the cypress…trees
Of Ida; nor of self…same fashion spring
Fat olives; orchades; and radii
And bitter…berried pausians; no; nor yet
Apples and the forests of Alcinous;
Nor from like cuttings are Crustumian pears
And Syrian; and the heavy hand…fillers。
Not the same vintage from our trees hangs down;
Which Lesbos from Methymna's tendril plucks。
Vines Thasian are there; Mareotids white;
These apt for richer soils; for lighter those:
Psithian for raisin…wine more useful; thin
Lageos; that one day will try the feet
And tie the tongue: purples and early…ripes;
And how; O Rhaetian; shall I hymn thy praise?
Yet cope not therefore with Falernian bins。
Vines Aminaean too; best…bodied wine;
To which the Tmolian bows him; ay; and king
Phanaeus too; and; lesser of that name;
Argitis; wherewith not a grape can vie
For gush of wine…juice or for length of years。
Nor thee must I pass over; vine of Rhodes;
Welcomed by gods and at the second board;
Nor thee; Bumastus; with plump clusters swollen。
But lo! how many kinds; and what their names;
There is no telling; nor doth it boot to tell;
Who lists to know it; he too would list to learn
How many sand…grains are by Zephyr tossed
On Libya's plain; or wot; when Eurus falls
With fury on the ships; how many waves
Come rolling shoreward from the Ionian sea。
Not that all soils can all things bear alike。
Willows by water…courses have their birth;
Alders in miry fens; on rocky heights
The barren mountain…ashes; on the shore
Myrtles throng gayest; Bacchus; lastly; loves
The bare hillside; and yews the north wind's chill。
Mark too the earth by outland tillers tamed;
And Eastern homes of Arabs; and tattooed
Geloni; to all trees their native lands
Allotted are; no clime but India bears
Black ebony; the branch of frankincense
Is Saba's sons' alone; why tell to thee
Of balsams oozing from the perfumed wood;
Or berries of acanthus ever green?
Of Aethiop forests hoar with downy wool;
Or how the Seres comb from off the leaves
Their silky fleece? Of groves which India bears;
Ocean's near neighbour; earth's remotest nook;
Where not an arrow…shot can cleave the air
Above their tree…tops? yet no laggards they;
When girded with the quiver! Media yields
The bitter juices and slow…lingering taste
Of the blest citron…fruit; than which no aid
Comes timelier; when fierce step…dames drug the cup
With simples mixed and spells of baneful power;
To drive the deadly poison from the limbs。
Large the tree's self in semblance like a bay;
And; showered it not a different scent abroad;
A bay it had been; for no wind of heaven
Its foliage falls; the flower; none faster; clings;
With it the Medes for sweetness lave the lips;
And ease the panting breathlessness of age。
But no; not Mede…land with its wealth of woods;
Nor Ganges fair; and Hermus thick with gold;
Can match the praise of Italy; nor Ind;
Nor Bactria; nor Panchaia; one wide tract
Of incense…teeming sand。 Here never bulls
With nostrils snorting fire upturned the sod
Sown with the monstrous dragon's teeth; nor crop
Of warriors bristled thick with lance and helm;
But heavy harvests and the Massic juice
Of Bacchus fill its borders; overspread
With fruitful flocks and olives。 Hence arose
The war…horse stepping proudly o'er the plain;
Hence thy white flocks; Clitumnus; and the bull;
Of victims mightiest; which full oft have led;
Bathed in thy sacred stream; the triumph…pomp
Of Romans to the temples of the gods。
Here blooms perpetual spring; and summer here
In months that are not summer's; twice teem the flocks;
Twice doth the tree yield service of her fruit。
But ravening tigers come not nigh; nor breed
Of savage lion; nor aconite betrays
Its hapless gatherers; nor with sweep so vast
Doth the scaled serpent trail his endless coils
Along the ground; or wreathe him into spires。
Mark too her cities; so many and so proud;
Of mighty toil the achievement; town on town
Up rugged precipices heaved and reared;
And rivers undergliding ancient walls。
Or should I celebrate the sea that laves
Her upper shores and lower? or those broad lakes?
Thee; Larius; greatest and; Benacus; thee
With billowy uproar surging like the main?
Or sing her harbours; and the barrier cast
Athwart the Lucrine; and how ocean chafes
With mighty bellowings; where the Julian wave
Echoes the thunder of his rout; and through
Avernian inlets pours the Tuscan tide?
A land no less that in her veins displays
Rivers of silver; mines of copper ore;
Ay; and with gold hath flowed abundantly。
A land that reared a valiant breed of men;
The Marsi and Sabellian youth; and; schooled
To hardship; the Ligurian; and with these
The Volscian javelin…armed; the Decii too;
The Marii and Camilli; names of might;
The Scipios; stubborn warriors; ay; and thee;
Great Caesar; who in Asia's utmost bounds
With conquering arm e'en now art fending far
The unwarlike Indian from the heights of Rome。
Hail! land of Saturn; mighty mother thou
Of fruits and heroes; 'tis for thee I dare
Unseal the sacred fountains; and essay
Themes of old art and glory; as I sing
The song of Ascra through the towns of Rome。
Now for the native gifts of various soils;
What powers hath each; what hue; what natural bent
For yielding increase。 First your stubborn lands
And churlish hill…sides; where are thorny fields
Of meagre marl and gravel; these delight
In long…lived olive…groves to Pallas dear。
Take for a sign the plenteous growth hard by
Of oleaster; and the fields strewn wide
With woodland berries。 But a soil that's rich;
In moisture sweet exulting; and the plain
That teems with grasses on its fruitful breast;
Such as full oft in hollow mountain…dell
We view beneath us… from the craggy heights
Streams thither flow with fertilizing mud…
A plain which southward rising feeds the fern
By curved ploughs detested; this one day
Shall yield thee store of vines full strong to gush
In torrents of the wine…god; this shall be
Fruitful of grapes and flowing juice like that
We pour to heaven from bowls of gold; what time
The sleek Etruscan at the altar blows
His ivory pipe; and on the curved dish
We lay the reeking entrails。 If to rear
Cattle delight thee rather; steers; or lambs;
Or goats that kill the tender plants; then seek
Full…fed Tarentum's glades and distant fields;
Or such a plain as luckless Mantua lost
Whose weedy water feeds the snow…white swan:
There nor clear springs nor grass the flocks will fail;
And all the day…long browsing of thy herds
Shall the cool dews of one brief night repair。
Land which the burrowing share shows dark and rich;
With crumbling soil… for this we counterfeit
In ploughing… for corn is goodliest; from no field
More wains thou'lt see wend home with plodding steers;
Or that from which the husbandman in spleen
Has cleared the timber; and o'erthrown the copse
That year on year lay idle; and from the roots
Uptorn the immemorial haunt of birds;
They banished from their nests have sought the skies;
But the rude plain beneath the ploughshare's stroke
Starts into sudden brightness。 For indeed
The starved hill…country gravel scarce serves the bees
With lowly cassias and with rosemary;
Ro