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第5节

the georgics-第5节

小说: the georgics 字数: 每页4000字

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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

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