- DANTES ALAGHERII IOHANNI DE
VIRGILIO
- EGLOGA I
-
- Vidimus in nigris albo patiente
lituris
- Pyerio demulsa sinu modulamina nobis.
- Forte recensentes pastas de more
capellas
- tunc ego sub quercu meus et Melibeus
eramus.
- Ille quidem-cupiebat enim consciscere
cantum
5
- “Tityre, quid Mopsus? Quid vult?
Edissere” dixit.
- Ridebam, Mopse; magis et magis ille
premebat.
- Victus amore sui, posito vix denique
risu,
- “Stulte, quid insanis?” inquam:
“Tua cura capelle
- te potius poscunt, quanquam mala
cenula turbet.
10
- Pascua sunt ignota tibi que Menalus
alto
- vertice declivi celator solis inumbrat,
- herbarum vario florumque inpicta
colore.
- Circuit hec humilis et tectus fronde
saligna
- perpetuis undis a summo margine ripas
15
- rorans alveolus, qui, quas mons
desuper edit,
- sponte viam, qua mitis erat, se fecit
aquarum.
- Mopsus in his, dum lenta boves per
gramina ludunt,
- contemplatur ovans hominum superumquc
labores;
- inde per inflatos calamos interna
recludit
20
- gaudia, sic ut dulce melos armenta
sequantur,
- placatique ruant campis de monte
leones,
- et refluant unde, frondes et Menala
nutent”.
- “Tityre,” tunc “si Mopsus” ait
“decantat in herbis
- ignotis, ignota tamen sua carmina
possum,
25
- te monstrante, meis vagulis prodiscere
capris”.
- Hic ego quid poteram, cum sic instaret
anhelus?
- “Montibus Aoniis Mopsus, Melibee,
quot annis,
- dum satagunt alia causarum iura doceri,
- sed edit et sacri nemoris perpalluit
umbra.
30
- Vatificis prolutus aquis, et lacte
canoro
- viscera plena ferens et plenus ad
usque palatum,
- me vocat ad frondes versa Peneyde
cretas”.
- “Quid facies?” Melibeus ait: “Tu
tempora lauro
- semper inornata per pascua pastor
habcbis?”.
35
- “O Melibee, decus vatum, quoque
noinen in auras
- fluxit, et insonmem vix Mopsum Musa
peregit”;
- retuleram, cum sic dedit indignatio
vocem:
- Quantos balatus colles et prata
sonabunt,
- si viridante coma fidibus peana ciebo!
40
- Sed timeam saltus et rura ignara
deorum.
- Nonne triumphales melius pexare
capiuos
- et patrio, redeam si quando,
abscondere canos
- fronde sub inserta solitum flavescere
Sarno?”.
- Ille: “Quis hoc dubitet? Propter
quod respice tempus 45
- Tityre, quam velox; nam iam senuere
capelle
- quas concepturis dedimus nos matribus
hircos”.
- Tunc ego: “Cum mundi circumflua
corpora cantu
- astricoleque meo, velut infera regna,
patebunt,
- devincire caput hedera lauroque
iuvabit:
50
- concedat Mop sus”. “Mopsus” tunc
ille “quid?, inquit.
- “Comica nonne vides ipsum
reprehendere verba,
- tum quia femineo resonant ut trita
labello,
- tum quia Castalias pudet acceptare
sorores?,
- ipse ego respondi, versus iterumque
relegi,
55
- Mopse, tuos. Tunc ille humeros
contraxit et “Ergo
- quid faciemus” ait Mopsum revocare
volentes?”.
- “Est mecum quam noscis ovis
gratissima,” dixi
- “ubera vix que ferre potest, tam
lactis abundans;
- rupe sub ingenti carptas modo ruminat
herbas.
60
- Nulli iuncta gregi nullis assuetaque
caulis,
- sponte venire solet, nunquam vi,
poscere mulctram.
- Hanc ego prestolor manibus mulgere
paratis,
- hac implebo decem missurus vascula
Mopso.
- Tu tamen interdum capros meditere
petulcos
65
- et duris crustis discas infigere
dentes”.
- Talia sub quercu Melibeus et ipse
canebam,
- parva tabernacla nobis dum farra
coquebant.
-
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- ECLOGUES TO GIOVANNI DEL VIRGILIO
- ECLOGUE I
-
- Written on docile whiteness in black
letters,
- we saw harmonious chords milked for
our use
- from the Pierian breast. Beneath an
oak
- I chanced to be with Meliboeus dear,
- numbering one by one our sated
goats,
5
- when, pierced with great desire to
know the song,
- “Tityrus,” said he, “what does
Mopsus wish?”
- Mopsus, I smiled; but he insisted
more.
- So I, who love him, did no longer
laugh,
- but said, “You fool! You hardly
supped at
all:
10
- let nothing but your goats perturb
your mind.
- Painted with varied hues of grass and
blooms,
- pastures are far away, unknown to you,
- which Maenalus with its steep-falling
peak
- conceals now from the slowly setting
sun.
15
- Humble and girt with leaves of willow
trees,
- and wetting both its banks with
endless waves
- down from its lofty source, a river
bed
- circles around them, and becomes at
once
- the docile duct of all the waters
poured
20
- downward by the great mountain
overhead.
- Such is the world where happy Mopsus
scans
- all the vicissitudes of men and gods
- while his herds gambol on the
slow-grown grass;
- and then through swollen reeds he lets
the
joy
25
- of his deep-heaving soul outwardly
flow
- till his herd follows the sweet
melody,
- meekly the lions rush from mount to
field,
- the waves turn back, and Maenalus is
calm
- in all its forests.” “Tityrus,”
he
said,
30
- “though Mopsus sings in unfamiliar
fields,
- if you but tell me how, I yet may
learn,
- for all my straying goats, his unknown
songs.”
- Breathless was he; so what was I to
do?
- “While others, Meliboeus, strive to
learn
35
- all of the clauses of the legal
rights,
- year after year has Mopsus vowed
himself
- to the Aonian peaks, thus growing pale
- under the shadows of their awesome
grove.
- Soaked in prophetic founts, his
entrails
full
40
- of most melodious milk up to his lips,
- he begs me to come forward to those
leaves
- that out of the transformed Peneid
grew.”
- “What will you do then,” Meliboeus
asked;
- “will you forever be a shepherd
here,
45
- and show no laurel wreath around your
brow?”
- “The wind, dear Meliboeus, took away
- all poets’ fame as well as name, and
yet
- the Muse still keeps our Mopsus wide
awake,”
- I answered him, when anger
suddenly
50
- seized me, and made me add, “What
hills and fields
- would be re-echoing these bleating
sounds
- were I, my hair entwined with verdant
leaves,
- to strike a paean on this instrument!
- But let me dread the country-side and
woods
55
- that know no gods. Is it not better
far
- to comb for victory this hair of mine
- than hide its gray beneath adorning
leaves
- if to my native Sarnus I return?”
- And he, “Why doubt it, Tityrus? Time
flies—
60
- look—and already these our goats
grow old:
- whose mothers, well before they were
conceived,
- we mated with their he-goats long ago.”
- “When all the bodies flowing round
the world,”
- I then replied, “and all the souls
that
live
65
- within the stars and in the lower
realms
- will manifest themselves in this my
song;
- then, only then, if Mopsus will allow,
- shall I with pride around these
temples wear
- ivy and laurel as a shining crown.”
70
- “What about Mopsus?” he inquired.
And I,
- “Can you not see how he rebukes the
words
- of this my Comedy, for sounding trite
- on women’s winsome lips, and being
such
- as not to be accepted as their
own
75
- by the Castalian sisters?” So I
spoke,
- and read your verses, Mopsus, once
again.
- He shrugged his shoulders and replied
to me,
- “To conquer Mopsus, what are we to
do?”
- “I have one sheep,” I said, “most
dear to
me,
80
- so full of milk her udders drag her
down.
- Look how she chews beneath that mighty
rock
- the new-plucked grass! Disdaining
flock and pen,
- ever of her own will she comes back
here
- as none can force her to the
milking-pail.
85
- Well, let me milk her now with these
my hands:
- I will to Mopsus ten full buckets
send.
- Meanwhile think only of your
headstrong goats,
- and learn to sink your teeth on
hardened crusts.”
- Such was the song I sang beneath an
oak
90
- with Meliboeus, while our barley
cooked
- inside the shelter of our little hut.
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