Virgil · a new plain-English translation from the Latin
1| [Meliboeus] Daphnis, as it happened, had sat down under a rustling holm oak, and Corydon and Thyrsis had driven their flocks together, Thyrsis his sheep, Corydon his goats heavy with milk, both in the flower of their youth, Arcadians both, equal in singing and ready to answer back. Here, while I was protecting my tender myrtles from the cold, the husband of my flock, the he-goat himself, had strayed; and I catch sight of Daphnis. When he sees me opposite, he says: "Quick, come here, Meliboeus; your he-goat is safe, and the kids too,, and if you can spare some leisure, rest in the shade. The bullocks will come here across the meadows of their own accord to drink; here the Mincius fringes its green banks with tender reeds, and swarms hum from the sacred oak." What was I to do? I had no Alcippe or Phyllis to shut up the weaned lambs at home, and there was a great contest, Corydon against Thyrsis. Still, I put my business second to their game. So both began to compete in alternating verses; the Muses wanted to remember alternating verses. Corydon sang these, Thyrsis those, in turn.
21| [Corydon] Nymphs of Libethra, my love, either grant me a song like the one you gave my Codrus — he makes verses next to Phoebus' — or, if we cannot all do it, here on the sacred pine my tuneful pipe will hang.
25| [Thyrsis] Shepherds of Arcadia, crown your rising poet with ivy, so that Codrus may burst his sides with envy; or, if he praises me beyond what is welcome, wreathe my brow with foxglove, so that no evil tongue may harm the poet to be.
29| [Corydon] This head of a bristly boar, Delia, little Micon gives you, and the branching antlers of a long-lived stag. If this luck holds, you will stand full length in smooth marble, your calves bound with crimson boots.
33| [Thyrsis] A bowl of milk and these cakes, Priapus, are enough for you to expect every year: you guard a poor man's garden. For now we have made you of marble, as times allow; but if the lambing fills up my flock, be made of gold.
37| [Corydon] Galatea, daughter of Nereus, sweeter to me than the thyme of Hybla, whiter than swans, lovelier than pale ivy, as soon as the bulls come back from pasture to their stalls, if you care at all for your Corydon, come to me.
41| [Thyrsis] No, let me seem to you more bitter than Sardinian herbs, more bristly than butcher's broom, cheaper than seaweed thrown up on the shore, if this day is not already longer to me than a whole year. Go home, bullocks, you have grazed enough; go, if you have any shame.
45| [Corydon] Mossy springs, and grass softer than sleep, and green arbutus that covers you with its thin shade, keep the midsummer heat from my flock: already scorching summer is coming, already the buds are swelling on the pliant vine.
49| [Thyrsis] Here is a hearth and resinous pine torches, here a great fire always, and doorposts black with constant soot; here we care as much for the cold of the north wind as the wolf cares for the number of the sheep, or rushing rivers for their banks.
53| [Corydon] The junipers and the bristly chestnuts are standing; their fruits lie strewn everywhere, each under its tree; everything smiles now. But if lovely Alexis left these hills, you would see even the rivers dry.
57| [Thyrsis] The field is parched; the grass is dying, thirsting in the sickly air; Liber has grudged the hills the shade of their vine leaves. When my Phyllis comes, every grove will grow green, and Jupiter will come down in abundance in glad rain.
61| [Corydon] The poplar is dearest to Hercules, the vine to Bacchus, the myrtle to lovely Venus, his own laurel to Phoebus; Phyllis loves the hazels: as long as Phyllis loves them, neither myrtle nor Phoebus' laurel will outdo the hazels.
65| [Thyrsis] The ash is loveliest in the woods, the pine in gardens, the poplar by rivers, the fir on high mountains; but if you visit me more often, lovely Lycidas, the ash in the woods will yield to you, and the pine in the gardens.
69| [Meliboeus] This I remember, and how Thyrsis, beaten, competed in vain. Ever since that day it has been Corydon, Corydon for us.
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