§10.1Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem: §10.2pauca meo Gallo, sed quae legat ipsa Lycoris, §10.3carmina sunt dicenda.
Grant me, Arethusa, this last labor: a few songs for my Gallus, but such as Lycoris herself may read, must be sung.
neget quis carmina Gallo?
Who would deny songs to Gallus?
So, when you glide beneath Sicanian waves, may bitter Doris not intermingle her wave with yours.
Begin; let us sing of the anxious loves of Gallus, while the flat-nosed goats crop the tender shrubs.
§10.8non canimus surdis; respondent omnia silvae.
We do not sing to the deaf; the woods echo all things.
§10.9Quae nemora, aut qui vos saltus habuere, puellae §10.10Naides, indigno cum Gallus amore peribat?
What groves, or what glades held you, maiden Naiads, when Gallus was perishing of an unworthy love?
For neither did the ridges of Parnassus, nor those of Pindus cause you any delay, nor did Aonian Aganippe.
§10.13Illum etiam lauri, etiam flevere myricae.
Him even the laurels, even the tamarisks wept.
Even pine-bearing Maenalus wept for him as he lay beneath a lonely rock, and the rocks of cold Lycaeus wept for him.
§10.16Stant et oves circum; —nostri nec poenitet illas, §10.17nec te poeniteat pecoris, divine poeta; — §10.18et formosus ovis ad flumina pavit Adonis; §10.19venit et upilio; tardi venere subulci; §10.20uvidus hiberna venit de glande Menalcas.
The sheep also stand around;—they are not ashamed of us, nor be you ashamed of the flock, divine poet;— even beautiful Adonis pastured sheep by the rivers; The shepherd also came; the slow swineherds came; Menalcas came, wet from gathering the winter acorns.
§10.21Omnes “Unde amor iste” rogant “tibi?” Venit Apollo: §10.22“Galle, quid insanis?” inquit; “tua cura Lycoris §10.23perque nives alium perque horrida castra secuta est. ” §10.24Venit et agresti capitis Silvanus honore, §10.25florentis ferulas et grandia lilia quassans.
All ask: "Whence comes this love of yours?" Apollo came: "Gallus, why are you mad?" he said; "Lycoris, your love, has followed another through both snows and dreadful camps." Silvanus also came, with the rustic crown upon his head, shaking flowering fennels and large lilies.
Pan, god of Arcadia, came, whom we ourselves saw, stained red with the blood-red berries of dwarf-elder and vermilion.
§10.28“Ecquis erit modus?” inquit; “Amor non talia curat; §10.29nec lacrimis crudelis Amor, nec gramina rivis, §10.30nec cytiso saturantur apes, nec fronde capellae. ” §10.31Tristis at ille: “Tamen cantabitis, Arcades,” inquit §10.32“montibus haec vestris: soli cantare periti §10.33Arcades.
"Will there be any limit?" he said; "Love does not care for such things; neither is cruel Love sated with tears, nor grass with streams, nor bees with cytisus, nor goats with leaves." But sad he replied: "Yet you will sing, Arcadians, this on your mountains: Arcadians alone skilled in song.
O mihi tum quam molliter ossa quiescant, §10.34vestra meos olim si fistula dicat amores!
O how softly then my bones would rest, if hereafter your pipe should sing of my loves!
§10.35Atque utinam ex vobis unus, vestrique fuissem §10.36aut custos gregis, aut maturae vinitor uvae!
And would that I had been one of you, and either the guardian of a flock, or the vintager of the ripe grape!
§10.37Certe, sive mihi Phillis, sive esset Amyntas, §10.38seu quicumque furor—quid tum, si fuscus Amyntas;
Surely, whether Phyllis were mine, or Amyntas, or whoever my passion—what then, if Amyntas is dark?
§10.39et nigrae violae sunt et vaccinia nigra— §10.40mecum inter salices lenta sub vite iaceret; §10.41serta mihi Phyllis legeret, cantaret Amyntas.
both violets are dark, and hyacinths are dark— they would lie with me among the willows, beneath the pliant vine; Phyllis would gather wreaths for me, Amyntas would sing.
Here are cold springs, here soft meadows, Lycoris, here is a grove; here with you I would be consumed by time itself.
§10.44Nunc insanus amor duri me Martis in armis §10.45tela inter media atque adversos detinet hostes: §10.46tu procul a patria (nec sit mihi credere tantum!) §10.47Alpinas, ah dura, nives et frigora Rheni §10.48me sine sola vides: ah, te ne frigora laedant!
Now a mad love keeps me in the arms of harsh Mars, in the midst of weapons and confronting enemies: you, far from your fatherland (may it not be mine to believe such a thing!) lookest upon Alpine snows, ah cruel one, and the frosts of the Rhine, alone without me: ah, may the frosts not hurt you!
§10.49ah, tibi ne teneras glacies secet aspera plantas!
ah, may the rough ice not cut your tender feet!
§10.50Ibo, et, Chalcidico quae sunt mihi condita versu §10.51carmina, pastoris Siculi modulabor avena.
I will go, and the songs which were composed by me in Chalcidic verse songs, I will tune on the Sicilian shepherd's pipe.
§10.52certum est in silvis, inter spelaea ferarum §10.53malle pati, tenerisque meos incidere amores §10.54arboribus; crescent illae, crescetis, amores.
It is my resolve to prefer to suffer in the woods, among the dens of wild beasts, and to carve my loves on the tender trees; they will grow, and you will grow, my loves.
§10.55Interea mixtis lustrabo Maenala nymphis, §10.56aut acris venabor apros: non me ulla vetabunt §10.57frigora Parthenios canibus circumdare saltus.
Meanwhile I will roam over Maenalus with the nymphs, or hunt fierce boars: no frosts shall forbid me to surround Parthenian glades with dogs.
§10.58iam mihi per rupes videor lucosque sonantis §10.59ire; libet Partho torquere Cydonia cornu §10.60spicula:—tamquam haec sit nostri medicina furoris, §10.61ut deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat!
Already I seem to myself to go through rocks and echoing groves; it pleases me to shoot Cydonian arrows from a Parthian bow: as if this were a remedy for our madness, or as if that god could learn to soften at human miseries!
§10.62Iam neque hamadryades rursus nec carmina nobis §10.63ipsa placent; ipsae rursus concedite silvae.
Now neither the hamadryads again, nor songs themselves please me; you yourselves, woods, again give way.
§10.64non illum nostri possunt mutare labores, §10.65nec si frigoribus mediis Hebrumque bibamus, §10.66Sithoniasque nives hiemis subeamus aquosae, §10.67nec si, cum moriens alta liber aret in ulmo, §10.68Aethiopum versemus ovis sub sidere Cancri.
Our labors cannot change him, not even if in the midst of frosts we should drink of the Hebrus, and undergo Sithonian snows under a wet winter, nor if, when the dying bark withers on the high elm, we should drive the sheep of the Ethiopians under the sign of Cancer.
§10.69omnia vincit Amor; et nos cedamus Amori. ” §10.70Haec sat erit, divae, vestrum cecinisse poetam, §10.71dum sedet et gracili fiscellam texit hibisco, §10.72Pierides; vos haec facietis maxima Gallo— §10.73Gallo, cuius amor tantum mihi crescit in horas, §10.74quantum vere novo viridis se subicit alnus.
Love conquers all things; and let us yield to Love." This will be enough, goddesses, for your poet to have sung, while he sits and weaves a basket of slender hibiscus, Muses of Pieria; you will make these songs of greatest value to Gallus— Gallus, for whom my love grows as much hour by hour, as in early spring the green alder shoots itself up.
§10.75Surgamus; solet esse gravis cantantibus umbra; §10.76iuniperi gravis umbra; nocent et frugibus umbrae.
Let us rise; the shade is wont to be harmful to singers; the shade of the juniper is harmful; shades harm the crops too.
§10.77Ite domum saturae, venit Hesperus, ite capellae.
Go home, well-fed, the evening star comes, go, my goats.