§1.219At si triticeam in messem robustaque farra §1.220exercebis humum solisque instabis aristis, §1.221ante tibi Eoae Atlantides abscondantur §1.222Gnosiaque ardentis decedat stella Coronae, §1.223debita quam sulcis committas semina quamque §1.224invitae properes anni spem credere terrae.
But if you work the ground for a wheat harvest and sturdy spelt, and strive for ears of grain alone, let the morning Pleiades be hidden for you, and let the Gnosian star of the blazing Crown depart, before you commit the due seeds to the furrows, and before you hasten to entrust the hope of the year to the unwilling earth.
Many have begun before the setting of Maia; but the expected harvest mocked them with empty wild oats.
§1.227Si vero viciamque seres vilemque phaselum §1.228nec Pelusiacae curam aspernabere lentis, §1.229haud obscura cadens mittet tibi signa Bootes: §1.230incipe et ad medias sementem extende pruinas.
But if you sow vetch and the cheap kidney-bean, and do not despise the care of the Pelusian lentil, sinking Bootes will send you no obscure signs: begin, and extend your sowing into the midst of the frosts.
For this reason, the golden Sun rules the orbit measured out in fixed divisions through the twelve constellations of the world.
§1.233Quinque tenent caelum zonae; quarum una corusco §1.234semper sole rubens et torrida semper ab igni; §1.235quam circum extremae dextra laevaque trahuntur §1.236caeruleae, glacie concretae atque imbribus atris; §1.237has inter mediamque duae mortalibus aegris §1.238munere concessae divom, et via secta per ambas, §1.239obliquus qua se signorum verteret ordo.
Five zones hold the sky; of which one is always red with the flashing sun and always torrid with fire; around which on the right and left the outermost blue zones are drawn, frozen solid with ice and dark rains; between these and the middle zone, two have been granted to weary mortals by the gift of the gods, and a path is cut through both, where the oblique order of the signs might turn itself.
§1.240Mundus, ut ad Scythiam Rhipaeasque arduus arces §1.241consurgit, premitur Libyae devexus in austros.
The world, as it rises steep toward Scythia and the Rhipaean heights, sinks sloping down toward the south winds of Libya.
§1.242Hic vertex nobis semper sublimis; at illum §1.243sub pedibus Styx atra videt Manesque profundi.
This pole is always sublime for us; but that one beneath our feet dark Styx sees and the deep Manes.
§1.244Maximus hic flexu sinuoso elabitur Anguis §1.245circum perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos, §1.246Arctos Oceani metuentis aequore tingui.
Here the immense Serpent glides out with winding fold, like a river around and through the two Bears, the Bears that fear to be dipped in the water of Ocean.
§1.247Illic, ut perhibent, aut intempesta silet nox, §1.248semper et obtenta densentur nocte tenebrae, §1.249aut redit a nobis Aurora diemque reducit; §1.250nosque ubi primus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis, §1.251illic, sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.
There, as they report, either timeless night keeps silence, and darkness thickens beneath the overspread night, or Aurora returns from us and brings back the day; and when the early Dawn first breathes on us with panting steeds, there, blushing Evening kindles her late lights.
§1.252Hinc tempestates dubio praediscere caelo §1.253possumus, hinc messisque diem tempusque serendi, §1.254et quando infidum remis inpellere marmor §1.255conveniat, quando armatas deducere classis, §1.256aut tempestivam silvis evertere pinum.
Hence we can foreknow the weather in the doubtful sky, hence the day of harvest and the time of sowing, and when it is fitting to impel the treacherous sea with oars, when to launch armed fleets, or when to fell the pine tree in the woods in due season.
§1.257Nec frustra signorum obitus speculamur et ortus, §1.258temporibusque parem diversis quattuor annum.
Nor in vain do we watch the settings and risings of the constellations, and the year divided equally into four diverse seasons.
§1.259Frigidus agricolam si quando continet imber, §1.260multa, forent quae mox caelo properanda sereno, §1.261maturare datur: durum procudit arator §1.262vomeris obtunsi dentem, cavat arbore lintres, §1.263aut pecori signum aut numeros inpressit acervis.
If ever cold rain keeps the farmer indoors, many things which would soon have to be hurried under a clear sky are allowed to be completed at leisure: the plowman sharpens the hard tooth of his blunt share, hollows out boats from trees, or brands a mark on his flock, or stamps numbers on his heaps of grain.
Others sharpen stakes and two-pronged forks, and prepare Amerian ties for the pliant vine.
Now let the light basket be woven from the bramble twig; now parch your grain with fire, now grind it with the stone.
§1.268Quippe etiam festis quaedam exercere diebus §1.269fas et iura sinunt; rivos deducere nulla §1.270religio vetuit, segeti praetendere saepem, §1.271insidias avibus moliri, incendere vepres, §1.272balantumque gregem fluvio mersare salubri.
For indeed even on festival days divine and human laws permit certain tasks; no religion has forbidden to guide down streams, to draw a fence before the harvest, to set snares for birds, to burn brambles, and to plunge the bleating flock into the healing river.
§1.273Saepe oleo tardi costas agitator aselli §1.274vilibus aut onerat pomis, lapidemque revertens §1.275incusum aut atrae massam picis urbe reportat.
Often the driver of the slow donkey loads its ribs with oil or cheap fruit, and returning, brings back an indented stone or a mass of black pitch from the city.
The Moon herself has assigned different days in different order as lucky for work.
Quintam fuge: pallidus Orcus §1.278Eumenidesque satae; tum partu Terra nefando §1.279Coeumque Iapetumque creat saevumque Typhoea §1.280et coniuratos caelum rescindere fratres.
Avoid the fifth: pale Orcus and the Eumenides were born; then in infamous birth Earth brings forth Coeus and Iapetus, and fierce Typhoeus, and the brothers who conspired to tear down heaven.
§1.281Ter sunt conati inponere Pelio Ossam §1.282scilicet, atque Ossae frondosum involvere Olympum; §1.283ter pater exstructos disiecit fulmine montis.
Three times indeed they strove to pile Ossa on Pelion, and to roll leafy Olympus upon Ossa; three times the Father scattered the piled-up mountains with his thunderbolt.
§1.284Septima post decimam felix et ponere vitem §1.285et prensos domitare boves et licia telae §1.286addere: nona fugae melior, contraria furtis.
The seventeenth is lucky both for planting the vine, and for taming caught oxen, and for adding leashes to the loom; the ninth is better for flight, but opposed to theft.
Many tasks indeed go better in the cool night, or when the Morning Star sprinkles the earth with dew at the rising sun.
§1.289Nocte leves melius stipulae, nocte arida prata §1.290tondentur, noctes lentus non deficit humor.
By night light stubble is better shorn, by night dry meadows are mown; at night the sticky moisture does not fail.
§1.291Et quidam seros hiberni ad luminis ignis §1.292pervigilat ferroque faces inspicat acuto; §1.293interea longum cantu solata laborem §1.294arguto coniunx percurrit pectine telas, §1.295aut dulcis musti Volcano decoquit humorem
And one watches late by the fire of a winter light, and points torches with a sharp knife; meanwhile his wife, comforting her long labor with song, runs through the loom with the shrill comb, or boils down the moisture of sweet must with fire,