The annual season of the festival of Ceres has come; my girl sleeps alone in an empty bed.
Golden Ceres, your fine hair wreathed with ears of wheat, why do you hinder our pleasures with your sacred rites?
§3.10.5Te, dea, munificam gentes, ubi quaeque, loquuntur, §3.10.6Nec minus humanis invidet ulla bonis.
All nations, wherever they are, speak of you, goddess, as bountiful, nor does any other goddess less envy human happiness.
§3.10.7Ante nec hirsuti torrebant farra coloni, §3.10.8Nec notum terris area nomen erat, §3.10.9Sed glandem quercus, oracula prima, ferebant; §3.10.10Haec erat et teneri caespitis herba cibus.
Before, neither did shaggy farmers parch spelt, nor was the name of a threshing-floor known on earth, but the oaks, the first oracles, bore acorns; these and the grass of the tender turf were food.
§3.10.11Prima Ceres docuit turgescere semen in agris §3.10.12Falce coloratas subsecuitque comas; §3.10.13Prima iugis tauros supponere colla coegit, §3.10.14Et veterem curvo dente revellit humum.
Ceres first taught the seed to swell in the fields, and cut the colored ears with a sickle; she first compelled bulls to submit their necks to the yoke, and turned up the ancient soil with the curved plowshare.
Does anyone believe that she rejoices in the tears of lovers, and is properly worshipped by torment and solitary sleeping?
§3.10.17Nec tamen est, quamvis agros amet illa feraces, §3.10.18Rustica nec viduum pectus amoris habet.
And yet she is not rustic, although she loves fertile fields, nor does she have a heart empty of love.
§3.10.19Cretes erunt testes — nec fingunt omnia Cretes.
The Cretans will be witnesses — and the Cretans do not invent everything.
§3.10.20Crete nutrito terra superba Iove.
Crete is a land proud of having nurtured Jupiter.
There, he who rules the starry citadel of the world, as a tiny boy drank milk with a tender mouth.
§3.10.23Magna fides testi: testis laudatur alumno.
Great is the credibility of the witness: the witness is praised by her foster-child.
§3.10.24Fassuram Cererem crimina nostra puto.
I think Ceres will confess to our charges against her.
The Cretan goddess had seen Iasius under Mount Ida, piercing the backs of wild beasts with a steady hand.
§3.10.27Vidit, et ut tenerae flammam rapuere medullae, §3.10.28Hinc pudor, ex illa parte trahebat amor.
She saw him, and as her tender marrow caught the flame of love, shame pulled her from this side, love from that.
Shame was conquered by love; you would have seen the furrows dry and the crops return with the smallest part of themselves.
§3.10.31Cum bene iactati pulsarant arva ligones, §3.10.32Ruperat et duram vomer aduncus humum, §3.10.33Seminaque in latos ierant aequaliter agros, §3.10.34Inrita decepti vota colentis erant.
Although the well-swung hoes had struck the fields, and the curved plowshare had broken the hard soil, and the seeds had gone evenly into the wide fields, the prayers of the deceived farmer were in vain.
The goddess powerful over crops lingered in the deep woods; the wreaths of wheat had fallen from her long hair.
§3.10.37Sola fuit Crete fecundo fertilis anno; §3.10.38Omnia, qua tulerat se dea, messis erat; §3.10.39Ipsa, locus nemorum, canebat frugibus Ide, §3.10.40Et ferus in silva farra metebat aper.
Crete alone was fertile in that fruitful year; wherever the goddess carried herself, all was harvest; Ida itself, a place of forests, grew white with crops, and the wild boar harvested spelt in the woods.
Minos, the lawgiver, wished for similar years for himself; he should have wished that Ceres' love would be long-lasting.
§3.10.43Quod tibi secubitus tristes, dea flava, fuissent, §3.10.44Hoc cogor sacris nunc ego ferre tuis?
Because you had sad times of solitary sleeping, golden goddess, am I now compelled to bear this for your sacred rites?