§3.5.1'Nox erat, et somnus lassos submisit ocellos; §3.5.2Terruerunt animum talia visa meum: §3.5.3Colle sub aprico creberrimus ilice lucus §3.5.4Stabat, et in ramis multa latebat avis. §3.5.5Area gramineo suberat viridissima prato, §3.5.6Umida de guttis lene sonantis aquae. §3.5.7Ipse sub arboreis vitabam frondibus aestum — §3.5.8Fronde sub arborea sed tamen aestus erat — §3.5.9Ecce! petens variis inmixtas floribus herbas §3.5.10Constitit ante oculos candida vacca meos, §3.5.11Candidior nivibus, tunc cum cecidere recentes, §3.5.12In liquidas nondum quas mora vertit aquas; §3.5.13Candidior, quod adhuc spumis stridentibus albet §3.5.14Et modo siccatam, lacte, reliquit ovem. §3.5.15Taurus erat comes huic, feliciter ille maritus, §3.5.16Cumque sua teneram coniuge pressit humum. §3.5.17Dum iacet et lente revocatas ruminat herbas §3.5.18Atque iterum pasto pascitur ante cibo, §3.5.19Visus erat, somno vires adimente ferendi, §3.5.20Cornigerum terra deposuisse caput. §3.5.21Huc levibus cornix pinnis delapsa per auras §3.5.22Venit et in viridi garrula sedit humo, §3.5.23Terque bovis niveae petulanti pectora rostro §3.5.24Fodit et albentis abstulit ore iubas. §3.5.25Illa locum taurumque diu cunctata relinquit — §3.5.26Sed niger in vaccae pectore livor erat; §3.5.27Utque procul vidit carpentes pabula tauros — §3.5.28Carpebant tauri pabula laeta procul — §3.5.29Illuc se rapuit gregibusque inmiscuit illis §3.5.30Et petiit herbae fertilioris humum. §3.5.31Dic age, nocturnae, quicumque es, imaginis augur, §3.5.32Siquid habent veri, visa quid ista ferant. ' §3.5.33Sic ego; nocturnae sic dixit imaginis augur, §3.5.34Expendens animo singula dicta suo: §3.5.35'Quem tu mobilibus foliis vitare volebas, §3.5.36Sed male vitabas, aestus amoris erat. §3.5.37Vacca puella tua est — aptus color ille puellae; §3.5.38Tu vir et in vacca conpare taurus eras. §3.5.39Pectora quod rostro cornix fodiebat acuto, §3.5.40Ingenium dominae lena movebat anus. §3.5.41Quod cunctata diu taurum sua vacca reliquit, §3.5.42Frigidus in viduo destituere toro. §3.5.43Livor et adverso maculae sub pectore nigrae §3.5.44Pectus adulterii labe carere negant. '
'It was night, and sleep closed my weary eyes;\n such visions terrified my mind:\n At the foot of a sunny hill, a very dense grove of holm-oak\n was standing, and many a bird lay hidden in the branches.\n A very green clearing lay below the grassy meadow,\n wet with droplets of gently sounding water.\n I myself was avoiding the heat under the leafy branches —\n but yet, even under the leafy branches, there was heat —\n behold! seeking the grass mixed with various flowers,\n a white cow stood before my eyes,\n whiter than snows, at that time when they have recently fallen,\n which delay has not yet turned into liquid waters;\n whiter than milk, which still whitens with hissing foam,\n and has just left the sheep, drained of milk.\n A bull was her companion, happily her mate,\n and with his spouse he pressed the tender ground.\n While he lay and slowly chewed the grass he had recalled,\n and fed again on the food he had eaten before,\n he seemed, as sleep took away his strength to bear it,\n to have laid down his horned head upon the ground.\n Hither a crow, having glided down through the air on light wings,\n came and sat chattering on the green ground,\n and thrice with her impudent beak she pecked the breast of the snowy cow,\n and snatched away the white tufts with her mouth.\n She, having hesitated long, left the place and the bull —\n but there was a black bruise on the cow's breast;\n and when she saw bulls cropping the pasture far away —\n bulls were cropping the joyful pasture far away —\n she hurried thither and mingled with those herds,\n and sought the soil of more fertile grass.\n "Come, tell me, whoever you are, interpreter of the nightly vision,\n what those sights bring, if they hold any truth."\n Thus I spoke; thus the interpreter of the nightly vision said,\n weighing each of my words in his mind:\n "The heat which you wished to avoid under the moving leaves,\n but were avoiding poorly, was the heat of love.\n The cow is your girl — that color is fitting for a girl;\n you were the man, and the bull as the mate to the cow.\n That the crow was pecking her breast with her sharp beak\n meant that an old bawd was stirring your mistress's mind.\n That her cow left the bull after hesitating long\n means you will be abandoned cold in a widowed bed.\n The bruise and the black spots under her facing breast\n deny that her breast is free from the stain of adultery."\n The interpreter had spoken.