Absque cibo plures degebam marcida menses, Sed sopor et somnus ieiunia longa tulerunt; Pallida purpureo dum glescunt gramine rura, Garrula mox crepitat rubicundum carmina guttur. 5 Post teneros fetus et prolem gentis adultam Sponte mea fugiens umbrosas quæro latebras; Si vero quisquam pullorum lumina lædat, Affero compertum medicans cataplasma salutis Quærens campestrem proprio de nomine florem.
Sic me formavit naturæ conditor almus: Lustro teres tota spatiosis sæcula ciclis; Latas in gremio portans cum pondere terras Sic maris undantes cumulos et cærula cludo. 5 Nam nihil in rerum natura tam celer esset, Quod pedibus pergat, quod pennis æthera tranet, Accola neu ponti volitans per cærula squamis Nec rota, per girum quam trudit machina limphæ, Currere sic posset, ni septem sidera tricent.
Horrida, curva, capax, patulis fabricata metallis Pendeo nec cœlum tangens terramve profundam, Ignibus ardescens necnon et gurgite fervens; Sic geminas vario patior discrimine pugnas, 5 Dum latices limphæ tolero flammasque feroces.
Drooping, I pass long months away from food,
But by deep slumber I endure the fast;
When the dull countryside bursts into bloom,
Its turf red-sprinkled, then my ruddy throat
5 Trills fluent songs. But later, willingly
I flee the tender young and all my race,
And seek the shady coverts. Should some harm
Befall the young chicks' eyes, my secret lore
I wield to cure them, by a healing salve
10 Made of that flower whose name is likewise mine.
48. SPHERE OF THE HEAVENS
The fostering Creator formed me thus:
Smooth round am I, and move in spacious rings
Through all the universe; my bosom bears
The burden of broad lands, and I hold in
5 The swelling billows of the turquoise sea.
Naught in the scheme of things could move so fast,
Whether it go on foot, or wing the air;
No haunter of the sea, whose scale-clad form
Shoots through the green depths, nor the water-wheel
10 That whirls in rapid circles-none of these
Could equal me in swiftness as I turn,
Did not the seven orbs impede my course.
Ugly, capacious, round, of flattened bronze,
I hang suspended, touching neither heaven
Nor lowly earth. I glow with fires, and seethe
With eddying billows; thus a twofold war
5 Of varying risks I bear, as I endure.
The limpid waters and ferocious flames.
Prorsus Achivorum lingua pariterque Latina Mille vocor viridi folium de cespite natum. Idcirco decies centenum nomen habebo, Cauliculis florens quoniam sic nulla frutescit 5 Herba per innumeros telluris limite sulcos.
Sponte mea nascor fecundo cespite vernans;
Fulgida de croceo flavescunt culmina flore.
Occiduo claudor, sic orto sole patesco:
Unde prudentes posuerunt nomina Græci.
Materia duplici palmis plasmabar apertis.
Interiora mihi candescunt: viscera lino
Seu certe gracili iunco spoliata nitescunt;
Sed nunc exterius flavescunt corpora flore,
5 Quæ flammasque focosque laremque vomentia fundunt, Et crebro lacrima stillant de frontibus udæ.
Sic tamen horrendas noctis repello latebras ;
Reliquias cinerum mox viscera tosta relinquunt.
Sidereis stipor turmis in vertice mundi:
Esseda famoso gesto cognomina vulgo;
In giro volvens iugiter non vergo deorsum,
Cetera ceu properant cælorum lumina ponto.
5 Hac gaza ditor, quoniam sum proximus axi,
Qui Ripheis Scithiæ prælatus montibus errat,
Vergilias numeris æquans in arce polorum;
Pars cuius inferior Stigia Letheaque palude
Fertur et inferni manibus succumbere nigris.
The Greek and Latin tongues both named me thus: The thousand-leaf, that springs from verdant turf; My name thus holds ten hundred in its span.
My stalk bears leaves as does no other plant's 5 In all the unnumbered furrows of the earth.
Born of my own free will, on fertile sod
I flourish. Yellow flowers adorn my head.
At morn I open, close at setting sun,
And hence the clever Greeks devised my name.
52. CANDLE
Of two materials have open palms
Moulded me. Gleaming white am I within—
My vitals are the shining spoil of flax,
Or slender rush; but all my outer parts
5 Are yellow with a color born of flowers;
They vomit forth hot, fiery flames, and melt,
Dripping a rain of tear-drops from my brows;
Thus I dispel the fearful shades of night.
My vitals burn, and naught but ashes leave.
By starry troops encompassed, I am set
Upon the vertex of the world; my name
In common speech is 'wain'. As I revolve
In one continual circle, my swift path
5 I never downward turn, like other stars
That rush from heaven headlong to the sea.
I am enriched by this-that I am near
The axis of the earth, which whirls among
The far Rhiphæan hills of Scythia.
10 In number I am like the Pleiades,
Set in the sky-the sky, whose lower part
Stretches to swampy Styx and Lethe's bank,
Among the black ghosts of the nether world.
LIV. COCUMA DUPLEX
Credere quis poterit tantis spectacula causis
Temperet et fatis rerum contraria fata?
Ecce larem, laticem quoque gesto in viscere ventris,
Nec tamen undantes vincunt incendia limphæ
5 Ignibus aut atris siccantur flumina fontis,
Fœdera sed pacis sunt flammas inter et undas;
Malleus in primo memet formabat et incus.
Alma domus veneror divino munere plena,
Valvas sed nullus reserat nec limina pandit,
Culmina ni fuerint aulis sublata quaternis,
Et licet exterius rutilent de corpore gemmæ,
5 Aurea dum fulvis flavescit bulla metallis,
Sed tamen uberius ditantur viscera crassa
Intus, qua species flagrat pulcherrima Christi:
Candida sanctarum sic floret gloria rerum,
Nec trabis in templo, surgunt nec tecta columnis.
Hospes præruptis habitans in margine ripis
Non sum torpescens, oris sed belliger armis,
Quin potius duro vitam sustento labore
Grossaque prosternens mox ligna securibus uncis;
5 Humidus in fundo, tranat qua piscis, aquoso
Sæpe caput proprium tingens in gurgite mergo.
Vulnera fibrarum necnon et lurida tabo
Membra medens pestemque luemque resolvo necantem;
Libris corrosis et cortice vescor amara.
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