the georgics-第5章
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Thus far the tilth of fields and stars of heaven;
Now will I sing thee; Bacchus; and; with thee;
The forest's young plantations and the fruit
Of slow…maturing olive。 Hither haste;
O Father of the wine…press; all things here
Teem with the bounties of thy hand; for thee
With viny autumn laden blooms the field;
And foams the vintage high with brimming vats;
Hither; O Father of the wine…press; come;
And stripped of buskin stain thy bared limbs
In the new must with me。
First; nature's law
For generating trees is manifold;
For some of their own force spontaneous spring;
No hand of man compelling; and possess
The plains and river…windings far and wide;
As pliant osier and the bending broom;
Poplar; and willows in wan companies
With green leaf glimmering gray; and some there be
From chance…dropped seed that rear them; as the tall
Chestnuts; and; mightiest of the branching wood;
Jove's Aesculus; and oaks; oracular
Deemed by the Greeks of old。 With some sprouts forth
A forest of dense suckers from the root;
As elms and cherries; so; too; a pigmy plant;
Beneath its mother's mighty shade upshoots
The bay…tree of Parnassus。 Such the modes
Nature imparted first; hence all the race
Of forest…trees and shrubs and sacred groves
Springs into verdure。
Other means there are;
Which use by method for itself acquired。
One; sliving suckers from the tender frame
Of the tree…mother; plants them in the trench;
One buries the bare stumps within his field;
Truncheons cleft four…wise; or sharp…pointed stakes;
Some forest…trees the layer's bent arch await;
And slips yet quick within the parent…soil;
No root need others; nor doth the pruner's hand
Shrink to restore the topmost shoot to earth
That gave it being。 Nay; marvellous to tell;
Lopped of its limbs; the olive; a mere stock;
Still thrusts its root out from the sapless wood;
And oft the branches of one kind we see
Change to another's with no loss to rue;
Pear…tree transformed the ingrafted apple yield;
And stony cornels on the plum…tree blush。
Come then; and learn what tilth to each belongs
According to their kinds; ye husbandmen;
And tame with culture the wild fruits; lest earth
Lie idle。 O blithe to make all Ismarus
One forest of the wine…god; and to clothe
With olives huge Tabernus! And be thou
At hand; and with me ply the voyage of toil
I am bound on; O my glory; O thou that art
Justly the chiefest portion of my fame;
Maecenas; and on this wide ocean launched
Spread sail like wings to waft thee。 Not that I
With my poor verse would comprehend the whole;
Nay; though a hundred tongues; a hundred mouths
Were mine; a voice of iron; be thou at hand;
Skirt but the nearer coast…line; see the shore
Is in our grasp; not now with feigned song
Through winding bouts and tedious preludings
Shall I detain thee。
Those that lift their head
Into the realms of light spontaneously;
Fruitless indeed; but blithe and strenuous spring;
Since Nature lurks within the soil。 And yet
Even these; should one engraft them; or transplant
To well…drilled trenches; will anon put of
Their woodland temper; and; by frequent tilth;
To whatso craft thou summon them; make speed
To follow。 So likewise will the barren shaft
That from the stock…root issueth; if it be
Set out with clear space amid open fields:
Now the tree…mother's towering leaves and boughs
Darken; despoil of increase as it grows;
And blast it in the bearing。 Lastly; that
Which from shed seed ariseth; upward wins
But slowly; yielding promise of its shade
To late…born generations; apples wane
Forgetful of their former juice; the grape
Bears sorry clusters; for the birds a prey。
Soothly on all must toil be spent; and all
Trained to the trench and at great cost subdued。
But reared from truncheons olives answer best;
As vines from layers; and from the solid wood
The Paphian myrtles; while from suckers spring
Both hardy hazels and huge ash; the tree
That rims with shade the brows of Hercules;
And acorns dear to the Chaonian sire:
So springs the towering palm too; and the fir
Destined to spy the dangers of the deep。
But the rough arbutus with walnut…fruit
Is grafted; so have barren planes ere now
Stout apples borne; with chestnut…flower the beech;
The mountain…ash with pear…bloom whitened o'er;
And swine crunched acorns 'neath the boughs of elms。
Nor is the method of inserting eyes
And grafting one: for where the buds push forth
Amidst the bark; and burst the membranes thin;
Even on the knot a narrow rift is made;
Wherein from some strange tree a germ they pen;
And to the moist rind bid it cleave and grow。
Or; otherwise; in knotless trunks is hewn
A breach; and deep into the solid grain
A path with wedges cloven; then fruitful slips
Are set herein; and… no long time… behold!
To heaven upshot with teeming boughs; the tree
Strange leaves admires and fruitage not its own。
Nor of one kind alone are sturdy elms;
Willow and lotus; nor the cypress…trees
Of Ida; nor of self…same fashion spring
Fat olives; orchades; and radii
And bitter…berried pausians; no; nor yet
Apples and the forests of Alcinous;
Nor from like cuttings are Crustumian pears
And Syrian; and the heavy hand…fillers。
Not the same vintage from our trees hangs down;
Which Lesbos from Methymna's tendril plucks。
Vines Thasian are there; Mareotids white;
These apt for richer soils; for lighter those:
Psithian for raisin…wine more useful; thin
Lageos; that one day will try the feet
And tie the tongue: purples and early…ripes;
And how; O Rhaetian; shall I hymn thy praise?
Yet cope not therefore with Falernian bins。
Vines Aminaean too; best…bodied wine;
To which the Tmolian bows him; ay; and king
Phanaeus too; and; lesser of that name;
Argitis; wherewith not a grape can vie
For gush of wine…juice or for length of years。
Nor thee must I pass over; vine of Rhodes;
Welcomed by gods and at the second board;
Nor thee; Bumastus; with plump clusters swollen。
But lo! how many kinds; and what their names;
There is no telling; nor doth it boot to tell;
Who lists to know it; he too would list to learn
How many sand…grains are by Zephyr tossed
On Libya's plain; or wot; when Eurus falls
With fury on the ships; how many waves
Come rolling shoreward from the Ionian sea。
Not that all soils can all things bear alike。
Willows by water…courses have their birth;
Alders in miry fens; on rocky heights
The barren mountain…ashes; on the shore
Myrtles throng gayest; Bacchus; lastly; loves
The bare hillside; and yews the north wind's chill。
Mark too the earth by outland tillers tamed;
And Eastern homes of Arabs; and tattooed
Geloni; to all trees their native lands
Allotted are; no clime but India bears
Black ebony; the branch of frankincense
Is Saba's sons' alone; why tell to thee
Of balsams oozing from the perfumed wood;
Or berries of acanthus ever green?
Of Aethiop forests hoar with downy wool;
Or how the Seres comb from off the leaves
Their silky fleece? Of groves which India bears;
Ocean's near neighbour; earth's remotest nook;
Where not an arrow…shot can cleave the air
Above their tree…tops? yet no laggards they;
When girded with the quiver! Media yields
The bitter juices and slow…lingering taste
Of the blest citron…fruit; than which no aid
Comes timelier; when fierce step…dames drug the cup
With simples mixed and spells of baneful power;
To drive the deadly poison from the limbs。
Large the tree's self in semblance like a bay;
And; showered