opposing fields: let brooks from all sides rush in with deep-cleaving waters, nor let them suffer our lands to be enslaved to vagabonds!" 71 This sweeter strain, O Battarus, I remember thou didst recall: "Let marshes from parched ground suddenly spring forth, and, where once we gathered corn-ears, let this man reap rushes; let the croaking frog sour the chirping cricket's hollow lairs! 75 This sadder strain my pipe gives forth in turn : "From high mountains let rains rush streaming down, and with outspread flood widely possess the plains; then with menace of evil to their lords let them leave stagnant pools! When the wave, gliding down, reaches my fields, then let the stranger ploughman fish within my bounds-the stranger, who has ever waxed rich through citizens condemned!" 82 O ye fields accursed, ye that the praetors have condemned! and thou, O Discord, ever the foe of righteous citizens! I, a needy exile, though uncondemned, have left my fields, that a soldier may receive the wages of deadly war. From this mound will I look my last upon my lands; from this will I pass to the woods; soon will the hills, soon will the mountains impede my view, but the plains will be able to hear: "Sweet lands, farewell! and thou, Lydia, farewell, sweeter than they, and ye, pure fountains, and ye fields of happy name!" 91 Ah! more slowly come down from the hill, ye poor she-goats: never again shall ye browse on the soft pastures that ye know so well; and do thou, sire of the flock, stay behind! Lo, upon the plains, my first and last possession, I gaze: long must I be reft of them! “Rura valete iterum, tuque optima Lydia salve, 95 sive eris et si non, mecum morieris utrumque.” Extremum carmen revocemus, Battare, avena: “Dulcia amara prius fient et mollia dura, candida nigra oculi cernent et dextera laeva, migrabunt casus aliena in corpora rerum, quam tua de nostris emigret cura medullis. quamvis ignis eris, quamvis aqua, semper amabo: gaudia semper enim tua me meminisse licebit." 98 fient It.: fiant. 99 cernent It.: cernant ML. 102 quamvis nix aderit ub (Ellis). 100 "Once more, ye fields, farewell, and fare thee well, good Lydia; whether thou wilt live, or not, in either case thou wilt die with me!" 97 Our last strain, O Battarus, let us recall on the reed! "Sweet shall become bitter, and soft hard; eyes shall see white as black, and right as left; atoms of things shall pass into bodies of other kinds, ere regard for thee pass from my heart.1 Though fire, though water thou shalt be, ever will I love thee, for ever will it be permitted to think upon thy joys!" 1 By casus rerum he means the dissolution of things; hence the atoms of a body, which, when reunited, form objects of a different kind. This is therefore a reference to the atomic theory of the Epicureans. LYDIA* INVIDEO Vobis, agri formosaque prata, O fortunati nimium multumque beati, 3 est vobis] in vobis Heinsius: ex vobis Ellis. 12 dulci H: dulcia. 10 15 13 veneris H: venerem . stipendia SL: spumantia M: dispendia or stipantia It. 14 declinarit. 15 narrabis. 18 sistite ub: currite commonly read: lapsantes gurgite Ellis. *The MSS. give the Lydia in sequence to the Dirae without separate title. Jacobs first separated the two. LYDIA' I ENVY you, ye fields and lovely meads, for this more lovely that my lovely girl is yours: in silence she sighs for my love. You it is she now sees, with you my Lydia plays, to you she now makes speech, on you she now smiles with those dear eyes, and cons my songs with voice subdued, and sings the while those strains she was wont to sing into my ear. 8 I envy you, ye fields; ye will learn to love. O fields, too happy, yea, much blest, in which she will set her snowy footsteps, or with rosy fingers will pluck the green grape (for not yet swells the little vine with sweet juice), or amid varied flowers, tribute to Venus, she will lay down her limbs and crush the tender grass, and apart by herself will stealthily recount the tale of my love. The woods will rejoice, the soft meadows and cool springs will rejoice, and the birds will make a silence. The gliding brooks will pause (stay, ye waters!) till my heart sets forth its sweet complaints. 1 This sentimental lament is independent of the Dirae, but came to be associated with that poem because the nam Lydia" is common to both compositions. |