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Time and again, as it has always done, the hedge there, leading from your neighbour's land, will have its willow-blossom rifled by Hyblaean bees and coax you with a gentle humming through the gates of sleep. On the other side, at the foot of the high rock, you will have the vine-dresser singing to the breezes, while all the time your dear full-throated pigeons will be heard, and the turtledove high in the elm will never bring her cooing to an end.
Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), The Dispossed, from the Pastoral Poems (The Eclogues), translated by E.V. Rieu, Penguin Classics, 1949, p. 23.
PLACE: Northern Italy (see also card no. 542)
TIME: During Virgil's lifetime, ca. 49 B.C.
CIRCUMSTANCE: The gentle sounds of bees, vine-dressers, turtledoves, and pigeons are suggested as exemplifying the most idyllic restfulness.
Yet I am wandering in the paths that you have trod, under the burning sun, while the orchards echo to the harsh cicadas' notes and mine.
Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, from the Pastoral Poems (The Eclogues), translated by E.V. Rieu, Penguin Classics, 1949, p. 27.
PLACE: Northern Italy (see also card no.542)
TIME: During Virgil's lifetime, ca. 49 B.C.
CIRCUMSTANCE: The poet's self-pity at his unfulfilled love is accompanied by the sounds of cicadas as harsh as his own complaints.
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