Saturday commute xxviii: the farm vehicle

fortunatos nimium,
sua si bona norint
agricolas

Of Professor Highet's famous poets in a land-scape - and in truth, probably among all poets, although thankfully that is unnecessary to say - Virgil is the dearest to me, and most constantly in his Georgics. I live on a farm, and I derive the greater part of my living from farming; but I am not a farmer, except of other people's minds. This is the poet who has done the same with me; has shown me what that means, and that this is farming.


fortunate farmers, if
only they knew how lucky they are








Virgil
Georgics
37-30 BC


David Ferry, translation
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005©


Janet Lembke, translation
Yale University Press, 2005©


Kimberly Johnson, translation
Penguin Classics, 2009©


Gilbert Highet,
Poets in a Landscape
op. cit.


Photo Bruce Weber