The respite

. and when I thought
of singing of kings
and battles, the god
Apollo tweaked my ear 
and said to me, 'A 
shepherd should feed 
fat sheep and sing a 
slender song.'

    All of the songs Apollo sang alongside

    The listening river Eurotas who, blessed with the music,

    Commanded that his laurels learn them by heart,

    All these Silenus sang; the echoing valleys

    Echoed them up to the stars, till the Evening Star

    Said it was time for the flocks to come back in,

    Time to be counted, and time for him to set out

    Over a sky reluctant to yield the day.

Virgil

David Ferry

  translation

The Eclogues of Virgil

  Eclogue VI

  Tityrus

  i    fragment

  vi  complete

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999©

ii  Tim Schuhmacher