Greek Texts & Translations

MENALCAS
8.33 Ye woods and waters, wondrous race, lith and listen of your grace;
If e’er my son was your delight feed my lambs with all your might;
And if Daphnis wend this way, make his calves as fat as they.

DAPHNIS
8.37 Ye darling wells and meadows dear, sweets o’ the earth, come lend an ear;
If like the nightingales I sing, give my cows good pasturing;
And if Menalcas e’er you see, fill his block and make him glee.

MENALCAS
8.45 Where sweet Milon trips the leas there’s fuller hives and loftier trees;
Where’er those pretty footings fall goats and sheep come twinners all;
If otherwhere those feet be gone, pasture’s lean and shepherd lone.

DAPHNIS
8.41 Where sweet Naïs comes a-straying there the green meads go a-maying;
Where’er her pathway lies along, there’s springing teats and growing young;
If otherwhere her gate be gone, cows are dry and herd fordone.

MENALCAS
8.49 Buck-goat, husband of the she’s, hie to th’ wood’s infinities –
Nay, snubbies, ^note hither to the spring; this errand’s not for your running; –
Go buck, and “Fairest Milon” say, “a god kept seals ^note once on a day.”

DAPHNIS

MENALCAS
8.53 I would not Pelops’ tilth untold nor all Croesus’ coffered gold,
Nor yet t’ outfoot the storm-wind’s breath, so I may sit this rock beneath,
Pretty pasture-mate, wi’ thee, and gaze on the Sicilian sea.

DAPHNIS
8.57 Wood doth fear the tempest’s ire, water summer’s drouthy fire,
Beasts the net and birds the snare. Man the love of maiden fair;
Not I alone lie under ban; Zeus himself’s a woman’s man. ^note

8.61 So far went the lads’ songs by course. Now ‘twas the envoy, and Menalcas thus began:

MENALCAS
8.63 Spare, good Wolf, the goats you see, spare them dam and kid for me;
If flock is great and flockman small, is’t reason you should wrong us all?
Come, White-tail, why so sound asleep? Good dogs wake when boys tend sheep.
Fear not, ewes, your fill to eat; for when the new blade sprouteth sweet,
Then ye shall no losers be; to’t, and fed you every she,
Feed till every udder teem store for lambs and store for cream.

8.71 Then Daphnis, for his envoy, lifted up his tuneful voice, singing –

DAPHNIS
8.72 Yestermorn a long-browed ^note maid, spying from a rocky shade
Neat and neatherd passing by, cries “What a pretty boy am I!”
Did pretty boy the jape repay: Nay, bent his head and went his way.
Sweet to hear and sweet to smell, god wot I love a heifer well,
And sweet alsó ‘neath summer sky to sit where brooks go babbling by;
But ‘tis berry and bush, ^note ‘tis fruit and tree, ‘tis calf and cow, wi’ my kine and me.

8.81 So sang those two lads, and this is what the goatherd said of their songs: “You, good Daphnis, have a sweet and delightful voice. Your singing is to the ear as honey to the lip. Here’s the pipe; take it; your song has fairly won it you. And if you are willing to teach me how to sing while I share pasture with you, you shall have the little she-goat yonder to your school-money, and I warrant you she’ll fill your pail up the brim and further.”

8.88 At that the lad was transported, and capered and clapped hands for joy of his victory; so capers a fawn at the sight of his dam. At that, too, the other’s fire was utterly extinct, and his heart turned upside-down for grief; so mourns a maiden that is forced against her will.

8.92 From that day forth Daphnis had the pre-eminence of the shepherds, insomuch that he was scarce come to man’s estate ere he had to wife that Naïs ^note of whom he sang.