Let other men gather bright gold to themselves
and own many acres of well-ploughed soil,
let endless worry trouble them, with enemies nearby,
and the peals of the war-trumpets driving away sleep:
What makes crops smile,
beneath what star it befits to turn the soil, Maecenas,
and to train the vines to the elm-trees;
what is the management of cattle,
what the system for keeping a herd,
what skill is required for the thrifty bees,
henceforth I will take upon me to sing.
I dreamed and lo! the great Cyprian stood before me.
Her fair hand did lead, with head hanging, the little silly Love,
and she said to me: “Pray you, sweet Shepherd,
take and teach me this child to sing and play,”
and so was gone.
Drink, comrades, drink; give loose to mirth!
With joyous footstep beat the earth,
And spread before the War-God’s shrine
The Salian feast1, the sacrificial wine.
Cynthia was the first. She caught me with her eyes, a fool
who had never before been touched by desires.
I really hung my head in shame
when Love pressed down on it with his feet.
He taught me to hate chaste girls!
He was cruel when he told me to live without plan.
It's already been a whole year that the frenzy hasn't stopped.
Even now, the gods are against me.
But, now again to weave the tale begun,
All nature, then, as self-sustained, consists
Of twain of things: of bodies and of void
In which they're set, and where they're moved around.