TITYRUS. 
O Meliboeus, a god for us this leisure created,
For he will be unto me a god forever; his altar
Oftentimes shall imbue a tender lamb from our sheepfolds. 
He, my heifers to wander at large, and myself, as thou seest,
On my rustic reed to play what I will, hath permitted.

MELIBOEUS. 
Truly I envy not, I marvel rather; on all sides
In all the fields is such trouble.  Behold, my goats I am driving,
Heartsick, further away; this one scarce, Tityrus, lead I;
For having here yeaned twins just now among the dense hazels,
Hope of the flock, ah me! on the naked flint she hath left them. 
Often this evil to me, if my mind had not been insensate,
Oak-trees stricken by heaven predicted, as now I remember;
Often the sinister crow from the hollow ilex predicted,
Nevertheless, who this god may be, O Tityrus, tell me.

TITYRUS. 
O Meliboeus, the city that they call Rome, I imagined,
Foolish I! to be like this of ours, where often we shepherds
Wonted are to drive down of our ewes the delicate offspring. 
Thus whelps like unto dogs had I known, and kids to their mothers,
Thus to compare great things with small had I been accustomed. 
But this among other cities its head as far hath exalted
As the cypresses do among the lissome viburnums.

MELIBOEUS. 
And what so great occasion of seeing Rome hath possessed thee?

TITYRUS. 
Liberty, which, though late, looked upon me in my inertness,
After the time when my beard fell whiter front me in shaving,—­
Yet she looked upon me, and came to me after a long while,
Since Amaryllis possesses and Galatea hath left me. 
For I will even confess that while Galatea possessed me
Neither care of my flock nor hope of liberty was there. 
Though from my wattled folds there went forth many a victim,
And the unctuous cheese was pressed for the city ungrateful,
Never did my right hand return home heavy with money.

MELIBOEUS. 
I have wondered why sad thou invokedst the gods, Amaryllis,
And for whom thou didst suffer the apples to hang on the branches! 
Tityrus hence was absent!  Thee, Tityrus, even the pine-trees,
Thee, the very fountains, the very copses were calling.

TITYRUS. 
What could I do?  No power had I to escape from my bondage,
Nor had I power elsewhere to recognize gods so propitious. 
Here I beheld that youth, to whom each year, Meliboeus,
During twice six days ascends the smoke of our altars. 
Here first gave he response to me soliciting favor: 
“Feed as before your heifers, ye boys, and yoke up your bullocks.”

MELIBOEUS. 
Fortunate old man!  So then thy fields will be left thee,
And large enough for thee, though naked stone and the marish
All thy pasture-lands with the dreggy rush may encompass. 
No unaccustomed food thy gravid ewes shall endanger,
Nor of the neighboring flock the dire contagion inject