Georgics

Question 1

lla quidem, dum te fugeret per flumina praeceps,
immanem ante pedes hydrum moritura puella
servantem ripas alta non vidit in herba.
At chorus aequalis Dryadum clamore supremos 460
implerunt montes; flerunt Rhodopeiae arces
altaque Pangaea et Rhesi mavortia tellus
atque Getae atque Hebrus et Actias Orithyia.

Answer 1

Indeed she, while fleeing headlong from you along the river, the doomed/about to die girl did not see the huge snake guarding the banks in the deep grass before her feet.
But the band of her Dryad playmates filled the mountain tops with their cries; the towers of Rhodope wept
and the Pangaean heights and the martial lands of Rhesus and the Getae and Hebrus and Athenian Orithyia.

Question 2

Ipse cava solans aegrum testudine amorem
te, dulcis coniunx, te solo in litore secum, 465
te veniente die, te decedente canebat.
Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis,
et caligantem nigra formidine lucum
ingressus manesque adiit regemque tremendum
nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda. 470

Answer 2

But he himself consoling his love-sickness with his hollow tortoise shell lyre, was singing of you, sweet wife, was singing of you to himself on the lonely shore,
of you in the coming day, of you as the day left.
he even went in to the mouth of Taenarus, the high entrances of Pluto and the grove that is gloomy with black terror and went to the spirits of the underworld and its fearsome king and hearts no human prayers can make soft.

Question 3

Quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima Leti
tartara caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues
Eumenides, tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora
atque Ixionii vento rota constitit orbis.

Answer 3

Still more the house of death itself and the deepest Underworld were spellbound and the Furies with livid snakes intertwined with their hair, Cerberus and his triple jaw were held agape and Ixion’s wheel came to a stop.

Question 3

At cantu commotae Erebi de sedibus imis
umbrae ibant tenues simulacraque luce carentum,
quam multa in foliis avium se milia condunt
vesper ubi aut hibernus agit de montibus imber,
matres atque viri defunctaque corpora vita 475
magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,
mpositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum,
quos circum limus niger et deformis harundo
Cocyti tardaque palus inamabilis unda
alligat et noviens Styx interfusa coercet. 480

Answer 3

but stirred by his song up from the lowest realms of Erebus came the insignificant shades, the phantoms deprived of light, as many as the thousands of birds who shelter themselves in. the leaves when evening or wintery shower drive them from the mountains,
mothers and men and bodies of great -spirited heroes
their lives now finished, boys and girls unwed,
and young men placed on the pyres before their fathers’ eyes, around them are the black filth and missshapen reeds of Cocytus, the hateful bog binding them with its sluggish wave and Styx confining them in a circle nine times.

Question 4

Iamque pedem referens casus evaserat omnes; 485
redditaque Eurydice superas veniebat ad auras,
pone sequens, namque hanc dederat Proserpina legem,
cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem,
ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere manes.

Answer 4

And now as he retraced his steps, he avoided all mischance, and the regained Eurydice was coming to the upper airsw, following behind for that was the law Prosperina gave, when a sudden frenzy took the incautious lover, surely a frenzy worthy to forgive, if the spirits knew to forgive.

Question 5

illa, Quis et me, inquit, miseram et te perdidit, Orpheu,
quis tantus furor? En iterum crudelia retro 495
Fata vocant, conditque natantia lumina somnus.
Iamque vale: feror ingenti circumdata nocte
invalidasque tibi tendens, heu non tua, palmas!

Answer 5

She said ‘what madness, what dreadful madness has brought disaster upon me and you, Orpheus? see again the cruel Fates call me back, and sleep seals my swimming eyes. and now farewell: I am borne away surrounded in a vast night, and stretching towards you strengthless hands, alas not yours!

Question 6

Restitit Eurydicenque suam iam luce sub ipsa 490
immemor heu! victusque animi respexit. Ibi omnis
effusus labor atque immitis rupta tyranni
foedera, terque fragor stagnis auditus Avernis.

Answer 6

He stopped, just on the borders of light, unmindful, alas! yielding in his purpose and looked back on his Eurydice, then all his labour was poured out and tge pact of the ruthless tyrant was broken, and thrice a crashing of thudner was heard over the pools of avernus

Question 7

ixit et ex oculis subito, ceu fumus in auras
commixtus tenues, fugit diversa, neque illum, 500
prensantem nequiquam umbras et multa volentem
dicere, praeterea vidit, nec portitor Orci
amplius obiectam passus transire paludem.

Answer 7

She spoke and at once from before his eyes she fled afar
like smoke mingling with thin air, and did not see him again, as he vainly clutched at the shadows and with many things left unsaid, nor did the ferryman of Orcus permit him again to pass the barrier of the marsh.

Question 8

Quid faceret? Quo se rapta bis coniuge ferret?
Quo fletu Manis, quae numina voce moveret? 505
Illa quidem Stygia nabat iam frigida cymba.

Answer 8

What could he do? where to turn, twice robbed of his wife? With what tears move hell, to what deities to address his voice/prayers? She indeed, already death-cold, was floating in the Stygian barge.

Question 9

Septem illum totos perhibent ex ordine menses
rupe sub aëria deserti ad Strymonis undam
flesse sibi et gelidis haec evolvisse sub antris
mulcentem tigres et agentem carmine quercus; 510
qualis populea maerens philomela sub umbra
amissos queritur fetus, quos durus arator
observans nido implumes detraxit; at illa
flet noctem ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
integrat et maestis late loca questibus implet. 515

Answer 9

They say that for seven whole months in succession he wept for himself beneath a high cliff beside the wave of lonely Styrmon and in the shade of cool caves he unfolds this his tale charming tigers and drawing oak trees with his song; just as the nightingale mourning underneath a popular tree mourns the loss of her young ones, when a heartless ploughman watching their resting place has plucked them unfledged from their nest; the mother weeps all night long as perched on a branch she repeats her miserable song and fills the wide place with her plantive mourning.