Obfuit; aut illum surgentem vallibus imis
Aëriæ fugere grues; aut bucula coelum
Suspiciens patulis captavit naribus auras;
Aut arguta lacus circumvolitavit hirundo;
Et veterem in limo ranæ cecinere querelam.
Sæpius et tectis penetralibus extulit ova
Angustum formica terens iter; et bibit ingens
Arcus; et e pastu decedens agmine magno
Corvorum increpuit densis exercitus alis.
Jam varias pelagi volucres, et quae Asia circum
Dulcibus in stagnis rimantur prata Caystri,
Certatim largos humeris infundere rores.
Nunc caput objectare fretis, nunc currere in undas.
Et studio incassum videas gestire lavandi.
Tum cornix plena pluviam vocat improba voce,
Et sola in sicca secum spatiatur arena.’’
Georgica I. 373–389.
Thus rendered by Dr. Maginn.
- Those who in weather signs are wise,
Can guard against approaching rain,
They note, as it begins to rise
From vallies low, how upward flies
In airy tour the soaring crane.
The heifer, looking to the sky,
Snuffs the moist air with nostril wide,
The swallow, with its shrilly cry,
Soars round and round the lake's still side;
The frog among the marshes swells
His long-known note of croaking song.
The ants from out their inmost cells
Wearing their narrow path along,
Draw forth their eggs in busier march;—
Then deeper drinks the heavenly arch;
Then as the rooks their food forsake,
In crowding hosts their flight to take,
More clamorous is the cry they make:—
And all the birds that love the deep,
Or those who, by the Asian plain.
Near sweet Cäyster's waters sweep
In search of food, will then in vain
All in the waters fondly lave,
And dip their heads beneath the flood;
Or rapidly across the wave
In sportive rivalry will scud.
And loud the boding raven cries,
As if she would the rains demand.
And stalks along in solemn wise,
All lonely on the thirsty sand.