TO THE AIRS.
Gentle airs, that on light wing
Through the high woods softly sing
In low murmurs! these sweet wreaths,
Violets, blue-bells, woodbines, heaths,
Rustic Idmon loves to throw
To you thus in handfuls, so
Temper you the heat of day,
And the thin chaff blow away,
When at noon his van again
Winnows out the golden grain.
THYRSIDIS VOTA VENERI.
Quòd tulit optata tandem de Leucade Thyrsis
Fructum aliquem, has violas dat tibi, sancta Venus!
Post sepem hanc sensim obrepens, tria basia sumsi:
Nil ultra potui, nam propè mater erat.
Nunc violas; sed plena feram si vota, dicabo
Inscriptam hôc myrtum carmine, Diva, tibi:
'Hanc Veneri myrtum Thyrsis quòd amore potitus
Dedicat, atque unà seque suosque greges.'
THYRSIS' VOW TO VENUS.
These violets, holy Power, to thee
With grateful mind does Thyrsis cast,
For that from long-loved Leuca, he
Has gained some fruit of love at last.
Creeping behind the lilach trees,
I snatched three kisses, sweet and choice;
I could no more, for in the breeze
We surely heard her mother's voice.
Blue violets now; but, should'st thou grant
All my heart beats for, Power Divine,
Engraved with this rude rhyme, a plant
Of deathless myrtle shall be thine.
'This myrtle, faithful to his vow,
Thyrsis to Venus gives, and more,
Himself and flocks, as tasting now
Love's gracious sweets, but wished before.'
THYRSIDIS VOTA ET QUERCUI ET SYLVÆ.
Et quercum, et silvam hanc ante omnia Thyrsis amabit,
Et certo feret his annua vota die:
Dum potuit memor esse, quod hâc primum ille sub umbrâ
Ultima de carâ Leucade vota tulit.
THYRSIS TO THE OAK AND GROVE.
This green oak and sapling grove
Before all will Thyrsis love,
And to them, each May-day, rare
Tributes of sweet incense bear,
Long as memory lives to say,
'Twas upon that happy day
He first gained, beneath their boughs,
His dear Leuca's marriage vows.