Since then this mighty orb lies open so wide upon all sides,
Has this region been found only my prison to be?
TRISTIA, Book III., Elegy XII.
Now the zephyrs diminish the cold, and the year being ended,
Winter Maeotian seems longer than ever before;
And the Ram that bore unsafely the burden of Helle,
Now makes the hours of the day equal with those of the night.
Now the boys and the laughing girls the violet gather,
Which the fields bring forth, nobody sowing the seed.
Now the meadows are blooming with flowers of various colors,
And with untaught throats carol the garrulous birds.
Now the swallow, to shun the crime of her merciless mother,
Under the rafters builds cradles and dear little homes;
And the blade that lay hid, covered up in the furrows of Ceres,
Now from the tepid ground raises its delicate head.
Where there is ever a vine, the bud shoots forth from the tendrils,
But from the Getic shore distant afar is the vine!