Much of the Eastern and Midwestern US has been buried in snow for the past week, giving me plenty of time to catch up with my reading. So I stumbled across this lovely passage from Vergil's Georgics (I.297-310), written at a time when the simpler country life saw the cold season as a natural break in the cycle of work--at least for a little while. The vocab is a little obscure, but several points illustrate well Vergil's gift for natural description.
At rubicunda Ceres medio succiditur aestu,
et medio tostas aestu terit area fruges.
nudus ara, sere nudus. Hiems ignava colono:
Frigoribus parto agricolae plerumque fruuntur
mutuaque inter se laeti convivia curant.
Invitat genialis hiems curasque resolvit,
Ceu pressae cum iam portum tetigere carinae,
puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas.
Sed tamen et quernas glandes tum stringere tempus
et lauri bacas oleamque cruentaque myrta,
tum gruibus pedicas et retia ponere cervis
auritosque sequi lepores, tum figere dammas
stuppea torquentem Balearis verbera fundae,
cum nix alta iacet, glaciem cum flumina trudunt.
rubicunda Ceres - Ceres was the Greek goddess of the harvest; here she personifies the grain itself, which has grown ruber as it ripens.
aestus, -us - "heat" (i.e. of summer)
tostas...terit area fruges - describes the process of threshing grain. The area itself does not literally terit, but the hands that work there do.
ara and sere are imperatives (Vergil is addressing his poem to a farmer); the fact that a farmer can do these things nudus reminds us of the aestus.
colonus, -i - farmer, husbandman
frigoribus - sc. temporibus
partum, -i - savings (i.e. something partus from the land)
Ceu - "just as" (like ut)
pressae...carinae - "loaded keels" (of ships)
tetigere = tetigerunt; a similar poetic ending is seen in the next line's imposuere.
coronas - i.e. crowns of flowers; garland.
quernas glandes - "oaken acorns"
stringere tempus - take as "it is time to strip..."; the infinitives ponere, sequi and figere in later tum clauses should also be construed with tempus (est)
baca, -ae - "berry"
grus, -uis - the crane; pedica, -ae - a snare
auritos - from aures, an apt description of lepores.
damma, -ae - a doe (a deer, a female deer)
stuppea...fundae - take torquentem to modify an assumed agricolam: "twirling the hempen lashes of a Balearic sling". The inhabitants of the Balearic Islands were famous in the ancient world for their prowess with slings.
trudo, -ere - to push, drive
Linked Latin text from Perseus
Dryden's translation - start at "But ruddy Ceres".
Habete ludum
At rubicunda Ceres medio succiditur aestu,
et medio tostas aestu terit area fruges.
nudus ara, sere nudus. Hiems ignava colono:
Frigoribus parto agricolae plerumque fruuntur
mutuaque inter se laeti convivia curant.
Invitat genialis hiems curasque resolvit,
Ceu pressae cum iam portum tetigere carinae,
puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas.
Sed tamen et quernas glandes tum stringere tempus
et lauri bacas oleamque cruentaque myrta,
tum gruibus pedicas et retia ponere cervis
auritosque sequi lepores, tum figere dammas
stuppea torquentem Balearis verbera fundae,
cum nix alta iacet, glaciem cum flumina trudunt.
rubicunda Ceres - Ceres was the Greek goddess of the harvest; here she personifies the grain itself, which has grown ruber as it ripens.
aestus, -us - "heat" (i.e. of summer)
tostas...terit area fruges - describes the process of threshing grain. The area itself does not literally terit, but the hands that work there do.
ara and sere are imperatives (Vergil is addressing his poem to a farmer); the fact that a farmer can do these things nudus reminds us of the aestus.
colonus, -i - farmer, husbandman
frigoribus - sc. temporibus
partum, -i - savings (i.e. something partus from the land)
Ceu - "just as" (like ut)
pressae...carinae - "loaded keels" (of ships)
tetigere = tetigerunt; a similar poetic ending is seen in the next line's imposuere.
coronas - i.e. crowns of flowers; garland.
quernas glandes - "oaken acorns"
stringere tempus - take as "it is time to strip..."; the infinitives ponere, sequi and figere in later tum clauses should also be construed with tempus (est)
baca, -ae - "berry"
grus, -uis - the crane; pedica, -ae - a snare
auritos - from aures, an apt description of lepores.
damma, -ae - a doe (a deer, a female deer)
stuppea...fundae - take torquentem to modify an assumed agricolam: "twirling the hempen lashes of a Balearic sling". The inhabitants of the Balearic Islands were famous in the ancient world for their prowess with slings.
trudo, -ere - to push, drive
Linked Latin text from Perseus
Dryden's translation - start at "But ruddy Ceres".
Habete ludum