"l'âge emporte tout même la mémoire Souvent, il m'en souvient, lorsque j'étais enfant, je passais de longues journées à chanter : maintenant j'ai oublié tous ces vers" ... (in Méris)

A fantastic translation of Virgil’s poetry - unusual, free, interpretive and contemplative. It’s not a straight translation, so those looking for something following Virgil’s meter and form should look elsewhere. But this interpretative translation adds a whole another dimension, relating the ancient Roman world to modern times.

This book proves I’m not very pastoral.

I decided to take a break from Mishima and relax with a bit of pastoral poetry. The Eclogues were quite beautiful in their evocation of a idealized country life while the Georgics were at times tedious due to their agricultural theme. I found Hesiod's Works and Days that had the same topic much more entertaining due to Hesiod's entreaties to his good for nothing brother which made it humorous at times while the Georgics interspersed agricultural advice with allegory and mythological ruminations of a perhaps darker nature(I'm particularly thinking of the end of book III here).

Much like the Aeneid, I felt the tone of the Georgics to be a bit too affected for my liking. I liked the Eclogues where Virgil is more playful in his content and imagery a lot more.

No it's not the most faithful translation. But it's a fun interpretation and as a hobbyist Classicist, I enjoyed it, especially the Georgics.

I appreciate "the pastoral this and the pastoral that"; Ecologue X where we can accredit the notion "love conquers all" is probably the only thing i'll remember though.

Meh. Eclogue #4 is kind-of interesting given the big discussion in Christendom on whether or not it can be considered a prophecy of Christ, but the rest is not my type of poetry.

Rating: 2-2.5 Stars (Okay).

I read this concurrently w/ 'Less is More' by Jason Hickel, which starts out w/ a (pretty simplistic) synopsis of the history of Capitalism. The central argument though is that the Capitalist system was initially enabled by the artificial creation of scarcity and the violent appropriation of others' wealth. And the author talks about this taking place first during the enclosure movement - which kicked peasants off of land and out of communities that were largely self sustaining, all in the name of progress and increasing the productivity of the land and the peasants. (Howard Zinn makes a similar argument).

Hickel argues that the enclosure movement was the first time in history that people were systematically removed from their livelihoods in this fashion - but of course we know that's not true. The same was happening in Virgil's time and for largely similar reasons. Farmers were removed from public land in Roman Italy by force, first by rich urban elites consolidating their holdings during the Gracchi troubles and then by all of the soldiers who needed to be placated after the civil wars wound down. It's striking to read these two things side by side, and to think that similar socio-economic contexts operated in 50 BCE and 1500 CE.

I know this is a bit trite, but it's really got me thinking about human history as a struggle between a large and dispersed group of people who are living fairly contentedly with their lot and a much smaller group who are trying to take common resources to accrue greater economic/political power for themselves. Soil actually seems like a great representation of that. Farmers working an area for their livelihood have every incentive to treat soil well and keep crops in healthy rotation. It's only when you have a market incentive based on cash crops that you try to suck out as much fertility as possible before moving onto the next plot of land. Capitalism provides both incentive and method for unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. On the other hand, Virgil's writing is a very beautiful demonstration of the knowledge developed and care taken of the land by people who lived on it.

None of these are new ideas. I do wonder though if, as they make their way into mainstream consciousness and the environmental movement, they might allow for a pendulum swing of history back away from concentration of power in the hands of elites and the resultant pillaging of the environment. I still feel like rewilding is a potential philosophical torch to lead the way. But it seems like some ... class consciousness (to borrow a phrase from a movement that didn't work out very well) is required to motivate people shake off the old ways and follow the positive vision rewilding provides.

3 of 5, mostly because of the (free from Gutenberg) translation (James Rhoades (London 1881), blank verse)

La litérature Romaine est probablement à l'origine des genres de la fiction romantique et de la 'high fantasy'. Malgré quelques scènes morbide, et le sujet de l'expulsion et de la pèrte dans certains de ses poèmes, Virgile laisse un sentiment de légèreté et libérté, peu présent dans literature du Siècle des Lumières - certainement quand la vie était dûre on n'écrivait que ce qui valait être écrit...

“Ah! life’s best hours are ever first to fly
From hapless mortals; in their place succeed
Disease and dolorous eld; till travail sore
And death unpitying sweep them from the scene.”, p. 69

The Eclogues and Georgics are poems which concern the rising of a new age; while these have constantly been interpreted as Jesus Christ, it is more telling of a Roman Golden Age. The prose demonstrates why Virgil was considered a Wizard, weaving delicately from line to line. Subtle changes in pace and rhythm reflect the reader's eyes grazing the page, sometimes furiously consuming the text, sometimes slowly digesting the work. A must read.