Georgics 1.393–423

Georg. 1.393Nec minus ex imbrī sōlēs et aperta serēna
prōspicere et certīs poteris cognōscere signīs:
395nam neque tum stellīs aciēs obtūnsa vidētur,
nec frātris radiīs obnoxia surgere Lūna,
tenuia nec lānae per caelum vellera ferrī;No less, after rain, will you be able to foresee sunshine and open clear skies, and recognise them by sure signs: for then the stars' edge does not seem blunted, nor the Moon to rise indebted to her brother's rays, nor thin fleeces of wool to be borne across the sky; Georg. 1.398nōn tepidum ad sōlem pinnās in lītore pandunt
dīlēctae Thetidī alcyonēs, nōn ōre solūtōs
400inmundī meminēre suēs iactāre maniplōs.halcyons, dear to Thetis, do not spread their wings to the warm sun on the shore, filthy swine do not remember to toss loosened bundles of straw with their snouts. Georg. 1.401At nebulae magis īma petunt campōque recumbunt,
sōlis et occāsum servāns dē culmine summō
nēquīquam sērōs exercet noctua cantūs.But the mists seek lower ground and lie on the plain, and the owl, watching the sunset from the topmost roof, plies her late song in vain. Georg. 1.404Adpāret liquidō sublīmis in āëre Nīsus
405et prō purpureō poenās dat Scylla capillō:
quācumque illa levem fugiēns secat aethera pinnīs,
ecce inimīcus, atrōx, magnō strīdōre per aurās
īnsequitur Nīsus;Nisus appears high in the clear air, and Scylla pays the penalty for the purple lock: wherever she flees, cutting the light air with her wings, look, hostile and fierce, with loud whirring through the breezes, Nisus pursues; Georg. 1.408quā sē fert Nīsus ad aurās,
illa levem fugiēns raptim secat aethera pinnīs
410Tum liquidās corvī pressō ter gutture vōcēs
aut quater ingeminant, et saepe cubīlibus altīs
nesciō quā praeter solitum dulcēdine laetī
inter sē in foliīs strepitant;where Nisus rises to the breezes, she, fleeing, swiftly cuts the light air with her wings. Then the ravens, with throats compressed, three or four times repeat their clear calls, and often in their lofty roosts, glad with some unaccustomed sweetness, chatter together among the leaves; Georg. 1.413iuvat imbribus āctīs
prōgeniem parvam dulcīsque revīsere nīdōs;they delight, when the rains are over, to revisit their little brood and sweet nests; Georg. 1.415haud equidem crēdō, quia sit dīvīnitus illīs
ingenium aut rērum fātō prūdentia maior;not, I think, because they have intelligence from the gods or greater foresight of things from fate; Georg. 1.417vērum ubi tempestās et caelī mōbilis humor
mūtāvēre viās et Iuppiter ūvidus austrīs
dēnset, erant quae rāra modo, et, quae dēnsa, relaxat,
420vertuntur speciēs animōrum et pectora mōtūs
nunc aliōs, aliōs, dum nūbila ventus agēbat,
concipiunt: hinc ille avium concentus in agrīs
et laetae pecudēs et ovantēs gutture corvī.but when the weather and the shifting moisture of the sky have changed their courses, and Jupiter, wet with south winds, thickens what was thin just now and loosens what was thick, the aspects of their minds are changed, and their breasts conceive other impulses now, others while the wind was driving the clouds: hence that chorus of birds in the fields, and the glad cattle, and the ravens exulting in their throats.