3
DAMOETAS
ye winds, I pray you, for the gods to hear.”
MENALCAS
“It profiteth me naught, Amyntas mine,
that in your very heart you spurn me not,
if, while you hunt the boar, I guard the nets.”
DAMOETAS
“Prithee, Iollas, for my birthday guest
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send me your Phyllis; when for the young crops
I slay my heifer, you yourself shall come.”
MENALCAS
“I am all hers; she wept to see me go,
and, lingering on the word, ‘farewell’ she said,
‘My beautiful Iollas, fare you well.’”
100
DAMOETAS
“Fell as the wolf is to the folded flock,
rain to ripe corn, Sirocco to the trees,
the wrath of Amaryllis is to me.”
MENALCAS
“As moisture to the corn, to ewes with young
lithe willow, as arbute to the yeanling kids,
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so sweet Amyntas, and none else, to me.”
DAMOETAS
“My Muse, although she be but country-bred,
is loved by Pollio: O Pierian Maids,
pray you, a heifer for your reader feed!”
“Pollio himself too doth new verses make:
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