[8]
My little house is covered by a roof that fears no
harm, and the grape swollen with wine hangs from the fruitful elm. The boughs yield
cherries, the orchards ruddy apples, and the trees sacred to Pallas1 break under the wealth of their branches. And now where the smooth soil
drinks from the runnels of the spring, Corycian kale springs up for me and creeping
mallows, and the poppy with promise of untroubled sleep. Moreover, if my pleasure is
to lay snares for birds, or if I choose rather to entrap the timid deer, or draw out
the quivering fish on slender line, so much deceit is all that is known to my humble
fields. Go, then, and barter the hours of flying life for rich banquets. My prayer
is that since at the last the same end waits for me, it may find me here, here call
me to account for the time that I have spent.
1 The olive, which she gave to Athens. By this gift, which the Gods considered more useful than the horse given by Poseidon, she became the presiding deity of the city.
Petronius Arbiter. Petronius. Michael Heseltine. London. William Heinemann. 1913.
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