Begin, ye Muses dear, begin the pastoral song!

And said: 'Unhappy Daphnis, wherefore dost thou languish, while for
thee the maiden by all the fountains, through all the glades is
fleeting, in search of thee? Ah! thou art too laggard a lover, and
thou nothing availest! A neatherd wert thou named, and now thou art
like the goatherd:

Begin, ye Muses dear, begin the pastoral song!

'For the goatherd, when he marks the young goats at their pastime,
looks on with yearning eyes, and fain would be even as they; and
thou, when thou beholdest the laughter of maidens, dost gaze with
yearning eyes, for that thou dost not join their dances.'

Begin, ye Muses dear, begin the pastoral song!

Yet these the herdsman answered not again, but he bare his bitter
love to the end, yea, to the fated end he bare it.

Begin, ye Muses dear, begin the pastoral song!

Ay, but she too came, the sweetly smiling Cypris, craftily smiling
she came, yet keeping her heavy anger; and she spake, saying:
'Daphnis, methinks thou didst boast that thou wouldst throw Love a
fall, nay, is it not thyself that hast been thrown by grievous Love?'

Begin ye Muses dear, begin the pastoral song!