80

Hunc tamen infantem maternis demite ramis,
Et date nutrici; nostraque sub arbore sæpe
Lac facitote bibat; nostraque sub arbore ludat.
Cumque loqui poterit, matrem facitote salutet,
Et tristis dicat, Latet hoc sub stipite mater.
Stagna tamen timeat; nec carpat ab arbore flores:
Et frutices omnes corpus putat esse Dearum.
Care, vale, conjux, et tu germana, paterque!
Quîs si qua est pietas, ab acutæ vulnere falcis, 90
A pecoris morsu, frondes defendite nostras.
Et quoniam mihi fas ad vos incumbere non est,
Erigite huc artus, et ad oscula nostra venite,
Dum tangi possunt, parvumque attollite natum.
Plura loqui nequeo. nam jam per candida mollis
Colla liber serpit; summoque cacumine condor.
Ex oculis removete manus. sine munere vestro
Contegat inductus morientia lumina cortex.
Desierant simul ora loqui, simul esse: diuque 100
Corpore mutato rami caluere recentes.

95

THOUGH I regret the hours our poet spent in translating Statius and Ovid; yet it has given us an opportunity of admiring his good sense and judgment, in not suffering his taste and style, in his succeeding works, to be infected with the faults of these two writers.

But from my branching arms this infant bear,
Let some kind nurse supply a mother's care:
And to his mother let him oft be led,

Sport in her shades, and in her shades be fed;
Teach him, when first his infant voice shall frame
Imperfect words, and lisp his mother's name,
To hail this tree, and say with weeping eyes,
Within this plant my hapless parent lies;
And when in youth he seeks the shady woods,
Oh let him fly the crystal lakes and floods,
Nor touch the fatal flow'rs; but, warn'd by me,
Believe a goddess shrin'd in ev'ry tree.
My sire, my sister, and my spouse, farewell!
If in your breasts or love or pity dwell,
Protect your plant, nor let my branches feel
The browzing cattle or the piercing steel.
Farewell! and since I cannot bend to join
My lips to yours, advance at least to mine.
My son, thy mother's parting kiss receive,
While yet thy mother has a kiss to give.
I can no more; the creeping rind invades
My closing lips, and hides my head in shades;
Remove your hands, the bark shall soon suffice
Without their aid to seal these dying eyes.

81

85

90

95

She ceas'd at once to speak, and ceas'd to be; 100 And all the nymph was lost within the tree; Yet latent life through her new branches reign'd, And long the plant a human heat retain'd.