70
REMAINS OF HESIOD.
Whet the keen sickle, hasten every swain,
From shady booths, from morning sleep refrain;
Now, in the fervour of the harvest-day,
When the strong sun dissolves the frame away:
Now haste a-field: now bind thy sheafy corn,
And earn thy food by rising with the morn.
Lo! the third portion of thy labour's cares
The early morn anticipating shares:
In early morn the labour swiftly wastes:
In early morn the speeded journey hastes;
The time when many a traveller tracks the plain,
And the yoked oxen bend them to the wain.
When the green artichoke[1] ascending flowers,
When, in the sultry season's toilsome hours,
Perch'd on a branch, beneath his veiling wings
The loud cicada[2] shrill and frequent sings:
From shady booths, from morning sleep refrain;
Now, in the fervour of the harvest-day,
When the strong sun dissolves the frame away:
Now haste a-field: now bind thy sheafy corn,
And earn thy food by rising with the morn.
Lo! the third portion of thy labour's cares
The early morn anticipating shares:
In early morn the labour swiftly wastes:
In early morn the speeded journey hastes;
The time when many a traveller tracks the plain,
And the yoked oxen bend them to the wain.
When the green artichoke[1] ascending flowers,
When, in the sultry season's toilsome hours,
Perch'd on a branch, beneath his veiling wings
The loud cicada[2] shrill and frequent sings:
- ↑ The green artichoke.] Σκολυμος is not the thistle, as has been commonly supposed. Pliny says of it, lib. xxii. c. 22, “The scolymos is also received for food in the East. The stalk is never more than a cubit in height, with scaly leaves, and a black root of a sweet taste.” It is, therefore, the artichoke.
- ↑ The loud cicada.] The interpreters translate ηχετα canora, and λιγυρην dulcem; and hence an idea is prevalent that Hesiod speaks of the cicada as having a sweet note; but of these epithets the first is properly vocal or sonorous, and the second shrill or stridulous. Anacreon calls the insect “wise in music,” but
