牧歌集

《牧歌集》（英语：Eclogues /ˈɛklɒɡz/；拉丁语：Eclogae [ˈɛkloɡaj]），古罗马诗人维吉尔的代表性作品。

《牧歌》长达10章，被认为是拉丁语文学的典范之作，有着古罗马的田园诗色彩。

维吉尔的代表性作品有：《农事诗》、《牧歌》、《埃涅阿斯纪》。

内容

《牧歌》分为10章，主要描写古罗马牧人的爱情、生活和自然环境。

译著

简体中文版本已经由翻译家杨宪益、王焕生译出。

The Eclogues (Latin: Eclogae [ˈɛklɔɡae̯], lit. 'selections'), also called the Bucolics, is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil.

Background

Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offering a dramatic and mythic interpretation of revolutionary change at Rome in the turbulent period between roughly 44 and 38 BC. Virgil introduced political clamor largely absent from Theocritus' poems, called idylls ('little scenes' or 'vignettes'), even though erotic turbulence disturbs the "idyllic" landscapes of Theocritus.

Virgil's book contains ten pieces, each called not an idyll but an eclogue, from the Greek ἐκλογή ('selection', 'extract'). The poems are populated by and large with herdsmen imagined conversing and performing amoebaean singing in rural settings, whether suffering or embracing revolutionary change or happy or unhappy love. Performed with great success on the Roman stage, they feature a mix of visionary politics and eroticism that made Virgil a celebrity in his own lifetime.

Like all of Virgil's works, the Eclogues are composed in dactylic hexameters.

Structure and organization

Several scholars have attempted to identify the organizational principles underpinning the construction of the book. Most commonly the structure has been seen to be symmetrical, turning around eclogue 5, with a triadic pattern. The following scheme comes from Steenkamp (2011):

1 – Confiscation of land

2 – Love song

3 – Singing contest

4 – Religion and the world that will be

5 – The 'pastor' becomes a god

6 – Mythology and the world that was

7 – Singing contest

8 – Two love songs

9 – Confiscation of land

The tenth eclogue stands alone, summing up the whole collection.

Numerous verbal echoes between the corresponding poems in each half reinforce the symmetry: for example, the phrase "Plant pears, Daphnis" in 9.50 echoes "Plant pears, Meliboeus" in 1.73. Eclogue 10 has verbal echoes with all the earlier poems. Thomas K. Hubbard (1998) has noted, "The first half of the book has often been seen as a positive construction of a pastoral vision, whilst the second half dramatizes progressive alienation from that vision, as each poem of the first half is taken up and responded to in reverse order."

However, the arrangement of the eclogues into three groups of three does not prevent the collection also being seen as divided at the same time into two halves, with a second opening at the beginning of eclogue 6.

The average length of each eclogue is 83 lines, and long and short poems alternate. Thus the 3rd eclogue in each half is the longest, while the 2nd and 4th are the shortest:

1 – 83 lines

2 – 73

3 – 111

4 – 63

5 – 90

6 – 86 lines

7 – 70

8 – 108

9 – 67

10 – 77

Variety is also achieved by alternating dialogue eclogues (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) with monologues (2, 4, 6, 8, 10).

Some scholars have also observed numerical coincidences, when each eclogue in poems 1–9 is added to its pair: eclogues 2 + 8 = 3 + 7 = 181 lines, while eclogues 1 + 9 = 4 + 6 = 150/149 lines; 2 + 10 also = 150 lines. However, the significance of these findings is not clear. Similar numerical phenomena have been found in other authors. For example, in Tibullus book 2, poems 1 + 6 = 2 + 5 = 3 + 4 = 144 lines.

Eclogue 1

A dialogue between Tityrus and Meliboeus. In the turmoil of the era Meliboeus has been forced off his land and faces an uncertain future. Tityrus recounts his journey to Rome and the "god" he met there who answered his plea and allowed him to remain on his land. He offers to let Meliboeus spend the night with him. This text has been viewed as reflecting the infamous land-confiscations after the return of Mark Antony and Octavian's joint forces from the Battle of Philippi of 42 BCE, in which Brutus and Cassius (the orchestrators of Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE) were defeated.