The bees

Book IV of the Georgics by Virgil

translated by

joel calahan

limited edition chapbook

With a delicate touch, both faithful and inventive, Joel Calahan has rendered the last book of Virgil’s Georgics into supple English verse. Perhaps the most intriguing section of the Georgics, this fourth book offers practical advice on the husbandry of bees and uses beekeeping as a lens through which to examine regeneration and rebirth after death. Virgil adroitly links the bees to the myth of Orpheus, the archetypal poet, and his failed rescue of Eurydice. Calahan is an excellent guide for the journey.

The bee spites its brief life 

(seven summers, at most) 

with species immortality, in unbroken lineage, 

ancestor after ancestor in seasonal cycles.

$10