L’Olive augmentée/3

II. 'With love, with grace and with noble value'

L’Olive ~ III written by Joachim Du Bellay translated by A. S. Kline

IV. 'Whether love is harsh to me or favourable,'

L’Olive - III. ‘Loyre fameux, qui ta petite source’.

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III

'Famed Loire, who swell your little source'
 
Famed Loire, who swell your little source
With a host of streams and mighty rivers,
And who, from afar, send your clear waters
Down to the Ocean, in your lively course,
 
Your royal head lifts itself with force
Among the finest of all the others,
Like a bull among his lesser brothers,
Though envious Po in his anger roars.
 
Command then the gentlest of Naiads
To leave their deep and humid quarters,
With you, whom their paternal flood I name,
 
To celebrate with joyous aubades,
She, who you, and your flowing daughters,
Has deified with her eternal fame.