Vertumnus and Pomona

Translation

Among the Hamadryad nymphs, Pomona was the most diligent cultivator
Of gardens; her concern was the fruit of the tree,
And the orchards of the enclosed countryside,
To join vines to elms, and to prune the foliage with a curved
Sickle, and to graft a slip onto an unwilling trunk,

And to load pear trees with fruit, to add grapes to apple trees;
To sprinkle the laboring gardens with high fountains,
Where the cucumber lies in the garden, and the gourd with its swollen
Belly rests languidly, and the cabbage bends on its thick stalk:
Only the arugula lay neglected among the brambles.

The nymph, impatient of men, devoted to the study of cultivating,
Fled the lascivious woodland deities, the Fauns,
And although he suffered an endless, undeserved rebuff,
Vertumnus, skilled in varying his appearance into all kinds of shapes,
Disguised himself as an old woman, and sat upon the clods:

And stroking her stiff ears with Paphian words,
The honor of his mouth is restored, worthy of Bacchus or Apollo,
And the ancient form of his youth is renewed, though hidden:
The goddess was conquered, and confessing a similar fire with a blush,
She went into his embrace, her marrow softened. Schrevelius.

A. Bloemaert inven.
I. Saenredam sculp. et excud.
1605