The Chestnut
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Castanea
The Chestnut
Family: Fagaceae
The Chestnut
Family: Fagaceae
Sunt nobis mitia poma,
castaneae molles, et pressi copia lactis;
et iam summa procul villarum culmina fumant,
maioresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae.
Apples ripe have I,
soft chestnuts and of curdled milk enow
and, see, the farm-roof chimneys smoke afar,
And from the hills the shadows lengthening fall.
Bucolics I, 80-83castaneae molles, et pressi copia lactis;
et iam summa procul villarum culmina fumant,
maioresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae.
Apples ripe have I,
soft chestnuts and of curdled milk enow
and, see, the farm-roof chimneys smoke afar,
And from the hills the shadows lengthening fall.
In this passage of the
Bucolics, Virgil mention the chestnut and its fruits. He reminds us of how
chestnuts, with milk and cheese, have represented for many centuries an
essential part of man’s diet. We can also find the chestnut in the second book
of Georgics, where Virgil describes it like an ordinary fruit tree, which
existed even before the birth of Christ.
