Publius Ovidius Naso
8 CE (over 2,000 years ago)
Latin (Augustan Age)
Trans RMBullard
Vasta Giganteis ingesta est insula membris Trinacris et magnis subiectum molibus urguet aetherias ausum sperare Typhoea sedes.
(There was a vast island borne upon Sicilian giants, and it presses down Typhoeus, laid under, who dared to hope for heaven’s seats with his great bulk;)
nititur ille quidem pugnatque resurgere saepe, dextra sed Ausonio manus est subiecta Peloro, laeva, Pachyne, tibi, Lilybaeo crura premuntur, degravat Aetna caput, sub qua resupinus arenas eiectat flammamque ferox vomit ore Typhoeus.
(This giant indeed leans up and often fights to rise, but his right hand is thrown below Ausonian Peloros, his left under you, Pachynos; his legs are pressed under Lilybaean; Etna weighs his head down, under which he, laying upon his back, spews out ashes, and fierce Typhoeus vomits flame from his mouth;)
saepe remoliri luctatur pondera terrae oppidaque et magnos devolvere corpore montes:
(Often he wails to lighten the burden of the earth and to tumble down the cities and great mountains upon his body:)
inde tremit tellus, et rex pavet ipse silentum, ne pateat latoque solum retegatur hiatu inmissusque dies trepidantes terreat umbras.
(Then the earth trembles, and the king of the silent realm fears it may open and only he is covered over, and sent through the wide gap into the daylight, he terrifies the trembling shades;)
hanc metuens cladem tenebrosa sede tyrannus exierat curruque atrorum vectus equorum ambibat Siculae cautus fundamina terrae.
(Fearing this destruction, the tyrant leaves from his shady seat, and carried by the chariot of his black horses, the fearful one splits the foundations of the Sicilian earth;)
postquam exploratum satis est loca nulla labare depositoque metu, videt hunc Erycina vagantem monte suo residens natumque amplexa volucrem 'arma manusque meae, mea, nate, potentia' dixit, 'illa, quibus superas omnes, cape tela, Cupido, inque dei pectus celeres molire sagittas, cui triplicis cessit fortuna novissima regni.
(Thereafter, he made sure enough that no places would fall, and when his fear was set aside, Venus, while sitting upon her own mountain, sees him wandering about, and embracing her son and her bird, she said, ‘Son, my weapons and my hands, those powers with which you conquer everything, seize your missiles, Cupid, in order that your swift arrows can soften the god’s heart, to whom goes last the fortune of kingdom among three;)
tu superos ipsumque Iovem, tu numina ponti victa domas ipsumque, regit qui numina ponti:
(You have conquered the supreme beings and Jove himself, the divinities and domains of the sea and the one who rules the divinities of the sea:)
Tartara quid cessant? cur non matrisque tuumque imperium profers?
(Why does the Underworld flee from us? Why don’t you show the power of you and your mother?)
agitur pars tertia mundi, et tamen in caelo, quae iam patientia nostra est, spernimur, ac mecum vires minuuntur Amoris.
(The third region of the world comes to mind, and even the one in the sky, which is our own concern; we are spurned, and the powers of Love are being threatened, along with me;)
Pallada nonne vides iaculatricemque Dianam abscessisse mihi? Cereris quoque filia virgo, si patiemur, erit; nam spes adfectat easdem.
(Surely you see how Athena and the huntress Diana have abandoned me? Even the daughter of Ceres would be a virgin, if should we allow it; surely, hope maddens them all;)
at tu pro socio, si qua est ea gratia, regno iunge deam patruo.' dixit Venus;
(But you, if somehow this is pleasing to you, join the goddess to her uncle’s kingdom, for the sake of alliance,’ Venus said;)
ille pharetram solvit et arbitrio matris de mille sagittis unam seposuit, sed qua nec acutior ulla nec minus incerta est nec quae magis audiat arcus, oppositoque genu curvavit flexile cornum inque cor hamata percussit harundine Ditem.
(The other loosened his quiver and, at his mother’s decision, took out one of his thousand arrows, though none is sharper or surer or obeys the bow more, and he bent the flexible horn against his elbow, with which he pierced completely Pluto’s heart a hooked spike;)
haud procul Hennaeis lacus est a moenibus altae, nomine Pergus, aquae: non illo plura Caystros carmina cycnorum labentibus audit in undis.
(There is a lake of high tide not far away from the Ennan walls, by the name of Pergus: from there, the Cayster does not hear the very many songs of swans in its gliding waters;)
silva coronat aquas cingens latus omne suisque frondibus ut velo Phoebeos submovet ictus;
(The forest, surrounding its whole side, crowns the waters with its leaves, like the ruffling that moves under the awning for the sun;)
frigora dant rami, varios humus umida flores: perpetuum ver est.
(The branches gave shade; the moist earth sprout various flowers: the spring is perpetual;)
quo dum Proserpina luco ludit et aut violas aut candida lilia carpit, dumque puellari studio calathosque sinumque inplet et aequales certat superare legendo, paene simul visa est dilectaque raptaque Diti: usque adeo est properatus amor.
(In this place, while Persephone plays in the grove and picks both violets and white lilies, and while, with a child’s zeal, she fills her basket and lap and struggles to beat her peers in her search, at that the same time, nearby, she was spotted and chosen and seized by Pluto: so much did his love come to fruition;)
dea territa maesto et matrem et comites, sed matrem saepius, ore clamat, et ut summa vestem laniarat ab ora, collecti flores tunicis cecidere remissis, tantaque simplicitas puerilibus adfuit annis, haec quoque virgineum movit iactura dolorem.
(Terrified, the goddess shouts from her distraught face for her mother and friends, but more wisely for her mother, and as she tore her garment from around her body, the gathered flowers fell from her rippling garment, and so great naivety accompanied her young age, even this loss stirs the virgin’s grief;)
raptor agit currus et nomine quemque vocando exhortatur equos, quorum per colla iubasque excutit obscura tinctas ferrugine habenas, perque lacus altos et olentia sulphure fertur stagna Palicorum rupta ferventia terra et qua Bacchiadae, bimari gens orta Corintho, inter inaequales posuerunt moenia portus.
(The snatcher drives his chariot and orders his horses forth, calling each by their name, whose bits around their necks and reins, tinged with dark rust, he lashed on, and he is carried through the deep lakes and the pools of Palice, boiling with sulphur, over the broken and feverish land and where the Bacchants, the race risen from double-sea Corinth, set their towns between uneven gates;)
Est medium Cyanes et Pisaeae Arethusae, quod coit angustis inclusum cornibus aequor:
(There is a place between the Fountains of Cyane and the Pisan town of Arethusa, which the cramped sea strikes with its narrow horns:)
hic fuit, a cuius stagnum quoque nomine dictum est, inter Sicelidas Cyane celeberrima nymphas.
(In this place, there was Cyane, the most cherished of the Sicilian nymphs, after whose name even a pool was named;)
gurgite quae medio summa tenus exstitit alvo adgnovitque deam 'nec longius ibitis!' inquit;
(She stood up from the middle of the whirlpool, as far as the deepest wash, and recognized the goddess, and she said, ‘You two, don’t go any farther!’)
'non potes invitae Cereris gener esse: roganda, non rapienda fuit. quodsi conponere magnis parva mihi fas est, et me dilexit Anapis; exorata tamen, nec, ut haec, exterrita nupsi.'
(‘You cannot be an unwanted son-in-law to Ceres: she must be asked for, not taken by force; and so it is a meager righteousness that places me against great things, and Anapis has chosen me; still, as I have come out, I am not too terrified to marry you, as she is’)
dixit et in partes diversas bracchia tendens obstitit.
(She spoke, and stretching her arms in winged directions, she stood in the way;)
haud ultra tenuit Saturnius iram terribilesque hortatus equos in gurgitis ima contortum valido sceptrum regale lacerto condidit; icta viam tellus in Tartara fecit et pronos currus medio cratere recepit.
(Saturn’s son did not hold back his anger any longer, and urging on his terrible horses into the pool, he struck his royal scepter, having been thrown, with a strong lash; from the blow, the earth gave way into the Underworld and received the falling horses in the middle of the crater;)
at Cyane, raptamque deam contemptaque fontis iura sui maerens, inconsolabile vulnus mente gerit tacita lacrimisque absumitur omnis et, quarum fuerat magnum modo numen, in illas extenuatur aquas:
(But Cyane, grieving for the stolen goddess and the broken oaths of her fountain, bore a inconsolable wound in her silent mind and began to shed all her tears, whose divine power had recently been great; she stretches out into those waters:)
molliri membra videres, ossa pati flexus, ungues posuisse rigorem;
(You could see her limbs soften, her bones bending, her nails to lose their stiffness;)
primaque de tota tenuissima quaeque liquescunt, caerulei crines digitique et crura pedesque (nam brevis in gelidas membris exilibus undas transitus est);
(And from her whole previous form, each part lightly and completely liquefied: her fingers and legs and feet [for there is a short transition into the icy waves for her vanishing limbs];)
post haec umeri tergusque latusque pectoraque in tenues abeunt evanida rivos;
(After these things passed away, her shoulders, back, flank, and breast vanished into the thin banks;)
denique pro vivo vitiatas sanguine venas lympha subit, restatque nihil, quod prendere possis.
(Finally, the spring water pushed her injured currents below, in place of live blood, and whatever you could take hold of, nothing remains;)
Interea pavidae nequiquam filia matri omnibus est terris, omni quaesita profundo.
(Meanwhile, the fearful mother cannot find her daughter at all, on the whole earth, though she searched the entire expanse;)
illam non udis veniens Aurora capillis cessantem vidit, non Hesperus; illa duabus flammiferas pinus manibus succendit ab Aetna perque pruinosas tulit inrequieta tenebras;
(Aurora the Dawn, coming with her burning hair, does not see her walking about, nor does the Hesperus the Evening; the mother follows with flame-bearing torches in both hands from Etna, and she carries them worriedly through the frosty shadows;)
rursus ubi alma dies hebetarat sidera, natam solis ab occasu solis quaerebat ad ortus.
(When the bright day began to blunt the stars again, she sought her daughter from the rising to the setting of the sun;)
fessa labore sitim conceperat, oraque nulli conluerant fontes, cum tectam stramine vidit forte casam parvasque fores pulsavit;
(Weary, she began to take on thirst from her labor, but no fountains had drenched her face, before she saw by chance a thatched house with straw, and she knocked on its little door;)
at inde prodit anus divamque videt lymphamque roganti dulce dedit, tosta quod texerat ante polenta.
(And then an old woman comes out and sees the goddess, and she gives a sweet drink to her, asking, because she had brewed some roasted barley;)
dum bibit illa datum, duri puer oris et audax constitit ante deam risitque avidamque vocavit.
(While she drinks what she has been given, an audacious boy with a stout face walked up to the goddess, laughs, and calls her greedy;)
offensa est neque adhuc epota parte loquentem cum liquido mixta perfudit diva polenta:
(She was offended, and not yet done drinking, the goddess doused the boy with the liquid mixed with barley:)
conbibit os maculas et, quae modo bracchia gessit, crura gerit; cauda est mutatis addita membris, inque brevem formam, ne sit vis magna nocendi contrahitur, parvaque minor mensura lacerta est.
(His face was splashed with stains, and the arms that he just had become legs; a tail was added to his transformed limbs, and a little size, lest a great force for harm be formed, and his arms are of lesser size;)
mirantem flentemque et tangere monstra parantem fugit anum latebramque petit, aptumque colori nomen habet variis stellatus corpora guttis.
(He flees the old lady, while she stands amazed and weeps and tries to touch the monster, and he searches for a hiding place; his identity is linked to his color; his body is spotted with various splotches;)
Quas dea per terras et quas erraverit undas, dicere longa mora est; quaerenti defuit orbis;
(The goddess wandered throughout all the lands and seas; to say for how long would be a distraction; the world deceived her searching;)
Sicaniam repetit, dumque omnia lustrat eundo, venit et ad Cyanen.
(She scans Sicily again, and while she looks around everywhere in her path, she comes finally to Cyane;)
ea ni mutata fuisset, omnia narrasset; sed et os et lingua volenti dicere non aderant, nec, quo loqueretur, habebat;
(Why the nymph had changed, she would have told the goddess everything; but neither her mouth nor her tongue existed for her desire, and she did not have them with which she could speak;)
signa tamen manifesta dedit notamque parenti, illo forte loco delapsam in gurgite sacro Persephones zonam summis ostendit in undis.
(Still, after she appeared, she gave signs and a clue to the parent; she showed how, in that spot by chance, Persephone’s belt had fallen down into her sacred pool, floating on the top of the waves;)
quam simul agnovit, tamquam tum denique raptam scisset, inornatos laniavit diva capillos et repetita suis percussit pectora palmis.
(As soon as she recognized it, so much then did she finally realize that she had been kidnapped, that the goddess tore out her untied hair and beat upon her chest again and again with her palms;)
nescit adhuc, ubi sit; terras tamen increpat omnes ingratasque vocat nec frugum munere dignas, Trinacriam ante alias, in qua vestigia damni repperit.
(Yet she did not know where she might be; however, she stomps all over the earth and calls it ungrateful and unworthy to bear her crops, since it was everywhere but Sicily that she found her evidence that her daughter had been damned;)
ergo illic saeva vertentia glaebas fregit aratra manu, parilique irata colonos ruricolasque boves leto dedit arvaque iussit fallere depositum vitiataque semina fecit.
(So, in that place, the savage goddess broke the plows, turning over the soil, with her hand, and furious, she killed the farmers and the farmer’s wives and cattle alike, and she commanded the fields to hold back their harvest, and she made their seeds scarce;)
fertilitas terrae latum vulgata per orbem falsa iacet:
(The land’s fertility, well known throughout the world lays fallow:)
primis segetes moriuntur in herbis, et modo sol nimius, nimius modo corripit imber;
(The corns perish in their first bloom, and either too much sunlight or too much rain rips them down;)
sideraque ventique nocent, avidaeque volucres semina iacta legunt; lolium tribulique fatigant triticeas messes et inexpugnabile gramen.
(The stars and the winds grow destructive, and greedy birds pluck the seeds lying about; the rustic curses and thorns and darnel plants and indefatigable grass grow weary;)
Tum caput Eleis Alpheias extulit undis rorantesque comas a fronte removit ad aures atque ait 'o toto quaesitae virginis orbe et frugum genetrix, inmensos siste labores neve tibi fidae violenta irascere terrae.
(Then, Olympic Alpheias peeked his head out of the waves and moved her dripping hair from her forehead to her ears, and she says, ‘O you mother who was sought her virgin girl across the whole world, make your immense labors rise; don’t grow angry in violence against the earth that has trusted you;)
terra nihil meruit patuitque invita rapinae, nec sum pro patria supplex: huc hospita veni.
(The earth has not deserved anything, and it unwillingly allowed her rape, nor am I a supplicant for the sake of my homeland: I have come here a guest;)
Pisa mihi patria est et ab Elide ducimus ortus, Sicaniam peregrina colo, sed gratior omni haec mihi terra solo est: hos nunc Arethusa penates, hanc habeo sedem. quam tu, mitissima, serva.
(Pisa is my country, and I lead myself from Elis; I, a foreigner, till the Sicilian land, but this land is even more favorable to me: now the town Arethusa holds these household gods; I hold this throne; and I, very powerful one, am your slave;)
mota loco cur sim tantique per aequoris undas advehar Ortygiam, veniet narratibus hora tempestiva meis, cum tu curaque levata et vultus melioris eris.
(That is why I was stirred from my place and carried through the waves of such a far sea to Ortygia; the joyous end will come to my storytelling if you would lighten my car and be with a kinder face;)
mihi pervia tellus praebet iter, subterque imas ablata cavernas hic caput attollo desuetaque sidera cerno.
(The earth provides me a way through, and carried through under deep caverns, I lift my head here and see unfamiliar stars;)
ergo dum Stygio sub terris gurgite labor, visa tua est oculis illic Proserpina nostris:
(While I was gliding upon the Stygian pool beneath the earth, Persephone was seen there by my very own eyes:)
illa quidem tristis neque adhuc interrita vultu, sed regina tamen, sed opaci maxima mundi, sed tamen inferni pollens matrona tyranni!'
(Really, she was sad, and her face was completely terrified, yet she is now a queen, the noblest lady of a dark world, now the powerful matron of the Underworld's tyrant!')
Mater ad auditas stupuit ceu saxea voces attonitaeque diu similis fuit, utque dolore pulsa gravi gravis est amentia, curribus oras exit in aetherias:
(The mother stood shocked, still as a rock, at the words she heard, and for a long time was astonished, as a heavy frenzy was piled upon her crushing grief; she flies out into the sky in her chariot:)
ibi toto nubila vultu ante Iovem passis stetit invidiosa capillis 'pro' que 'meo veni supplex tibi, Iuppiter,' inquit 'sanguine proque tuo: si nulla est gratia matris, nata patrem moveat, neu sit tibi cura, precamur, vilior illius, quod nostro est edita partu.
(There, she stood before Jove in full view, jealously, with unkempt hair, and she says, 'I have come to you, a supplicant, for the sake of my and your own kin: if a mother is not worthy of mercy, let a daughter move her father, unless she is of no concern to you [something cheaper than this], though she was born from our coupling;)
en quaesita diu tandem mihi nata reperta est, si reperire vocas amittere certius, aut si scire, ubi sit, reperire vocas.
(But, my daughter has finally been discovered, sought for such a long time, if you call 'finding' to mean losing more certainly, or if you call 'finding' to know where she is;)
quod rapta, feremus, dummodo reddat eam!
(Because she has been stolen, I shall endure it, so long as he returns her!)
neque enim praedone marito filia digna tua est, si iam mea filia non est.'
(For your daughter is not worthy of being a prize to a husband, if so my daughter is not;)
Iuppiter excepit 'commune est pignus onusque nata mihi tecum;
(Jupiter responds: 'The toil is mutual, and the burden with your daughter belongs to me, as well as you;)
sed si modo nomina rebus addere vera placet, non hoc iniuria factum, verum amor est;
(But if it pleases you now to add true names to these affairs, this deed is not a wrongdoing, but truly it is love;)
neque erit nobis gener ille pudori, tu modo, diva, velis.
(And he would not be a shameful son-in-law to me, if you, goddess, should wish;)
ut desint cetera, quantum est esse Iovis fratrem!
(How dear is the brother of Jove, that these other matters don't matter!)
quid, quod nec cetera desunt nec cedit nisi sorte mihi?
(What then, since these other things don't matter and he cannot leave except from my good graces?)
–sed tanta cupido si tibi discidii est, repetet Proserpina caelum, lege tamen certa, si nullos contigit illic ore cibos; nam sic Parcarum foedere cautum est.'
(but if there is such a great desire for her to be abandoned, let Persephone see the sky again, but only under a fixed law, so long as she does not touch the food down there; for such is the case under the law of the Fates;)
***
8 CE (over 2,000 years ago)
Latin (Augustan Age)
Trans RMBullard
Vasta Giganteis ingesta est insula membris Trinacris et magnis subiectum molibus urguet aetherias ausum sperare Typhoea sedes.
(There was a vast island borne upon Sicilian giants, and it presses down Typhoeus, laid under, who dared to hope for heaven’s seats with his great bulk;)
nititur ille quidem pugnatque resurgere saepe, dextra sed Ausonio manus est subiecta Peloro, laeva, Pachyne, tibi, Lilybaeo crura premuntur, degravat Aetna caput, sub qua resupinus arenas eiectat flammamque ferox vomit ore Typhoeus.
(This giant indeed leans up and often fights to rise, but his right hand is thrown below Ausonian Peloros, his left under you, Pachynos; his legs are pressed under Lilybaean; Etna weighs his head down, under which he, laying upon his back, spews out ashes, and fierce Typhoeus vomits flame from his mouth;)
saepe remoliri luctatur pondera terrae oppidaque et magnos devolvere corpore montes:
(Often he wails to lighten the burden of the earth and to tumble down the cities and great mountains upon his body:)
inde tremit tellus, et rex pavet ipse silentum, ne pateat latoque solum retegatur hiatu inmissusque dies trepidantes terreat umbras.
(Then the earth trembles, and the king of the silent realm fears it may open and only he is covered over, and sent through the wide gap into the daylight, he terrifies the trembling shades;)
hanc metuens cladem tenebrosa sede tyrannus exierat curruque atrorum vectus equorum ambibat Siculae cautus fundamina terrae.
(Fearing this destruction, the tyrant leaves from his shady seat, and carried by the chariot of his black horses, the fearful one splits the foundations of the Sicilian earth;)
postquam exploratum satis est loca nulla labare depositoque metu, videt hunc Erycina vagantem monte suo residens natumque amplexa volucrem 'arma manusque meae, mea, nate, potentia' dixit, 'illa, quibus superas omnes, cape tela, Cupido, inque dei pectus celeres molire sagittas, cui triplicis cessit fortuna novissima regni.
(Thereafter, he made sure enough that no places would fall, and when his fear was set aside, Venus, while sitting upon her own mountain, sees him wandering about, and embracing her son and her bird, she said, ‘Son, my weapons and my hands, those powers with which you conquer everything, seize your missiles, Cupid, in order that your swift arrows can soften the god’s heart, to whom goes last the fortune of kingdom among three;)
tu superos ipsumque Iovem, tu numina ponti victa domas ipsumque, regit qui numina ponti:
(You have conquered the supreme beings and Jove himself, the divinities and domains of the sea and the one who rules the divinities of the sea:)
Tartara quid cessant? cur non matrisque tuumque imperium profers?
(Why does the Underworld flee from us? Why don’t you show the power of you and your mother?)
agitur pars tertia mundi, et tamen in caelo, quae iam patientia nostra est, spernimur, ac mecum vires minuuntur Amoris.
(The third region of the world comes to mind, and even the one in the sky, which is our own concern; we are spurned, and the powers of Love are being threatened, along with me;)
Pallada nonne vides iaculatricemque Dianam abscessisse mihi? Cereris quoque filia virgo, si patiemur, erit; nam spes adfectat easdem.
(Surely you see how Athena and the huntress Diana have abandoned me? Even the daughter of Ceres would be a virgin, if should we allow it; surely, hope maddens them all;)
at tu pro socio, si qua est ea gratia, regno iunge deam patruo.' dixit Venus;
(But you, if somehow this is pleasing to you, join the goddess to her uncle’s kingdom, for the sake of alliance,’ Venus said;)
ille pharetram solvit et arbitrio matris de mille sagittis unam seposuit, sed qua nec acutior ulla nec minus incerta est nec quae magis audiat arcus, oppositoque genu curvavit flexile cornum inque cor hamata percussit harundine Ditem.
(The other loosened his quiver and, at his mother’s decision, took out one of his thousand arrows, though none is sharper or surer or obeys the bow more, and he bent the flexible horn against his elbow, with which he pierced completely Pluto’s heart a hooked spike;)
haud procul Hennaeis lacus est a moenibus altae, nomine Pergus, aquae: non illo plura Caystros carmina cycnorum labentibus audit in undis.
(There is a lake of high tide not far away from the Ennan walls, by the name of Pergus: from there, the Cayster does not hear the very many songs of swans in its gliding waters;)
silva coronat aquas cingens latus omne suisque frondibus ut velo Phoebeos submovet ictus;
(The forest, surrounding its whole side, crowns the waters with its leaves, like the ruffling that moves under the awning for the sun;)
frigora dant rami, varios humus umida flores: perpetuum ver est.
(The branches gave shade; the moist earth sprout various flowers: the spring is perpetual;)
quo dum Proserpina luco ludit et aut violas aut candida lilia carpit, dumque puellari studio calathosque sinumque inplet et aequales certat superare legendo, paene simul visa est dilectaque raptaque Diti: usque adeo est properatus amor.
(In this place, while Persephone plays in the grove and picks both violets and white lilies, and while, with a child’s zeal, she fills her basket and lap and struggles to beat her peers in her search, at that the same time, nearby, she was spotted and chosen and seized by Pluto: so much did his love come to fruition;)
dea territa maesto et matrem et comites, sed matrem saepius, ore clamat, et ut summa vestem laniarat ab ora, collecti flores tunicis cecidere remissis, tantaque simplicitas puerilibus adfuit annis, haec quoque virgineum movit iactura dolorem.
(Terrified, the goddess shouts from her distraught face for her mother and friends, but more wisely for her mother, and as she tore her garment from around her body, the gathered flowers fell from her rippling garment, and so great naivety accompanied her young age, even this loss stirs the virgin’s grief;)
raptor agit currus et nomine quemque vocando exhortatur equos, quorum per colla iubasque excutit obscura tinctas ferrugine habenas, perque lacus altos et olentia sulphure fertur stagna Palicorum rupta ferventia terra et qua Bacchiadae, bimari gens orta Corintho, inter inaequales posuerunt moenia portus.
(The snatcher drives his chariot and orders his horses forth, calling each by their name, whose bits around their necks and reins, tinged with dark rust, he lashed on, and he is carried through the deep lakes and the pools of Palice, boiling with sulphur, over the broken and feverish land and where the Bacchants, the race risen from double-sea Corinth, set their towns between uneven gates;)
Est medium Cyanes et Pisaeae Arethusae, quod coit angustis inclusum cornibus aequor:
(There is a place between the Fountains of Cyane and the Pisan town of Arethusa, which the cramped sea strikes with its narrow horns:)
hic fuit, a cuius stagnum quoque nomine dictum est, inter Sicelidas Cyane celeberrima nymphas.
(In this place, there was Cyane, the most cherished of the Sicilian nymphs, after whose name even a pool was named;)
gurgite quae medio summa tenus exstitit alvo adgnovitque deam 'nec longius ibitis!' inquit;
(She stood up from the middle of the whirlpool, as far as the deepest wash, and recognized the goddess, and she said, ‘You two, don’t go any farther!’)
'non potes invitae Cereris gener esse: roganda, non rapienda fuit. quodsi conponere magnis parva mihi fas est, et me dilexit Anapis; exorata tamen, nec, ut haec, exterrita nupsi.'
(‘You cannot be an unwanted son-in-law to Ceres: she must be asked for, not taken by force; and so it is a meager righteousness that places me against great things, and Anapis has chosen me; still, as I have come out, I am not too terrified to marry you, as she is’)
dixit et in partes diversas bracchia tendens obstitit.
(She spoke, and stretching her arms in winged directions, she stood in the way;)
haud ultra tenuit Saturnius iram terribilesque hortatus equos in gurgitis ima contortum valido sceptrum regale lacerto condidit; icta viam tellus in Tartara fecit et pronos currus medio cratere recepit.
(Saturn’s son did not hold back his anger any longer, and urging on his terrible horses into the pool, he struck his royal scepter, having been thrown, with a strong lash; from the blow, the earth gave way into the Underworld and received the falling horses in the middle of the crater;)
at Cyane, raptamque deam contemptaque fontis iura sui maerens, inconsolabile vulnus mente gerit tacita lacrimisque absumitur omnis et, quarum fuerat magnum modo numen, in illas extenuatur aquas:
(But Cyane, grieving for the stolen goddess and the broken oaths of her fountain, bore a inconsolable wound in her silent mind and began to shed all her tears, whose divine power had recently been great; she stretches out into those waters:)
molliri membra videres, ossa pati flexus, ungues posuisse rigorem;
(You could see her limbs soften, her bones bending, her nails to lose their stiffness;)
primaque de tota tenuissima quaeque liquescunt, caerulei crines digitique et crura pedesque (nam brevis in gelidas membris exilibus undas transitus est);
(And from her whole previous form, each part lightly and completely liquefied: her fingers and legs and feet [for there is a short transition into the icy waves for her vanishing limbs];)
post haec umeri tergusque latusque pectoraque in tenues abeunt evanida rivos;
(After these things passed away, her shoulders, back, flank, and breast vanished into the thin banks;)
denique pro vivo vitiatas sanguine venas lympha subit, restatque nihil, quod prendere possis.
(Finally, the spring water pushed her injured currents below, in place of live blood, and whatever you could take hold of, nothing remains;)
Interea pavidae nequiquam filia matri omnibus est terris, omni quaesita profundo.
(Meanwhile, the fearful mother cannot find her daughter at all, on the whole earth, though she searched the entire expanse;)
illam non udis veniens Aurora capillis cessantem vidit, non Hesperus; illa duabus flammiferas pinus manibus succendit ab Aetna perque pruinosas tulit inrequieta tenebras;
(Aurora the Dawn, coming with her burning hair, does not see her walking about, nor does the Hesperus the Evening; the mother follows with flame-bearing torches in both hands from Etna, and she carries them worriedly through the frosty shadows;)
rursus ubi alma dies hebetarat sidera, natam solis ab occasu solis quaerebat ad ortus.
(When the bright day began to blunt the stars again, she sought her daughter from the rising to the setting of the sun;)
fessa labore sitim conceperat, oraque nulli conluerant fontes, cum tectam stramine vidit forte casam parvasque fores pulsavit;
(Weary, she began to take on thirst from her labor, but no fountains had drenched her face, before she saw by chance a thatched house with straw, and she knocked on its little door;)
at inde prodit anus divamque videt lymphamque roganti dulce dedit, tosta quod texerat ante polenta.
(And then an old woman comes out and sees the goddess, and she gives a sweet drink to her, asking, because she had brewed some roasted barley;)
dum bibit illa datum, duri puer oris et audax constitit ante deam risitque avidamque vocavit.
(While she drinks what she has been given, an audacious boy with a stout face walked up to the goddess, laughs, and calls her greedy;)
offensa est neque adhuc epota parte loquentem cum liquido mixta perfudit diva polenta:
(She was offended, and not yet done drinking, the goddess doused the boy with the liquid mixed with barley:)
conbibit os maculas et, quae modo bracchia gessit, crura gerit; cauda est mutatis addita membris, inque brevem formam, ne sit vis magna nocendi contrahitur, parvaque minor mensura lacerta est.
(His face was splashed with stains, and the arms that he just had become legs; a tail was added to his transformed limbs, and a little size, lest a great force for harm be formed, and his arms are of lesser size;)
mirantem flentemque et tangere monstra parantem fugit anum latebramque petit, aptumque colori nomen habet variis stellatus corpora guttis.
(He flees the old lady, while she stands amazed and weeps and tries to touch the monster, and he searches for a hiding place; his identity is linked to his color; his body is spotted with various splotches;)
Quas dea per terras et quas erraverit undas, dicere longa mora est; quaerenti defuit orbis;
(The goddess wandered throughout all the lands and seas; to say for how long would be a distraction; the world deceived her searching;)
Sicaniam repetit, dumque omnia lustrat eundo, venit et ad Cyanen.
(She scans Sicily again, and while she looks around everywhere in her path, she comes finally to Cyane;)
ea ni mutata fuisset, omnia narrasset; sed et os et lingua volenti dicere non aderant, nec, quo loqueretur, habebat;
(Why the nymph had changed, she would have told the goddess everything; but neither her mouth nor her tongue existed for her desire, and she did not have them with which she could speak;)
signa tamen manifesta dedit notamque parenti, illo forte loco delapsam in gurgite sacro Persephones zonam summis ostendit in undis.
(Still, after she appeared, she gave signs and a clue to the parent; she showed how, in that spot by chance, Persephone’s belt had fallen down into her sacred pool, floating on the top of the waves;)
quam simul agnovit, tamquam tum denique raptam scisset, inornatos laniavit diva capillos et repetita suis percussit pectora palmis.
(As soon as she recognized it, so much then did she finally realize that she had been kidnapped, that the goddess tore out her untied hair and beat upon her chest again and again with her palms;)
nescit adhuc, ubi sit; terras tamen increpat omnes ingratasque vocat nec frugum munere dignas, Trinacriam ante alias, in qua vestigia damni repperit.
(Yet she did not know where she might be; however, she stomps all over the earth and calls it ungrateful and unworthy to bear her crops, since it was everywhere but Sicily that she found her evidence that her daughter had been damned;)
ergo illic saeva vertentia glaebas fregit aratra manu, parilique irata colonos ruricolasque boves leto dedit arvaque iussit fallere depositum vitiataque semina fecit.
(So, in that place, the savage goddess broke the plows, turning over the soil, with her hand, and furious, she killed the farmers and the farmer’s wives and cattle alike, and she commanded the fields to hold back their harvest, and she made their seeds scarce;)
fertilitas terrae latum vulgata per orbem falsa iacet:
(The land’s fertility, well known throughout the world lays fallow:)
primis segetes moriuntur in herbis, et modo sol nimius, nimius modo corripit imber;
(The corns perish in their first bloom, and either too much sunlight or too much rain rips them down;)
sideraque ventique nocent, avidaeque volucres semina iacta legunt; lolium tribulique fatigant triticeas messes et inexpugnabile gramen.
(The stars and the winds grow destructive, and greedy birds pluck the seeds lying about; the rustic curses and thorns and darnel plants and indefatigable grass grow weary;)
Tum caput Eleis Alpheias extulit undis rorantesque comas a fronte removit ad aures atque ait 'o toto quaesitae virginis orbe et frugum genetrix, inmensos siste labores neve tibi fidae violenta irascere terrae.
(Then, Olympic Alpheias peeked his head out of the waves and moved her dripping hair from her forehead to her ears, and she says, ‘O you mother who was sought her virgin girl across the whole world, make your immense labors rise; don’t grow angry in violence against the earth that has trusted you;)
terra nihil meruit patuitque invita rapinae, nec sum pro patria supplex: huc hospita veni.
(The earth has not deserved anything, and it unwillingly allowed her rape, nor am I a supplicant for the sake of my homeland: I have come here a guest;)
Pisa mihi patria est et ab Elide ducimus ortus, Sicaniam peregrina colo, sed gratior omni haec mihi terra solo est: hos nunc Arethusa penates, hanc habeo sedem. quam tu, mitissima, serva.
(Pisa is my country, and I lead myself from Elis; I, a foreigner, till the Sicilian land, but this land is even more favorable to me: now the town Arethusa holds these household gods; I hold this throne; and I, very powerful one, am your slave;)
mota loco cur sim tantique per aequoris undas advehar Ortygiam, veniet narratibus hora tempestiva meis, cum tu curaque levata et vultus melioris eris.
(That is why I was stirred from my place and carried through the waves of such a far sea to Ortygia; the joyous end will come to my storytelling if you would lighten my car and be with a kinder face;)
mihi pervia tellus praebet iter, subterque imas ablata cavernas hic caput attollo desuetaque sidera cerno.
(The earth provides me a way through, and carried through under deep caverns, I lift my head here and see unfamiliar stars;)
ergo dum Stygio sub terris gurgite labor, visa tua est oculis illic Proserpina nostris:
(While I was gliding upon the Stygian pool beneath the earth, Persephone was seen there by my very own eyes:)
illa quidem tristis neque adhuc interrita vultu, sed regina tamen, sed opaci maxima mundi, sed tamen inferni pollens matrona tyranni!'
(Really, she was sad, and her face was completely terrified, yet she is now a queen, the noblest lady of a dark world, now the powerful matron of the Underworld's tyrant!')
Mater ad auditas stupuit ceu saxea voces attonitaeque diu similis fuit, utque dolore pulsa gravi gravis est amentia, curribus oras exit in aetherias:
(The mother stood shocked, still as a rock, at the words she heard, and for a long time was astonished, as a heavy frenzy was piled upon her crushing grief; she flies out into the sky in her chariot:)
ibi toto nubila vultu ante Iovem passis stetit invidiosa capillis 'pro' que 'meo veni supplex tibi, Iuppiter,' inquit 'sanguine proque tuo: si nulla est gratia matris, nata patrem moveat, neu sit tibi cura, precamur, vilior illius, quod nostro est edita partu.
(There, she stood before Jove in full view, jealously, with unkempt hair, and she says, 'I have come to you, a supplicant, for the sake of my and your own kin: if a mother is not worthy of mercy, let a daughter move her father, unless she is of no concern to you [something cheaper than this], though she was born from our coupling;)
en quaesita diu tandem mihi nata reperta est, si reperire vocas amittere certius, aut si scire, ubi sit, reperire vocas.
(But, my daughter has finally been discovered, sought for such a long time, if you call 'finding' to mean losing more certainly, or if you call 'finding' to know where she is;)
quod rapta, feremus, dummodo reddat eam!
(Because she has been stolen, I shall endure it, so long as he returns her!)
neque enim praedone marito filia digna tua est, si iam mea filia non est.'
(For your daughter is not worthy of being a prize to a husband, if so my daughter is not;)
Iuppiter excepit 'commune est pignus onusque nata mihi tecum;
(Jupiter responds: 'The toil is mutual, and the burden with your daughter belongs to me, as well as you;)
sed si modo nomina rebus addere vera placet, non hoc iniuria factum, verum amor est;
(But if it pleases you now to add true names to these affairs, this deed is not a wrongdoing, but truly it is love;)
neque erit nobis gener ille pudori, tu modo, diva, velis.
(And he would not be a shameful son-in-law to me, if you, goddess, should wish;)
ut desint cetera, quantum est esse Iovis fratrem!
(How dear is the brother of Jove, that these other matters don't matter!)
quid, quod nec cetera desunt nec cedit nisi sorte mihi?
(What then, since these other things don't matter and he cannot leave except from my good graces?)
–sed tanta cupido si tibi discidii est, repetet Proserpina caelum, lege tamen certa, si nullos contigit illic ore cibos; nam sic Parcarum foedere cautum est.'
(but if there is such a great desire for her to be abandoned, let Persephone see the sky again, but only under a fixed law, so long as she does not touch the food down there; for such is the case under the law of the Fates;)
***
