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Monday, March 21, 2011

Vergil, Aeneid Book I

Publius Vergilius Maro [Vergil]

70-19 BC
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Republican Era/Golden Age of Latin Literature/Imperial Era)


P. VERGILI MARONIS AENEIDOS LIBER PRIMVS

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus,
[I sing of war and a man who was first driven from the shores of Troy to Italy, by destiny]

Laviniaque venit
litora,
[and he came to the shores of Lavinium,]

 multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram;
[and that well-known chap was thrown greatly about on land and sea, by the forces of the gods and on account of mindful grudge of cruel Juno;]

multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem,               5
inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum,
Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.
[and after he suffering many things from war as well, he finally established a city, and imported his gods to Latium, from whence came the Latin people, their Alban forefathers, and the lofty walls of Rome.]

Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso,
quidve dolens, regina deum tot volvere casus
insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores               10
impulerit.
[So Muse, recall to my the reasons, and which divinity was insulted, and what the queen of the gods suffered in order to cause such a distinguished fellow to undergo so many disasters and face so many undertakings.]

Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?
[Is anger so great in minds of the gods?]

Urbs antiqua fuit, Tyrii tenuere coloni,
Karthago, Italiam contra Tiberinaque longe
ostia, dives opum studiisque asperrima belli;
[There was once an ancient city, where settlers from Tyre lived, facing the Italy and far away from the Tiber's harbor, rich in resources and the fiercest you could find in the arts of war.]

quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus unam               15
posthabita coluisse Samo;
[Juno is said to have cherished this single city among all in the world, even more than Samos;]

hic illius arma,
hic currus fuit;
[Here were the sacred weapons of this goddess, here her chariot rested;]

hoc regnum dea gentibus esse,
[this would be the kingdom of all nations,]

si qua fata sinant,
[if ever the fates would allow it,]

iam tum tenditque fovetque.
[and at that time, it already seemed to lean that way and favor so.]

Progeniem sed enim Troiano a sanguine duci
audierat,
[but, you see, she had previously heard of the race from the bloodline of a Trojan leader,]

Tyrias olim quae verteret arces;               20
[one that would one day overthrow the citadels of Tyre;]

hinc populum late regem belloque superbum
venturum excidio Libyae:
[henceforth, that his people and king quite confident in war would sooner or later approach for the destruction of Libya:]

sic volvere Parcas.
[so the Fates spun.]
 


Vix e conspectu Siculae telluris in altum
vela dabant laeti,
[And scarcely out of sight of the Sicilian countryside, were happy fellows beginning to set their sails to the high sea,]

 et spumas salis aere ruebant,               35
cum Iuno,
[and rush through the spewing of the salty sea upon their bronze, when Juno]

 aeternum servans sub pectore volnus,
haec secum:
[while she stored her eternal wound beneath her heart, and she said to herself the following:]

 'Mene incepto desistere victam,
["Really, can I stop what I've started, in defeat,]

nec posse Italia Teucrorum avertere regem?
[and not find a way to turn the king of the Trojans away from Italy?]

Quippe vetor fatis.
[Indeed I forbidden by the fates.]

Pallasne exurere classem
Argivom atque ipsos potuit submergere ponto,       
[Wasn't Pallas <Athena> able to burn down the Argive fleet and drown those very men in the depth of the sea,]

       40
unius ob noxam et furias Aiacis Oilei?
[on account of her anger and fury against Oeleos' son, Ajax?]

Ipsa, Iovis rapidum iaculata e nubibus ignem,
disiecitque rates
[She, once she had hurled quick fire from Jove's clouds,]

 evertitque aequora ventis,
[and turned the seas over with the winds,]

illum expirantem transfixo pectore flammas
turbine corripuit
[she washed over that aforesaid man in a whirlpool, his chest pierced completely through, while he gasped out flames,]

 scopuloque infixit acuto. 
[and she fixed him upon a sharp rock.]

             45
Ast ego, quae divom incedo regina, Iovisque
et soror et coniunx,
[But I, who go about as the queen of the gods, and both the sister and wife of Jove]

una cum gente tot annos
bella gero!
[I wage war with a single race of people, for year after year!]

Et quisquam numen Iunonis adoret
praeterea,
[And after this, will anyone worship the divine power of Juno,]

 aut supplex aris imponet honorem?'
[or place a token of honor upon my alters as a supplicant?']

Talia flammato secum dea corde volutans               50
nimborum in patriam, loca feta furentibus austris,
Aeoliam venit.
[As her heart burned from from saying such things to herself,  the goddess, flying about, came to the realm of rainstorms, Aeolia, the lands festering with the raging winds of the south]

Hic vasto rex Aeolus antro
luctantes ventos tempestatesque sonoras
imperio premit
[Here, the king Aeolus pressed down, with his raw power, the mourning winds and sonorous storms in their vast caves]

ac vinclis et carcere frenat.
[and restrains them in their chains, and prison.]

Illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis               55
circum claustra fremunt;
[They, feeling indignant, groan with a great deal of rumbling, around the confines of their mountain;]

celsa sedet Aeolus arce
sceptra tenens,
[while Aeolus sat in his lofty citadel, holding his scepter]

mollitque animos
[and soothes their minds]

et temperat iras.
[and tempers their anger.]

Ni faciat, maria ac terras caelumque profundum
quippe ferant rapidi secum verrantque per auras.
[He made sure that they did not indeed carry away with them the seas, the earth, and the depth of the sky in their swiftness, and sweep them all through the breezes.]

Sed pater omnipotens speluncis abdidit atris,               60
[But the omnipotent sire hid them in dark caverns]


hoc metuens,
[as he fear this very thing]

 molemque et montis insuper altos
imposuit,
[and he impose the bulk of a mountain above them from the skies]

regemque dedit,
[and he assigned them a regent,]

 qui foedere certo
et premere et laxas sciret dare iussus habenas.
[a king who would know how to press them down, with a firm pact, and give the reins slack when ordered.]

Ad quem tum Iuno supplex his vocibus usa est:
[To this fellow, then, did Juno apply to him, like supplicant, with these words:]

'Aeole, namque tibi divom pater atque hominum rex               65
et mulcere dedit fluctus et tollere vento,
[Aeole, wherefore the sire of the gods, and king of men, gave you both the power to sooth and stir the waves through wind]

gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor,
[now sails my arch-nemesis, the nation of Tyrrhenos, across the sea]

Ilium in Italiam portans victosque Penates:
[trying to bring another Troy and their defeated gods of their lands unto Italy.] 



Vix e conspectu Siculae telluris in altum
vela dabant laeti,
[And scarcely out of sight of the Sicilian countryside, were happy fellows beginning to set their sails to the high sea,]

 et spumas salis aere ruebant,               35
cum Iuno,
[and rush through the spewing of the salty sea upon their bronze, when Juno]

 aeternum servans sub pectore volnus,
haec secum:
[while she stored her eternal wound beneath her heart, and she said to herself the following:]

 'Mene incepto desistere victam,
["Really, can I stop what I've started, in defeat,]

nec posse Italia Teucrorum avertere regem?
[and not find a way to turn the king of the Trojans away from Italy?]

Quippe vetor fatis.
[Indeed I forbidden by the fates.]

Pallasne exurere classem
Argivom atque ipsos potuit submergere ponto,       
[Wasn't Pallas <Athena> able to burn down the Argive fleet and drown those very men in the depth of the sea,]

       40
unius ob noxam et furias Aiacis Oilei?
[on account of her anger and fury against Oeleos' son, Ajax?]

Ipsa, Iovis rapidum iaculata e nubibus ignem,
disiecitque rates
[She, once she had hurled quick fire from Jove's clouds,]

 evertitque aequora ventis,
[and turned the seas over with the winds,]

illum expirantem transfixo pectore flammas
turbine corripuit
[she washed over that aforesaid man in a whirlpool, his chest pierced completely through, while he gasped out flames,]

 scopuloque infixit acuto. 
[and she fixed him upon a sharp rock.]

             45
Ast ego, quae divom incedo regina, Iovisque
et soror et coniunx,
[But I, who go about as the queen of the gods, and both the sister and wife of Jove]

una cum gente tot annos
bella gero!
[I wage war with a single race of people, for year after year!]

Et quisquam numen Iunonis adoret
praeterea,
[And after this, will anyone worship the divine power of Juno,]

 aut supplex aris imponet honorem?'
[or place a token of honor upon my alters as a supplicant?']

Talia flammato secum dea corde volutans               50
nimborum in patriam, loca feta furentibus austris,
Aeoliam venit.
[As her heart burned from from saying such things to herself,  the goddess, flying about, came to the realm of rainstorms, Aeolia, the lands festering with the raging winds of the south]

Hic vasto rex Aeolus antro
luctantes ventos tempestatesque sonoras
imperio premit
[Here, the king Aeolus pressed down, with his raw power, the mourning winds and sonorous storms in their vast caves]

ac vinclis et carcere frenat.
[and restrains them in their chains, and prison.]

Illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis               55
circum claustra fremunt;
[They, feeling indignant, groan with a great deal of rumbling, around the confines of their mountain;]

celsa sedet Aeolus arce
sceptra tenens,
[while Aeolus sat in his lofty citadel, holding his scepter]

mollitque animos
[and soothes their minds]

et temperat iras.
[and tempers their anger.]

Ni faciat, maria ac terras caelumque profundum
quippe ferant rapidi secum verrantque per auras.
[He made sure that they did not indeed carry away with them the seas, the earth, and the depth of the sky in their swiftness, and sweep them all through the breezes.]

Sed pater omnipotens speluncis abdidit atris,               60
[But the omnipotent sire hid them in dark caverns]


hoc metuens,
[as he fear this very thing]

 molemque et montis insuper altos
imposuit,
[and he impose the bulk of a mountain above them from the skies]

regemque dedit,
[and he assigned them a regent,]

 qui foedere certo
et premere et laxas sciret dare iussus habenas.
[a king who would know how to press them down, with a firm pact, and give the reins slack when ordered.]

Ad quem tum Iuno supplex his vocibus usa est:
[To this fellow, then, did Juno apply to him, like supplicant, with these words:]

'Aeole, namque tibi divom pater atque hominum rex               65
et mulcere dedit fluctus et tollere vento,
[Aeole, wherefore the sire of the gods, and king of men, gave you both the power to sooth and stir the waves through wind]

gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor,
[now sails my arch-nemesis, the nation of Tyrrhenos, across the sea]

Ilium in Italiam portans victosque Penates:
[trying to bring another Troy and their defeated gods of their lands unto Italy.]

incute vim ventis
[stir up the force of the wind]

submersasque obrue puppes,
[and rush upon their ships to drown them]

aut age diversos et disiice corpora ponto.               70
[or better yet, take handfuls of them them and scatter their bodies in the sea.]

Sunt mihi bis septem praestanti corpore nymphae,
[I have 14 nymphs with excellent bodies,]

quarum quae forma pulcherrima Deiopea,
[from whom

conubio iungam stabili propriamque dicabo,
[I will declare her to be properly married to you in a lasting marriage,]

omnis ut tecum meritis pro talibus annos
exigat,
[and it will happen that she will live all her years by your side for such deserved honors,]

 et pulchra faciat te prole parentem.'               75
[and she will make you the father of a beautiful stock of children.']


Aeolus haec contra: 'Tuus, O regina, quid optes
explorare labor;
[Aelous said the following in response, "O queen, your task is to find out what you want done;]

mihi iussa capessere fas est.
[It is my obligation to do what you order.]

Tu mihi, quodcumque hoc regni, tu sceptra Iovemque
concilias,
[Whatever semblance of a kingdom there is here, it is you bequeath it to me, and you convince Jove and his scepter,]

 tu das epulis accumbere divom,
[you allow me to sit and dine in the feasts of the gods,]

nimborumque facis tempestatumque potentem.'               80
[and you make me the one who can control storm clouds and tempests."]

Haec ubi dicta, cavum conversa cuspide montem
impulit in latus:
[When he said these things, he plowed the empty mount upon his side with his upturned trident:]

 ac venti, velut agmine facto,
qua data porta, ruunt et terras turbine perflant.
[and winds, as if in an arrayed battle formation, rushed out of all the open paths and blasted the earth completely in a tornado.]

Incubuere mari,
[They lied down upon the sea,]

totumque a sedibus imis
una Eurusque Notusque ruunt
[and together the East and North wind rushed from their depth seats upon its entirety,]

 creberque procellis               85
Africus,
[and the Africus too, with its frequent blasts,]

et vastos volvunt ad litora fluctus.
[and they turned up tremendous floods of water upon the beaches.]

Insequitur clamorque virum stridorque rudentum.
[What followed was the shout, and panic of men steering forth.]

Eripiunt subito nubes caelumque diemque
Teucrorum ex oculis;
[Without warning, the clouds stole the sky, and daylight out of the Trojans' sight;]

 ponto nox incubat atra.
[pitch-black night fell upon the sea.]

Intonuere poli,
[The poles of the sky thundered,]

 et crebris micat ignibus aether,               90
[and the upper sky flashed with lightning, over and over again,]

praesentemque viris intentant omnia mortem.
[and every thing seemed to portend an impending death for these men.]

Extemplo Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra:
[And suddently Aeneas' limbs were loosened by the chill:]

ingemit,
[he moaned,]

et duplicis tendens ad sidera palmas
talia voce refert:
[and stretching both his palms to the stars, he said the following speech:]

 'O terque quaterque beati,
["O three, and four times over is he more happy,]


quis ante ora patrum Troiae sub moenibus altis               95
contigit oppetere!
[who manages to see the shores of his Trojan forefathers, beneath the high walls of its city!] 




 O Danaum fortissime gentis
Tydide!
[O, Tydidos, strongest of the race of Greeks!]

 Mene Iliacis occumbere campis
non potuisse,
[Couldn't you have managed to slain me dead on Ilion's fields,]

tuaque animam hanc effundere dextra,
[and spill out this lifeblood of mine using your war arm,]

saevus ubi Aeacidae telo iacet Hector,
[where cruel Hector now lies dead from the spear of Aeacus' son,]

 ubi ingens
Sarpedon, ubi tot Simois correpta sub undis               100
scuta virum galeasque et fortia corpora volvit?'
[and where enormous-bodied Sarpedon lies too, and where the Simois rolls so many helmets and sturdy bodies of men under its waves?]

Talia iactanti stridens Aquilone procella
velum adversa ferit,
[Such a storm, screaming from the north wind tossing about, grabbed against his sail,]

fluctusque ad sidera tollit.
[and the swell of the sea rose as high as the stars themselves.]

Franguntur remi;
[The oars began to break;]

 tum prora avertit,
[then, the prow turn about,]

 et undis
dat latus;
[and exposed the ship's sides to the waves;]

 insequitur cumulo praeruptus aquae mons.               105
[and a mountain of water, immensely steep at its peak, loomed over them.]