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Friday, April 8, 2011

Martial, Epigram on Spectacular Sights (III)

M. VALERI MARTIALIS EPIGRAMMATON (LIBER DE SPECTACVLIS) I

Marcus Valerius Martial [Martial]
38-104 AD
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Imperial Era)


Martial de spectaculis

III

Quae tam seposita est,
[What has been so secluded]

 quae gens tam barbara, Caesar,
[you Caesar, what race of people is so far from civilization,]

     ex qua spectator non sit in urbe tua?
[from where a man might not be present as a spectator in the city that belongs you?]

Venit ab Orpheo cultor Rhodopeius Haemo,
[From Haeman Orpheos comes the Rhodopeian farmer,]

     uenit et epolo Sarmata pastus equo,
[and the Sarmatian shepherd comes upon his fierce steed,]

et qui prima bibit deprensi flumina Nili,               5
[and the man who drinks the first waters of the Nile, cast down]

     et quem supremae Tethyos unda ferit;
[and the one whom the remotest wave of Thetys carries across;]

festinauit Arabs,
[The Arab hurried forth]

 festinauere Sabaei,
[the Sabaeans rushed forth]

     et Cilices nimbis hic maduere suis.
[and here the Cilicians standing dripping from their rainstorms.]

Crinibus in nodum tortis uenere Sygambri,
[The Sygambri came with their hair twisted into a knot]

     atque aliter tortis crinibus Aethiopes.               10
[and the Ethiopians with the hair twisted differently.]

Vox diuersa sonat populorum,
[The collective voice of the people gathered is diverse]

tum tamen una est,
[and yet there is only one,]

     cum uerus patriae diceris esse pater.
[when you are called the true "father of our nation"]