Lucius Annaeus Seneca [Seneca the Younger]
1BC-65 AD *executed by Emperor Nero
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Imperial Period)
L. ANNAEI SENECAE OCTAVIA
Octavia Iam uaga caelo sidera fulgens
Aurora fugat,
[This is Octavia now speaking, shining Dawn puts to flight the wavering stars, away from the sky,]
surgit Titan radiante coma
[the sun, Titan, rises with his shining hair]
mundoque diem reddit clarum.
[and returns the clear sky of day to the world.]
Age, tot tantis onerata malis,
[Come you, who are burdened so often with so great evils, ]
5
repete assuetos iam tibi questus
[seek again the journeys that you've grown used to]
atque aequoreas uince Alcyonas,
[and prevail over the watery Alcyonae,]
uince et uolucres Pandionias:
[and prevail over the birds of Pandionia too:]
grauior namque his fortuna tua est.
[on that matter, your own fortune is graver than these.]
Semper genetrix deflenda mihi, 10
[Always are you a mother who causes me to weep,]
prima meorum causa malorum,
[and the first reason for my troubles,]
tristes questus natae exaudi,
[as I heard in length of about the tragic accounts of your daughter,]
si quis remanet sensus in umbris.
[if any feeling remains in among the shades.]
utinam ante manu grandaeua sua
mea rupisset stamina Clotho, 15
[If only Clotho had broken the long string of my life in her hand, before,]
tua quam maerens uulnera uidi
oraque foedo sparsa cruore!
[than I had to see look upon your wounds, in grief, and your face spattered in messy blood!]
o nox semper funesta mihi;
[O, how night is ever a matter of life and death for me;]
tempore ab illo lux est tenebris
inuisa magis:
[from that very moment in time, daylight became more odious than darkness: ]
20
tulimus saeuae iussa nouercae,
[I suffered the orders of a cruel stepmother]
hostilem animum uultusque truces.
[and her hostile attitude, and her fierce scowls.]
I N F I N I T A
