Campion, Epigrams

Thomas Campion [Campion]
 1567-1620 c. AD
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Renaissance Era)

 THOMAE CAMPIANI EPIGRAMMATUM LIBER PRIMUS

1. AD EXCELSISSIMUM FLORENTISSIMUMQUE CAROLUM,
MAGNAE BRITANNIAE PRINCIPEM [In honor of the highest and most successful Charles, the Prince of Great Britain]

Ludicra qui tibi nunc dicat, olim (amplissime princeps),
[He who now enriches you with profits, my most endowed prince, once upon a time,]

    grandior ut fueris,
[so that you could grow greater,]

grandia forte canet,
[may he sing great things and forcefully]

quaeque genus celebrare tuum et tua lucida possunt
    facta, domi crescunt, sive patrata foris.
[Everything, your high birth, and your light, can celebrate your deeds, they grow large at home, unless accomplished abroad.]

at tenues ne tu nimis (optime) despice Musas:         5
[but, for you part, don't despise the gentle Muses, your excellency,]

    pondere magna valent, parva lepore iuvant.
[great things grow strong from their weight, small things are pleasing from their charm.]

regibus athletae spatiis grati esse solebant
    apricis, nani ridiculique domi.
[In their sunny fields, athletes are usually great for kings, but they are dwarfs and idiots at home.]

magnus Alexander magno plaudebat Homero,
    suspiciens inter praelia ficta deos;         10
[Alexander the Great used to clap his hands for mighty Homer, imagining the gods among phony battles;]

Caesar, maior eo, Romana epigrammata legit,
[More than he, did Caesar read Roman epigrams,]

    sceptigera quaedam fecit et ipse manu.
[and he himself made certain statues bear scepters in their hands.]

talia sed recitent alii tibi (maxime princeps);
[but, greatest prince, let other people recite things like these;]



    tu facias semper maxima, parva lege.
[may you always do the greatest things, using little recourse of the law.]

enecat activam quia contemplatio vitam         15
    longa,
[Because long contemplation kills off an industrious life,]

brevis,
necnon ingeniosa, fovet.
[brief contemplation, but still ingenious, makes it all the better.]



2. DE LIBRIS SUIS

Nuper cur natum libro praepono priori?
[Why do I now newly set my son to a book from the past?]

    princeps est aequum principe stare loco.
[The best thing is the same as when you find yourself at the start.]

3. AD LECTOREM

Nec sua barbaricis Galeno scribere visum est,
[It did not seem right for Galenus to write his own things to barbarians,]

    in mensa nullum qui didicere modum;
[since he was a man who learned no meaning of measure on his desk.]

nec mea commendo nimium lectoribus illis
[Nor do I advise too much my own writings to those readers]

    qui sine delectu vilia quaeque legunt.
[who chose any old cheap things with no intention of delight.]

4. IN NERVAM

In coenam immunis propter ioca salsa vocatur
    Nerva;
[Now Nerva is called, unharmed, to dinner on account of his salty wit.]

suum fas est lingere quemque salem.
[So it is the best thing for everyone to lap up his own salt.] 

5. IN TABACCAM

Aurum nauta suis Hispanus vectat ab Indis,
[The Spanish sailors transports gold to his own lands from India,]

    et longas queritur se subiise vias.
[and he complains how he had to endure long journeys.]

maius iter portus ad eosdem suscipit Anglus,
[An English port supplied a greater journey to these very same fellows,]

    ut referat fumos, nuda tabacca, tuos:

[so that one could bring back your smokes, your raw tobacco:]

copia detonsis quos vendit Ibera Britannis,         5


[these are what one sells from Spanish resources to the clean-face British,]


    per fumos ad se vellera callíde trahens.
[while he happily lugs his wool in exchange for 'smoke'.]







nec mirum est stupidos vitiatis naribus Anglos
    olfacere Hesperios non potuisse dolos.

[It's no wonder that the witless Brits, with their faulty noses, cannot have ever learned how to sniff out the tricks of the Spanish.]
 

Campion, Shade

Thomas Campion [Campion]
 1567-1620 c. AD
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Renaissance Era)

 THOMAE CAMPIANI UMBRA

foemineos dea quae nigro sub limine manes
occludis, coelo ostentans,
[Hail you goddess, you who lock up the ghosts of women under your black threshold, showing it to the sky,]

 iterumque reducens
umbriferum per iter, quanquam crudelis amanti,
sis mihi tu facilis;
[and leading back again through the shadowy journey, may it be you to belong to me, willingly, however cruel you are to a lover.]

quanquam non aequa resumis
formosarum animas, festina morte peremptas.          5
[although you do not take up the spirits of lovely women kindly, hasten forth those who have been taken away by death.]

abreptas solus resonante reducere plectro
Threicius potuit,
[The Thracian fellow alone could lead back women stolen away, with his resounding lyre,]

lucique ostendere amores;
[and could reveal his love to the light.]

non potuit tamen;
[nevertheless he could not;]

ad tristes devolvitur umbras
quicquid formosum est,
[whatever is beautiful is being rolled down to sad shadows,]

et non inamabile natum.
[and birth is not undesired.]
 

Campion, A Song for the Thames

Thomas Campion [Campion]
 1567-1620 c. AD
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Renaissance Era)

THOMAE CAMPIANI AD THAMESIN

ARGUMENTUM

Totum hoc poema gratulationem in se habet ad Thamesin de Hyspanorum fuga,

[This entire poem is a celebration designed to the Thames, on account of the escape of the Hyspani,]

 in qua adumbrantur causa quibus adducti Hyspani expeditionem in Angliam fecerint.

[when they made a journey to England, the Hyspani, once led out, were overwhelmed consequently by certain reasons;]

eae autem sunt, avaratia, crudelitas, superbia, atque invidia.

[Yet, avarice, cruelty, pride, and jealousy, these were the reasons.]
  
nympha potens Thamesis soli cessura Dianae,
caeruleum caput effer aquis:
[Hail powerful nymph of the Thames, you willing to yield to the Diana alone, peek out your caerulean head from the water.]

 carchesia late
quae modo constiterant signis horrenda cruentis,
ecce tuos trepide liquere fugacia portus.
[Here are goblets, glittering with their bloody signs, which they had just set up, and behold them fleeing your ports in fright.]

non tulit Hispanos crudelia signa sequentes           5
Neptunus pater, et multum indignantia spumis
aequora, non Deus aetherea qui fulminat arce,
nubila qui solvit, ventorumque assidet alis.
[Father Neptune did not bear the Hispani following their unsophisticated signs, nor the sea water raging greatly into a foam, nor did the God, who flashes in his lighting-bound citadel, and releases the storm clouds, and sits upon the wings of the winds.] 



ille suos cultus, sua templa, suosque Britannos
proteget,
[It is this one protects their sites of worship, their temples, and their citizens of Britain]

ultricemque suam victribus armis.           10
[and their avenger in her victorious arms.]

nec Romana feret purgatis orgia fanis
reffluere,
[And he cannot bear to have orgies of the Romans poured back into the shrines he has cleansed,]

aut vetitas fieri libamen ad aras.
[or for there to a breach in altars that are forbidden.]

o pietas odiosa Deo,
[o, piety, spiteful to God,]

scelerataque sacra,
[and you wicked rites of religion,]

quae magis inficiunt (damnosa piacula) sontes.
[which have caused more innocent casualties--cursed examples of defilement.]

     est locus Hesperiis, Diti sacer, abditus undis,    
[There is a land hidden away from the waters of the West, one sacred to Death,]

      15
quem pius occuluit Nereus,
[which pious Nereus kept secret]

 hominumque misertus
Oceanus,
[and Ocean, the cause of men's misery,]

 quemque ipse deis metuendus Apollo
luminis inditio quod detegit omnia, sensit
ignotis sub aquis melius potuisse latere.
[and which Apollo himself, fearful for his divine light that covers all things completely, perceived that it could have rested more secretly beneath uncharted waters.]

at pater umbrarum,
[but the father of shadows,]

 cui Nox parit horrida natos           20
terribiles,
[for whom shuddering Night birthed her frightful sons,]

nigro vultus signante corymbo
ille per obscuras petit antra immania silvas
aurea,
[that famous one who, with a black serpent marking his face, sought the tremendous caves of gold through gloomy forests]

silvarum Stygiae sub tegmine nymphae
atra tenebrosis spectant in fontibus ora.
[the Stygian nymphs beneath the foliage of the forests watch the black shores in their shady fountains.]

Eumenides regem comitantur,
[The Rages accompany their king]

 et ortus Echidna            25
Cerberus,
[and Cerberus emerges with the Echidna,]

 et quae monstra tulit furialis origo,
[and whatever monstrosities the Fury's birth bore,]

quos caput horrendum quatiens sic alloquitur Dis:
[and whoever men thus the shuddering head of Death thusly addresses, while it shakes:]