Aeneid Translation XII.887-952

887. Aeneas threatens against [him], and he brandishes his huge treelike

888. weapon, and he speaks thus with a savage heart:

889. "Now at last, what delay is there? Or why are you drawing back now, Turnus?

890. It must be fought* hand-to-hand with savage weapons, not with a course**. (*certandum est is a passive periphrastic. "Certandum" is a gerundive. **a "course" meaning a race.)

891. Turn yourself* into all faces and draw together whatever (*tete = te).

892. you are able to either with your mind or with your skill; desire

893. to follow the lofty stars with wings and to hide yourself enclosed by hollow land."

894. That man, shaking his head, says, "Your fiery words do not frighten me,

895. fierce [man]; the gods and enemy Jupiter frighten me."

896. And not having spoken out more [words], he catches sight of a huge rock,

897. a huge old rock, which, by chance, was lying on the plain,

898. a boundary placed on the field so that it might dissolve a dispute for fields.

899. Twelve chosen [men] would go under that [boundary/rock] with their neck

900. as the bodies of men the earth now produces;

901. that man was hurling [it] seized with a trembling hand into the enemy,

902. rising higher, and the hero* has been stirred up on a course. (*heros = Turnus. Virgil is noted for portraying Turnus sympathetically despite being Aeneas' enemy.)

903. But he recognizes himself neither running nor going

904. or raising or moving the huge rock with his hand;

905. his knees sink, his frozen blood congealed with cold.

906. Then the stone itself of the man, having been turned* through the empty void**, (*"volutus" modifies "lapis". **"inane" as a substantive means "void".)

907. neither traversed the whole space nor completed the strike.

908. And like in dreams, when sluggish rest has pressed

909. eyes at night, we seem to want to extend our eager courses in vain

910. and we fall, sick, in the middle of our efforts;

911. the tongue is not strong, the known strengths in the body

912. are not adequate and a voice or words do not follow:

913. in this way, the dire goddess denies success to Turnus

914. with whatever courage he sought a way. Then various feelings

915. are turned in his heart; he gazes upon the Rutulians and the city,

916. and he delays with fear and starts trembling that death is threatening;

917. he sees neither to where he should tear himself away, nor with what force he should hasten into the enemy,

918. nor chariots or his charioteer sister anywhere.

919. To him delaying, Aeneas waves a fatal weapon,

920. having selected his chance with his eyes, and he aims at a distance

921. with his whole body. Rocks, stirred up by the catapult of a wall,

922. never roar in this way, nor do such great clashings

923. leap apart from a thunderbolt. A spear in the likeness of a

924. black whirlwind, bearing dire ruin, reveals the borders

925. of the cuirass and the outer circles of the seven-layered shield;

926. whirring, it crosses through the middle of his thigh. Having been struck,

927. huge Turnus falls to the earth with a folded knee* (*alternatively, after his knee has been folded).

928. The Rutulians rise up with a groan and the whole mountain resounds

929. around and the high groves send back the voice far and wide.

930. That humble, suppliant man, extending his eyes and his praying right hand,

931. says: "Indeed, I deserved [it] and do not plead against [it].

932. Use your lot. If any care of your sad father

933. is able to touch you, I pray (and you have had such a father* [as mine], Anchises) <*alternatively, such a father [as mine], Anchises, has been to you>

934. pity the old age of Daunus and return me

935. to my men, or, if you prefer, my body deprived of light*. (*metaphorical term for life.)

936. You conquered [me] and the Italians saw* (*videre = viderunt. NOT an infinitive.)

937. that I, conquered, was stretching my palms; Lavinia is your wife,

938. do not hasten further with hatreds." Sharp Aeneas stood in arms,

939. turning his eyes, and he pressed back his right hand;

940. both now and now, the speech had begun to change him delaying more,

941. when the unlucky baldric appeared on his high shoulder

942. and the belt of the boy Pallas, whom, conquered, Turnus had

943. lain low with a wound, and [whose] unfriendly, marked [thing] he was wearing

944. on his shoulders, gleamed with known knobs.

945. That man, after he drank in the reminders of savage grief and the spoils with his eyes,

946. inflamed by madness and anger, said, dreadful:

947. "Should you be snatched away from me from here,

948. [man] clothed with the spoils of my men? Pallas offers you with this wound,

949. and Pallas exacts a punishment from your polluted blood."

950. Saying this, the burning man hides his sword beneath

951. his facing chest; but for that mnan, his limbs are dissolved with cold

952. and his life, having despised, flees with a grown beneath the shadows.