Aeneid Translation IV.1-104


 * 1) But the queen, wounded by heavy love for some time,
 * 2) nourishes the wound in her veins and is seized by blind fire.
 * 3) Much virtue of the man* and much honor of the race runs back to her mind: (*refers to Aeneas)
 * 4) his face and words stick, fixed in her heart,
 * 5) and love does not give calm rest to her limbs.
 * 6) Later Aurora was surveying the lands with a torch of Phoebus,
 * 7) and she had removed her dewy shadow from the sky,
 * 8) when she*, not rational, addresses her sympathizing sister in this way: (*refers to Dido, not Aurora)
 * 9) "Sister Anna, what dreams frighten agitated me!
 * 10) What a strange guest, this man, approached our abode,
 * 11) bearing what a man, himself, in his face, with how bold a heart and weapons!
 * 12) Indeed, I believe, and my belief is not empty, that his race is of the gods.
 * 13) Fear proves souls ignoble*. Alas, by what fates that man (*"Degeneres" is predicate accusative.)
 * 14) has been tossed! What exhausted wars he was singing of!
 * 15) If it were not sitting fixed and unmoving in my mind
 * 16) that I might not be willing to ally myself to anyone* with a chain of wedlock (*cui = alicui)
 * 17) after my first love cheated deceived me with death;
 * 18) if it had not wearied me of the bridal chamber and the bridal torch,
 * 19) I could perhaps yield to sin for this one man.
 * 20) Anna, indeed I will confess, after the fates of my wretched husband Sychaeus,
 * 21) and the household gods scattered by the slaughter of a brother,
 * 22) this man alone has bent my feelings and has struck my
 * 23) wavering mind. I recognize the traces of an old flame.
 * 24) But for me, I may desire either that the bottom of the earth gape open sooner
 * 25) or that the almighty father drive me away with a thunderbolt to the shadows,
 * 26) pale shadows and deep night in the Underworld,
 * 27) before, Modesty, I violate you or relax your laws.
 * 28) That man, who first joined me to himself, took away
 * 29) my love; let that man have it and preserve it with himself in his tomb."
 * 30) Having spoken out in this way, she filled her bosom with tears having arisen.
 * 31) Anna says: "O, one more beloved than light to her sister,
 * 32) will grieving you alone be consumed in a lasting youth
 * 33) and will you know neither the sweet sons nor the prizes of Venus?
 * 34) Do you believe that ash or the buried souls of the dead regard it?
 * 35) It shall be: once, no husbands moved weary you,
 * 36) not in Libya, not before in Tyre; scorned Iarbas
 * 37) and other leaders, whom African land rich in triumphs
 * 38) nourishes: will you resist even pleasing love?
 * 39) And does it not come into mind on whose fields you have settled?
 * 40) From here, cities of the Gaetuli, a people unconquerable in war,
 * 41) and the unbridled Numidians and wild Syrtis encircle you;
 * 42) from here, there are a region deserted from thirst and raging Barcaei far and wide.
 * 43) What am I to say in respect to wars rising from Tyre
 * 44) and the threats of my brother?
 * 45) Indeed, with the gods as my protectors and with Juno favorable, I think that
 * 46) Trojan ships held this course by the wind.
 * 47) Sister, what a city you will see this rise, what kingdoms you will see rise
 * 48) from such wedlock! To things how great Phoenician glory
 * 49) will raise itself as the arms of the Trojans are accompanying!
 * 50) You just demand mercy of the gods, and after sacrifices are sacrificed,
 * 51) favor hospitality and weave causes of delaying*, (*morandī = gerund)
 * 52) while winter and watery Orion rage* on the sea, (*"dēsaevit" in the original text, but in the translation a plural verb makes more sense.)
 * 53) and ships have been shattered, while the sky is not favorable.
 * 54) After these words were said*, she** inflamed her soul with a vehement love (*can also be translated "with these words" to make an ablative of manner; **"she" refers to Dido)
 * 55) and she gave hope to her doubtful mind and loosens her modesty.
 * 56) First, they approach the temples and seek out peace along the altars;
 * 57) they sacrifice two-year-old sheep, having been chosen according to custom,
 * 58) to law-bringing Ceres and Apollo and father Bacchus;
 * 59) to Juno before all, for whose concern* matrimonial chains are. (*cui curae = double dative. cui = dative of reference, curae = dative of purpose.)
 * 60) Most beautiful Dido herself, holding a libation bowl with her right hand,
 * 61) pours between the middle horns of a shining heifer,
 * 62) or strides to the rich altars before the faces of the gods,
 * 63) and she renews the day with gifts, and sighing, she consults the
 * 64) breathing entrails of the animals after their chests have been opened.
 * 65) Alas, minds unaware of the prophets*! In respect to what do offerings, (*vātum is genitive with the special adjective "ignārae")
 * 66) in respect to what do temples help a raging one? A flame eats* my soft marrows (*this is the verb "edo," which conjugates in the present tense as "edo, ēs, ēst, edimus, ēstis, edunt." For some forms, you can tell "edo" apart from "sum" only by the macrons on the e's.)
 * 67) and meanwhile, a secret wound lives beneath my chest."
 * 68) Unlucky Dido is burned, and she wanders raging
 * 69) in the whole city, as a doe after an arrow has been hurled,
 * 70) whom unsuspecting a driving shepherd has pierced with weapons far off
 * 71) among the Cretan groves, and he has left swift iron
 * 72) unaware: that doe scours the forests and pastures of Dicte
 * 73) in her flight; a lethal arrow clings to her side.
 * 74) Now she* leads Aeneas through the middle of the walls (*she = Dido)
 * 75) and exhibits her Sidonian wealth and her prepared city,
 * 76) she begins to speak out and stops in the middle of her speech;
 * now, she seeks the same feasts as the day slips by,
 * 1) and crazy, she demands to hear the hardships of the Trojans again
 * 2) and she hangs from the mouth of the one telling them.
 * 3) Afterwards, when they have departed, and the dark moon is pressing its light in turn
 * 4) and falling stars urge sleep,
 * 5) she grieves alone in her empty home and reclines on her couches having been left.
 * 6) Separated, she both hears and sees that separated man,
 * 7) or she holds back Ascanius in her lap, having been captured by the image of his father,
 * 8) if he could deceive an unspeakable love.
 * 9) Commenced towers do not rise; the youth does not
 * 10) busy arms or harbors or prepare safe ramparts for war:
 * 11) the interrupted works and huge threats of the walls
 * 12) and a machine, having been leveled to the sky, hang.
 * 13) And as soon as* the dear wife of Jupiter perceived that that woman** was being held by such a plague (*simul ac = simulac, tmesis) (**translate "quam" as "that" since "which" would make no sense)
 * 14) and that her reputation was not blocking her frenzy,
 * 15) Juno* addresses Venus with these words: (*Saturnia is an epithet for Juno since she is Saturn's daughter)
 * 16) "Truly, both you and your boy bear back remarkable praise
 * 17) and ample spoils (your divinity is great and glorious),
 * 18) if one woman has been conquered by the trick of two gods.
 * 19) And it does not deceive me to such an extent that you, having feared our walls,
 * 20) considered the homes of high Carthage suspected* (*"suspectās" is a predicate accusative.)
 * 21) But what will be the limit, or to where* now with such great rivalry? (*you might supply a verb here, such as "will we go," to make the sentence flow grammatically.)
 * Why, rather, do we not exercise eternal peace and wedding hymns having bargained?
 * 1) You have what you have sought with your whole mind:
 * 2) loving Dido burns and has dragged madness through her bones.
 * 3) Let us rule, therefore, this joint people with equal
 * 4) powers; let it be permitted to serve a Phrygian husband
 * 5) and for your right hand to allow Tyrians as dowers."