Aeneid (19 BC)
The weary followers of Aeneas hasten to seek course for the shores which are nearest, and turned to the Libyan shore. There is a place in a long inlet: an island forms a harbor by the barrier of its sides, on which every wave from the deep is broken, and splits itself into folds having been brought back. From this side and this side vast cliffs and twin rocks tower in the sky, under the summit of which the seas, protected, are silent, far and wide; then there is a background of waving forests from above, and a dark grove overhangs with shuddering shade. Under the opposite face is a cave with hanging rocks, within, sweet water and seats of living rock, home of the nymphs. Here, no chains held any tired ships, no anchor binds with curved flukes. Here, Aeneas enters, seven ships having been gathered out of all the multitude; and with great love of land, the Trojans having disembarked gain the sand having been chosen and place their limbs dripping with saltwater on the shore. And first Achates struck out a spark from a flint and catches fire from the leaves and gives dry fuel around and snatched up flame in the tinder. Then, tired of events, they bring out grain having been spoiled by the waves and utensils of Ceres and prepare to roast the grain having been recovered with flames and crush with a rock.
Meanwhile, Aeneas climbs a crag, and seeks a view far and wide on the whole sea, if he should see any Antheus, tossed by the wind and his Phrygian biremes, or Capys, or Caicus’s arms lofty on the stern. There are no ships in sight, he looks out on three stags wandering on the shore; an entire herd follows from their back and feed long line widely through the valley. He stopped there and snatched in his hand a bow and a swift arrow, the spear which loyal Achates was carrying, and first he lays low the leaders themselves bearing high heads of branching horns, then the herd and driving with weapons he mingles all the crowd amidst the leafy grove; nor does he as conqueror stop until he lays low seven huge carcasses on the ground, equal in number with his ships. From here he seeks the harbour, and divides them among all his friends. Then the wine that the good Acestes had stowed in jars on the Sicilian shore, which the hero had given to the ones going away, he then divides and calmed their sad hearts with words:
“Oh friends (nor indeed are we inexperienced of misfortunes before), Oh you having endured more serious things, the god will give an end also to this. You have both approached the fury of Scylla, and the deep cliffs resounding within, and you have experienced the Cyclopean rocks: recall your courage and send away sad fears: perhaps one day you will even delight in remembering this. Through varied misfortunes, through so many crises of things, we strive into Latium, where the fates show peaceful seats, there is right for a kingdom of Troy to rise again in that place. Endure, and preserve yourselves for favourable things.”He relates such things with a voice, sick with weighty cares, he feigns hope with his face, he represses deep grief in his heart. Those ones gird themselves for prey and for the future feasts: they tear the hides from the ribs and lay bare the entrails; part cut into pieces, and pierce them quivering on spits, others place bronze kettles on the shore and tend the flames. Then they call back their strength with food, and having spread out through the grass they have themselves filled of old wine and of rich venison. After hunger was taken away by feast and the tables were removed, they seek again in long conversations their allies having been lost, and they were uncertain between hope and fear, whether to believe that those called live, or have suffered the final end and no longer hear having been called. Devoted Aeneas groans especially with himself now sharp Orontes, now Amycus, and the cruel fates of Lycus and brave Gyas and brave Cloanthus.
Showing posts with label literal translation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literal translation. Show all posts
20 November 2015
18 November 2015
Literal translation: Aeneid - Vergil (lines 75-156)
Aeneid (19 BC)
Aeolus said these things in reply: “Your job, oh queen, is to search out which you choose; the duty to me is to undertake your orders. You obtained for me whatever this is of a kingdom, you won over power and Jupiter’s favour, you grant me to recline at the banquet of the gods and you make me powerful over the storm clouds and tempests.”
When these things had been said, he turned his spear and struck the hollow mountain on the side: and the winds, just as an army having been made, were given a gate, where they rushed and blew over the lands with a whirlwind. They upheave the whole sea from the deepest seas, and together the East wind and South wind do this in crowded blasts, and they turn the vast winds to the shores: following this both a shout of men and a creaking ropes. Suddenly the clouds snatch both the sky and the day out from the Trojan’s eyes; dark night broods upon the sea. The skies roared and the upper air flashes with frequent fires and all things threaten instant death to the men. Immediately the limbs of Aeneas are loosened with chill; he groans and directing both palms to the stars he relates such things with his voice: “Oh both three and four times blessed, for whom it happened to meet death before the faces of their fathers beneath the lofty walls of Troy! Oh son of Tydeus, bravest of the Greek race! But I was not able to fall in death in the fields of Troy, and pour out this soul by your hand where cruel Hector lies, by Achilles’s spear, where the huge Sarpedon (lies), where the Simois rolls under its waves so many shields having been snatched up, and the helmets, and the brave bodies of men!”
Having uttered such words, a blast shrieking with the north wind strikes opposed the sail, and raises waves to the sky. The oars are broken, then the prow turns away and gives the side to the waves, a steep mountain of water follows in a heap. These (ships) hang on the crest of the waves; to these (ships) the gaping seas opens land between the waves, the tide rages with sand. The South wind snatches away three ships and whirls them onto rocks lying hidden (the Italians call these rocks the Altars, in the middle of the sea, a huge reef on the surface of the sea), the East wind drives three ships from the deep to the shallows and sandbanks, miserable to see, and dashes them against the shallows, and girds with a sand mound. One ship, which was carrying the Lycians and faithful Orontes, the huge sea from the summit strikes before his eyes themselves onto the stern from the high above: the captain is shaken and headlong is revolved onto his head; yet the waves whirl that one thrice in the same place, driving it around, and the rapid whirlpool swallows her up in the water. The swimming ones appear scattered in the vast whirlpool, men’s arms and planks, and Trojan treasure throughout the waves. Now the storm conquered Illoneus’s strong ship, now of brave Achates, both that by which Abas was carried, and that by which aged Aletes; all received the hostile flood, through the loose fastenings of the side, and they gape at the cracks.
Meanwhile, Neptune, seriously disturbed, realized the sea was being mixed with a loud rumble and that the storm had been sent forth and that the still waters had been poured back from the lowest shallows; and looking out from the deepest sea, he raised his calm head from the crest of a wave. He sees Aeneas’s fleet had been scattered on the whole sea, the Trojans having been overwhelmed by the waves, and the downfall of the sky. And neither did Juno’s anger and deceit escape the notice of her brother. He calls the East wind and West wind to him, thereupon he says such things:
“Has such great confidence of race hold you? Now without my divine power, winds, you dare to stir up the sky and land and raise such great masses? Whom I-- but it is better to calm the moved waves. Afterwards to me you will atone for the crimes by a not similar punishment. Hasten flight and say these things to your king: Not to that one has the control of the ocean and the cruel trident been given but by lot. That one holds immense rocks, your homes, East wind; let Aeolus toss himself in his court and reign in the closed prison of the winds.”
Thus he says and sooner than the word he quickly calms the swollen sea and puts to flight the clouds having been collected and leads the sun back. At the same time, Cymothoe and Triton, having striven, pushed the ship from the sharp crag; he himself lifts his trident and opens the vast sand bar and calms the sea and glides over the crests of the waves on light wheels. And just as when a riot arises in a great assembly and the inglorious crowd rages in mind; and now torches and rocks fly, rage supplies arms; then, if by chance they have seen some man weighty in loyalty and merits, they are silent and stand by with ears having been raised; that one rules their minds with his words and soothes their hearts: So thus the uproar of the sea falls, after the father, looking out on the sea and the open sky having been carried in, guides his horses and, flying, gives the reins to the following chariot.
Aeolus said these things in reply: “Your job, oh queen, is to search out which you choose; the duty to me is to undertake your orders. You obtained for me whatever this is of a kingdom, you won over power and Jupiter’s favour, you grant me to recline at the banquet of the gods and you make me powerful over the storm clouds and tempests.”
When these things had been said, he turned his spear and struck the hollow mountain on the side: and the winds, just as an army having been made, were given a gate, where they rushed and blew over the lands with a whirlwind. They upheave the whole sea from the deepest seas, and together the East wind and South wind do this in crowded blasts, and they turn the vast winds to the shores: following this both a shout of men and a creaking ropes. Suddenly the clouds snatch both the sky and the day out from the Trojan’s eyes; dark night broods upon the sea. The skies roared and the upper air flashes with frequent fires and all things threaten instant death to the men. Immediately the limbs of Aeneas are loosened with chill; he groans and directing both palms to the stars he relates such things with his voice: “Oh both three and four times blessed, for whom it happened to meet death before the faces of their fathers beneath the lofty walls of Troy! Oh son of Tydeus, bravest of the Greek race! But I was not able to fall in death in the fields of Troy, and pour out this soul by your hand where cruel Hector lies, by Achilles’s spear, where the huge Sarpedon (lies), where the Simois rolls under its waves so many shields having been snatched up, and the helmets, and the brave bodies of men!”
Having uttered such words, a blast shrieking with the north wind strikes opposed the sail, and raises waves to the sky. The oars are broken, then the prow turns away and gives the side to the waves, a steep mountain of water follows in a heap. These (ships) hang on the crest of the waves; to these (ships) the gaping seas opens land between the waves, the tide rages with sand. The South wind snatches away three ships and whirls them onto rocks lying hidden (the Italians call these rocks the Altars, in the middle of the sea, a huge reef on the surface of the sea), the East wind drives three ships from the deep to the shallows and sandbanks, miserable to see, and dashes them against the shallows, and girds with a sand mound. One ship, which was carrying the Lycians and faithful Orontes, the huge sea from the summit strikes before his eyes themselves onto the stern from the high above: the captain is shaken and headlong is revolved onto his head; yet the waves whirl that one thrice in the same place, driving it around, and the rapid whirlpool swallows her up in the water. The swimming ones appear scattered in the vast whirlpool, men’s arms and planks, and Trojan treasure throughout the waves. Now the storm conquered Illoneus’s strong ship, now of brave Achates, both that by which Abas was carried, and that by which aged Aletes; all received the hostile flood, through the loose fastenings of the side, and they gape at the cracks.
Meanwhile, Neptune, seriously disturbed, realized the sea was being mixed with a loud rumble and that the storm had been sent forth and that the still waters had been poured back from the lowest shallows; and looking out from the deepest sea, he raised his calm head from the crest of a wave. He sees Aeneas’s fleet had been scattered on the whole sea, the Trojans having been overwhelmed by the waves, and the downfall of the sky. And neither did Juno’s anger and deceit escape the notice of her brother. He calls the East wind and West wind to him, thereupon he says such things:
“Has such great confidence of race hold you? Now without my divine power, winds, you dare to stir up the sky and land and raise such great masses? Whom I-- but it is better to calm the moved waves. Afterwards to me you will atone for the crimes by a not similar punishment. Hasten flight and say these things to your king: Not to that one has the control of the ocean and the cruel trident been given but by lot. That one holds immense rocks, your homes, East wind; let Aeolus toss himself in his court and reign in the closed prison of the winds.”
Thus he says and sooner than the word he quickly calms the swollen sea and puts to flight the clouds having been collected and leads the sun back. At the same time, Cymothoe and Triton, having striven, pushed the ship from the sharp crag; he himself lifts his trident and opens the vast sand bar and calms the sea and glides over the crests of the waves on light wheels. And just as when a riot arises in a great assembly and the inglorious crowd rages in mind; and now torches and rocks fly, rage supplies arms; then, if by chance they have seen some man weighty in loyalty and merits, they are silent and stand by with ears having been raised; that one rules their minds with his words and soothes their hearts: So thus the uproar of the sea falls, after the father, looking out on the sea and the open sky having been carried in, guides his horses and, flying, gives the reins to the following chariot.
17 November 2015
Literal translation: Aeneid - Vergil (lines 1-75)
Aeneid (19 BC)
I sing of arms and a man, who, exiled by fate, first came from the shores of Troy to Italy and the shores of Lavinia -- that one having been tossed much both on lands and on the deep (sea) by the force of the gods above, by the mindful anger of cruel Juno, having suffered many things even in war, until he founded a city and brought his gods into Latium -- whence Latin people and Alban fathers came, also the walls of high Rome.
Muse, recall to me the reason, what divine essence having been offended or grieving at what drove the queen of the gods to undergo so much misfortune to a man, distinguished in loyalty, to encounter so many hardships. Is there so much anger in the heavenly minds?
There was an ancient city, Carthage (held by the settlers of Tyre), facing Italy and the far off mouth of the Tiber, wealthy in resources and harsh in pursuits of war; which one land Juno is said to have cultivated more than all, Samos having been placed afterwards: here were her weapons, her chariot; now she both intended and cherished that this clan of the goddess would be the ruling power, if in any way the Fates should allow. But indeed she had heard of offspring, from Trojan blood, which would at some time overturn Tyrian citadels, that a people widely ruling and proud in war would come for the destruction of Libya: thus the Fates were turning. Juno, fearing this fact, was mindful of the former war, which foremost she had waged at Troy for her dear Argus (also not yet had the reasons of her anger and cruel pains perished from her mind; the remains in her lofty mind of the judgement of Paris, the injury of her scorned beauty the hated race, and Ganymede's honors having been snatched). Having been enraged, she hurled all the Trojans above the sea, the remnants of the Greeks and of fierce Achilles; she was keeping them far from Latium, and for many years they were wandering, having been driven by fate around all the seas. It was so great a difficulty to found the Roman nation.
Scarcely out of sight of Sicilian land in the deep sea, they set the sail, happy, onto the deep and they were plowing salt water foam with the bronze, when Juno, nurturing her eternal wound beneath her breast (said) these things with herself: “Will I, having been conquered, cease my purpose, and not be able to turn away the king of the Trojans from Italy? Indeed, I am forbidden by the Fates. Was Minerva able to burn the fleet of the Greeks and to sink them themselves in the sea, because of the fault and madness of one Ajax, son of Oileus? She herself, having hurled Jupiter’s swift fire out of the clouds, both scattered the rafts and overturned the sea with winds; she snatched that one with a whirlwind exhaling flames from his pierced chest, and impaled him on a sharp rock; but I, who walk majestically as queen of the gods and as both sister and wife of Jupiter, have been waging war with one nation for so many years. And is anyone worshipping the divine power of Juno hereafter, or will anyone as a suppliant place offerings on her altars?”
Turning over such things with herself in her inflamed heart, the goddess comes to Aeolia, to the country of storms, a place teeming with the raging south winds. Here, in his vast cave, King Aeolus presses the wrestling winds and roaring storms with his power and he restrains them with chains and prisons. Those ones moan angrily with great murmurs around a barrier of a mountain; Aeolus sits holding a staff in his lofty stronghold and soothes their minds and calms their anger; if he should not do this, they would surely carry the seas and lands and the vast sky swiftly with themselves and sweep them through the air. But the almighty father put them away in dark caves, fearing this, and placed on a mass and a high mountain above them, and gave them a king who would know how to give the order to both control and give loose the reins when ordered by a certain pact. Juno, as a suppliant, addressed with these words: “Aeolus, for indeed the father of divinity and king of people has granted to you both to calm and to raise the waves with winds, a people hostile to me sails to the Tyrrhenian Sea, carrying Troy and the conquered household gods into Italy: strike with winds and overwhelm their sunk sterns, or drive them scattered and scatter their bodies in the sea. Fourteen (twice seven) nymphs of surpassing form are mine, of whom which the most beautiful in form, Deiopeia, I will join to you in lasting marriage and dedicate her to you as your very own, so that, for such merit, she will pass all her years with you and make you parent to beautiful offspring.”
I sing of arms and a man, who, exiled by fate, first came from the shores of Troy to Italy and the shores of Lavinia -- that one having been tossed much both on lands and on the deep (sea) by the force of the gods above, by the mindful anger of cruel Juno, having suffered many things even in war, until he founded a city and brought his gods into Latium -- whence Latin people and Alban fathers came, also the walls of high Rome.
Muse, recall to me the reason, what divine essence having been offended or grieving at what drove the queen of the gods to undergo so much misfortune to a man, distinguished in loyalty, to encounter so many hardships. Is there so much anger in the heavenly minds?
There was an ancient city, Carthage (held by the settlers of Tyre), facing Italy and the far off mouth of the Tiber, wealthy in resources and harsh in pursuits of war; which one land Juno is said to have cultivated more than all, Samos having been placed afterwards: here were her weapons, her chariot; now she both intended and cherished that this clan of the goddess would be the ruling power, if in any way the Fates should allow. But indeed she had heard of offspring, from Trojan blood, which would at some time overturn Tyrian citadels, that a people widely ruling and proud in war would come for the destruction of Libya: thus the Fates were turning. Juno, fearing this fact, was mindful of the former war, which foremost she had waged at Troy for her dear Argus (also not yet had the reasons of her anger and cruel pains perished from her mind; the remains in her lofty mind of the judgement of Paris, the injury of her scorned beauty the hated race, and Ganymede's honors having been snatched). Having been enraged, she hurled all the Trojans above the sea, the remnants of the Greeks and of fierce Achilles; she was keeping them far from Latium, and for many years they were wandering, having been driven by fate around all the seas. It was so great a difficulty to found the Roman nation.
Scarcely out of sight of Sicilian land in the deep sea, they set the sail, happy, onto the deep and they were plowing salt water foam with the bronze, when Juno, nurturing her eternal wound beneath her breast (said) these things with herself: “Will I, having been conquered, cease my purpose, and not be able to turn away the king of the Trojans from Italy? Indeed, I am forbidden by the Fates. Was Minerva able to burn the fleet of the Greeks and to sink them themselves in the sea, because of the fault and madness of one Ajax, son of Oileus? She herself, having hurled Jupiter’s swift fire out of the clouds, both scattered the rafts and overturned the sea with winds; she snatched that one with a whirlwind exhaling flames from his pierced chest, and impaled him on a sharp rock; but I, who walk majestically as queen of the gods and as both sister and wife of Jupiter, have been waging war with one nation for so many years. And is anyone worshipping the divine power of Juno hereafter, or will anyone as a suppliant place offerings on her altars?”
Turning over such things with herself in her inflamed heart, the goddess comes to Aeolia, to the country of storms, a place teeming with the raging south winds. Here, in his vast cave, King Aeolus presses the wrestling winds and roaring storms with his power and he restrains them with chains and prisons. Those ones moan angrily with great murmurs around a barrier of a mountain; Aeolus sits holding a staff in his lofty stronghold and soothes their minds and calms their anger; if he should not do this, they would surely carry the seas and lands and the vast sky swiftly with themselves and sweep them through the air. But the almighty father put them away in dark caves, fearing this, and placed on a mass and a high mountain above them, and gave them a king who would know how to give the order to both control and give loose the reins when ordered by a certain pact. Juno, as a suppliant, addressed with these words: “Aeolus, for indeed the father of divinity and king of people has granted to you both to calm and to raise the waves with winds, a people hostile to me sails to the Tyrrhenian Sea, carrying Troy and the conquered household gods into Italy: strike with winds and overwhelm their sunk sterns, or drive them scattered and scatter their bodies in the sea. Fourteen (twice seven) nymphs of surpassing form are mine, of whom which the most beautiful in form, Deiopeia, I will join to you in lasting marriage and dedicate her to you as your very own, so that, for such merit, she will pass all her years with you and make you parent to beautiful offspring.”
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