Aeneid 4.305-361 Translation

"Dissimulare etiam sperasti, perfide, tantum

posse nefas tacitusque mea decedere terra?

Nec te noster amor nec te data dextera quondam

nec moritura tenet crudeli funere Dido?

Quin etiam hiberno moliri sidere classem

et mediis properas Aquilonibus ire per altum,

crudelis? Quid, si non arva aliena domosque

ignotas peteres, et Troia antiqua maneret,

Troia per undosum peteretur classibus aequor?

"Did you, treacherous one, even hope to be able to conceal so great a crime and to depart from my land silent[ly]? Does neither our love [hold] you, nor does your right [hand], having formerly been given, [hold] you, nor does Dido, about to die from a cruel death, hold [you]? In fact, do you even hasten to prepare the fleet under the winter star and to go through the deep in the middle of the North winds, cruel man? What if you were not seeking foreign fields and unknown homes and ancient Troy were remaining, would Troy be sought through the wavy sea with fleets?

Mene fugis? Per ego has lacrimas dextramque tuam te (quando aliud mihi iam miserae nihil ipsa reliqui),

per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos,

si bene quid de te merui, fuit aut tibi quicquam

dulce meum, miserere domus labentis et istam,

oro, si quis adhuc precibus locus, exue mentem.

Do you flee me? I beseech you through these tears and your right [hand] (since I myself have left nothing else behind for myself, now miserable), through our marriages, through wedding hymns having been begun, if I well deserved anything from you, or anything of mine was sweet for you, pity my falling home, and, if [there is] still any place for prayers, discard that mind of yours.

Te propter Libycae gentes Nomadumque tyranni

odere, infensi Tyrii; te propter eundem

exstinctus pudor et, qua sola sidera adibam,

fama prior. Cui me moribundam deseris hospes

(hoc solum nomen quoniam de coniuge restat)?

Quid moror? An mea Pygmalion dum moenia frater

destruat aut captam ducat Gaetulus Iarbas?

On account of you, the Libyan peoples and the rulers of the Nomads hate [me], the Tyrians [are] hostile; on account of the same you, my shame has been extinguished and my former reputation, by which alone I was approaching the stars, [has been extinguished]. For what do you, guest, desert me, about to die (since this name alone remains from my husband)? Why do I delay? Or [do I delay] until my brother Pygmalion destroys my walls or [do I delay until] Gaetulian Iarbas leads [me], having been captured?

Saltem si qua mihi de te suscepta fuisset

ante fugam suboles, si quis mihi parvulus aula

luderet Aeneas, qui te tamen ore referret,

non equidem omnino capta ac deserta viderer."

Dixerat. Ille Iovis monitis immota tenebat

lumina et obnixus curam sub corde premebat.

At least if some offspring had been begotten to me from you before your flight, if some tiny Aeneas were playing for me in my hall, who nevertheless would recall you with respect to his face, indeed I would not seem completely captured and deserted." She had spoken. He was holding his eyes, unmoved because of the warnings of Jupiter and he, having struggled, was pressing care under his heart.

Tandem pauca refert: "Ego te, quae plurima fando

enumerare vales, numquam, regina, negabo

promeritam, nec me meminisse pigebit Elissae

dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus.

Pro re pauca loquar. Neque ego hanc abscondere furto speravi (ne finge) fugam, nec coniugis umquam

praetendi taedas aut haec in foedera veni.

At last he reports a few things: "I, queen, will never deny that you, who are able to recount very many things by speaking, deserved [very many things], nor will it displease me to remember Elissa while I myself [am] mindful of myself, while breath rules these limbs. I will speak a few things for my case. I neither hoped to hide this flight with stealth (do not imagine), nor did I ever hold forth the marriage torches of a husband or did I come into these treaties.

Me si fata meis paterentur ducere vitam

auspiciis et sponte mea componere curas,

urbem Troianam primum dulcesque meorum

reliquias colorem, Priami tecta alta manerent,

et recidiva manu posuissem Pergama victis.

Sed nunc Italiam magnam Gryneus Apollo,

Italiam Lyciae iussere capessere sortes;

If the fates were allowing me to lead my life by my auspices and to calm my cares by my own will, I would dwell in the Trojan city first and cherish the sweet remnants of my people, the high roofs of Priam would remain, and I would have placed renewed Pergama with my hand for the conquered. But now, Grynean Apollo [has ordered me to seize] great Italy, the Lycian fates have ordered [me] to seize Italy;

hic amor, haec patria est. Si te Karthaginis arces

Phoenissam Libycaeque aspectus detinet urbis,

quae tandem Ausonia Teucros considere terra

invidia est? Et nos fas extera quaerere regna.

Me patris Anchisae, quotiens umentibus umbris

nox operit terras, quotiens astra ignea surgunt,

admonet in somnis et turbida terret imago;

this [is] my love, this is my fatherland. If the citadels of Carthage and the sight of the Libyan city hold you back, Phoenecian woman, finally what jealousy is there that Teucrians settle in the Ausonian land? And [it is] right that we seek foreign kingdoms. The troubled image of my father Anchises warns and terrifies me in my dreams, as often as the night covers the lands with damp shadows, as often as the fiery stars rise;

me puer Ascanius capitisque iniuria cari,

quem regno Hesperiae fraudo et fatalibus arvis.

Nunc etiam interpres divum Iove missus ab ipso

(testor utrumque caput) celeres mandata per auras

detulit: ipse deum manifesto in lumine vidi

intrantem muros vocemque his auribus hausi.

Desine meque tuis incendere teque querelis;

Italiam non sponte sequor."

my boy Ascanius and the injury of his dear head, whom I deprive of the kingdom of Hesperia and of fated fields, [moves] me. Now even the interpreter of the gods, having been sent by Jupiter himself (I swear by each head) carried down his orders through the swift breezes: I myself saw the god, entering the walls, in clear light and I drank in his voice with these ears. Cease to inflame both me and yourself with your complaints; I follow Italy not by my own wish."