Aeneid 4.74-89, 165-197 Translation

Nunc media Aenean secum per moenia ducit

Sidoniasque ostentat opes urbemque paratam,

incipit effari mediaque in voce resistit;

nunc eadem labente die convivia quaerit,

lliacosque iterum demens audire labores

exposcit pendetque iterum narrantis ab ore.

Now she leads Aeneas with herself through the middle of the walls and shows [him] Sidonian riches and the city, having been prepared, she begins to speak out, and she stops in the middle of her voice; now with the day falling, she seeks the same banquets, and she, crazy, demands to hear the Trojan labors again, and she hangs from the mouth of [Aeneas], telling again.

Post ubi digressi, lumenque obscura vicissum

luna premit, suadentque cadentia sidera somnos,

sola domo maeret vacua, stratisque relictis

incubat. Illum absens absentem auditque videtque,

aut gremio Ascanium genitoris imagine capta

detinet, infandum si fallere possit amorem.

Afterward, when they departed, and the dark moon presses its light in turns and the sinking stars persuade sleeps, she alone mourns in her empty home, and she reclines upon the beds, having been left behind. She, separated, both hears and sees him, separated, or she, having been seized by the image of his father, holds back Ascanius on her lap, if she should be able to deceive unspeakable love.

Non coeptae adsurgunt turres, non arma iuventus

exercet portusve aut propugnacula bello

tuta parant: pendent opera interrupta, minaeque

murorum ingentes aequataque machina caelo.

The towers, not having been begun, rise, the young men do not train weapons or harbors or prepare safe ramparts for war: the interrupted labors and huge threats of walls and a device, having been made equal to the sky, hang over.

Speluncam Dido dux et Troianus eandem

deveniunt. Prima et Tellus et pronuba Iuno

dant signum; fulsere ignes et conscius aether

conubiis summoque ulularunt vertice Nymphae.

Ille dies primus leti primusque malorum

casa fuit; neque enim specie famave movetur

nec iam furtivum Dido meditatur amorem:

Dido and the Trojan leader arrive at the same cave. First both Earth and the matron of honor Juno give a sign; fires and the upper air, aware of the marriages, flashed and the Nymphs howled from the highest peak. That day was the first cause of death and the first [cause] of evils; for Dido neither is moved by appearance or reputation, nor does she now meditate secret love:

coniugium vocat, hoc praetexit nomine culpam.

Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes,

Fama, malum qua non alius velocius ullum:

mobilitate viget viresque adquirit eundo,

parva metu primo, mox sese attollit in auras

ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit.

she calls [it] marriage, she cloaks her fault with this name. Immediately, Rumor goes through the great cities of Libya, Rumor, than whom not any other evil [is] swifter: she thrives on motion and she acquires strengths by going, small at first because of fear, soon she lifts herself into the breezes and she walks on the ground and she hides her head among the clouds.

Illam Terra parens ira inritata deorum

extremam, ut perhibent, Coeo Enceladoque sororem

progenuit pedibus celerem et pernicibus alis,

monstrum horrendum, ingens, cui quot sunt corpore plumae,

tot vigiles oculi subter (mirabile dictu),

tot linguae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit aures.

Parent Earth, having been enraged by anger for the gods, gave birth to her last, as they say, sister to Coeus and Enceladus, swift with respect to her feet and with swift wings, a horrible monster, huge, for whom there are as many feathers with respect to her body as [there are] watchful eyes underneath (wonderful to say), so many tongues, so many mouths resound, she raises so many ears.

Nocte volat caeli medio terraeque per umbram

stridens, nec dulci declinat lumina somno;

luce sedet custos aut summi culmine tecti

turribus aut altis, et magnas territat urbes,

tam ficti pravique tenax quam nuntia veri.

Haec tum multiplici populos sermone replebat

gaudens, et pariter facta atque infecta canebat:

By night she flies in the middle of the sky and earth, hissing through the shade, nor does she decline her eyes in sweet sleep; by light she sits as guard either on the peak of the highest roof or on high towers, and she frightens great cities, as tenacious a messenger of the false and depraved as of the true. Then she, rejoicing, was filling peoples with multiple conversation, and she was singing equally [things], having been done and having not been done:

venisse Aenean Troiano sanguine cretum,

cui se pulchra viro dignetur iungere Dido;

nunc hiemem inter se luxu, quam longa, fovere

regnorum immemores turpique cupidine captos.

Haec passim dea foeda virum diffundit in ora.

Protinus ad regem cursus detorquet Iarban

incenditque animum dictis atque aggerat iras.

that Aeneas, having been sprung from Trojan blood, has come, to whom as husband, beautiful Dido deems worthy to join herself; now they, unmindful of their kingdoms and having been seized by shameful love, cherish between themselves in luxury for the winter however long. The foul goddess spreads these things everywhere into the mouths of men. Immediately, she twists her courses to King Iarbas, and she kindles his mind with words and increases his angers.