Baucis and Philemon translation

Iuppiter huc specie mortali cumque parente

venit Atlantiades positis caducifer alis

Jupiter came to this place in human appearance, along with his father came the staff bearer (Mercury), grandson of Atlas, his wings set side

mille domos adiere locum requiemque petentes

mille domos clausere serae. Tamen una recepit,

They came to a thousand homes seeking room and sleep

But doors’ bolts closed these thousand homes. However one took them in,

Parva quidem stipulis et canna tecta palustri,

sed pia Baucis anus parilique aetete Philemon

Certainly small, thatched with straw and marsh reeds

But the pious/kind Baucis, an old women, and Philemon of equal age

illa sunt annis iuncti iuvenalibus, illa

consenuere casa paupertatemque fatendo

were joined together in this cottage in the years of their youth,

in this cottage they grew old together, and by admitting

effecere levem nec iniqua mente ferendo

nec refert, dominos illic famulosne requiras:

their poverty and not enduring it with an unhappy heart, they made it light/unimportant

nor does it matter whether you seek masters of slaves there:

tota domus duo sunt, idem parentque iubentque

The whole house is just those two, the same people both obey and give orders

ergo ubi caelicolae parvos tetigere penates

summissoque humiles intrarunt vertice postes,

So when the heaven dwellers set foot upon the little dwelling

and with heads lowered entered the low slung doorway,

membra senex posito iussit relevare sedili,

cui superiniecit textum rude sedula Baucis.

the old man ordered them to rest their limbs, having put out a seat,

on which attentive Baucis threw over a rough blanket.

inde foco tepidum cinerum dimovit et ignes

suscicat hesternos folisque et cortice sicco

Then she stirred the lukewarm embers in the hearth

and rekindled yesterdays fire and feeds it with leaves and dry bark

nutrit et ad flammas anima producit anili,

multifidasque faces ramaliaque arida tecto

and with the breath of an old women she brings it into flame,

and she brought down sticks split into many pieces and dry brances down from the roof

detulit et minuit parvoque admovit aeno,

quodque suus coniunx riguo collegerat horto

and broke them up and placed them under the small bronze cooking pot,

and some vegetables which her husband had collected from the well watered garden

truncat holus foliis; furca levat ille bicorni

sordida terga suis nigro pendentia tigno

she stripped of its leaves; with a two pronged fork he lifts up the grimy side of a pig

that was hanging from a blackened beam

servatoque diu resecat de tergore partem

exiguam sectamque domat ferventibus undis.

and cuts off a tiny portion from this long preserved side

and softens the cut piece in boiling water.