Dido's suicide

at trepida et coeptis immanibus effera Dido
sanguineam volvens aciem, maculisque trementis
interfusa genas et pallida morte futura, (642-644)

But she nervous and wild because of the huge undertaking rolling in her bloody line of sight, and suffused on her trembling cheeks with spots and pale because of her future death,

interiora domus inrumpit limina et altos                              645
conscendit furibunda rogos ensemque recludit
Dardanium, non hos quaesitum munus in usus.

she breaks into the interior limit of her house and wild she climbs the high pyre and she unsheathed the Dardan sword, a gift not sought in this use.

hic, postquam Iliacas vestis notumque cubile
conspexit, paulum lacrimis et mente morata
incubuitque toro dixitque novissima verba:               650

here, after she caught sight of the Trojan clothes and the familiar ed, she delays in tearful recolection for a littel while and she both laid down on the bed and she said her last words:

'dulces exuviae, dum fata deusque sinebat,
accipite hanc animam meque his exsolvite curis. (651-652)

“sweet mementos, as long as these fates and the god are allowing, accept my soul and unbind me from my cares.

vixi et quem dederat cursum Fortuna peregi,
et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit imago. (653-654)

I have lived and I have run the course which Fortune had given, but now my great ghost will go under the land.

urbem praeclaram statui, mea moenia vidi,               655
ulta virum poenas inimico a fratre recepi,

I have built the famous city, I have seen my walls, I received the penalities from my evil brother having avenged my husband,

felix, heu nimium felix, si litora tantum
numquam Dardaniae tetigissent nostra carinae.' (657-658)

I would have been lucky so lucky, if only the Dardanian ships never touched our shores.”

dixit, et os impressa toro…ait (659-660)

She said these things and having presssed her mouth against the couch she says”

'moriemur inultae,
sed moriamur' (ait) 'sic, sic iuvat ire sub umbras.               660

hauriat hunc oculis ignem crudelis ab alto
Dardanus, et nostrae secum ferat omina mortis.'

“I will die unavenged but let me die, thus thus it pleases me to go to the underworld. may the cruel Dardanian drink in with his eyes this fire from the sea and may he bear these omens of my death with him.”

dixerat, atque illam media inter talia ferro
conlapsam aspiciunt comites, ensemque cruore
spumantem sparsasque manus. (663-665)

She had spoken and her officials se her collapse in the midst of such things by means of her sword, and her sword frothing with blood and her spattered hands.

it clamor ad alta               665
atria: concussam bacchatur Fama per urbem.
lamentis gemituque et femineo ululatu
tecta fremunt, resonat magnis plangoribus aether,

the cries go from the high roofs: Fama rages through the shaken city. The roofs resound with groans of laments and feminine ululations, the upper air resounds with great shrieks,

non aliter quam si immissis ruat hostibus omnis
Karthago aut antiqua Tyros, flammaeque furentes               670
culmina perque hominum volvantur perque deorum.

not otherwise than if all of Carthage or ancient Tyre were falling with enemies having been let in, and the raging fires roil throughout the roof tops of men and through the homes of the gods.

sic fata gradus evaserat altos,               685
semianimemque sinu germanam amplexa fovebat
cum gemitu atque atros siccabat veste cruores.

Thus having spoken she had gone over the high steps, and she was embrasing, having hugged her, her half alive sister to her chest witha groan and she was drying up the dark blood with her own clothes.

illa gravis oculos conata attollere rursus
deficit; infixum stridit sub pectore vulnus. (688-689)

She having tried again to lift her heavy eyes, she fails; the wound having been affixed beneath her her chest rasps.

ter sese attollens cubitoque adnixa levavit,               690
ter revoluta toro est oculisque errantibus alto
quaesivit caelo lucem ingemuitque reperta.

Thrice lifting herself up and having struggled leaned on her elbow, thrice she rolled back on the coach and with her wandering eyes she sought the light in the high sky and with the light having beem found she groaned.

Tum Iuno omnipotens longum miserata dolorem
difficilisque obitus Irim demisit Olympo
quae luctantem animam nexosque resolveret artus.               695

Then all mighty Juno having pitied the long grief and the difficult death she sent down Iris from Olympus so that she could loosen the struggling soul and the bound limbs.

nam quia nec fato merita nec morte peribat,
sed misera ante diem subitoque accensa furore, (696-697)

because she was perishing neither by fate nor by an earned death, but rather wretchedly having been enflamed with sudden rage before her day,

nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem
abstulerat Stygioque caput damnaverat Orco. (698-699)

not yet had Proserpina stolen away the yellow hair from her head and <not yet> had she condemned her head to Stygian Orcus.

ergo Iris croceis per caelum roscida pennis               700
mille trahens varios adverso sole colores
devolat et supra caput astitit.

Therefore dewy Iris dragging a thousand various colors with the sun opposite with her orange wings through the sky she flies down and lands just above her head.

'hunc ego Diti
sacrum iussa fero teque isto corpore solvo': (702-703)

“I having been commanded bear this sacred thing to Pluto and I loosed you from that body of yours:”

sic ait et dextra crinem secat, omnis et una
dilapsus calor atque in ventos vita recessit.               705

Thus Iris speaks and she cuts the hair with her right hand, all at once all the heat slipped away and her llife receded in the wind.