Aeneid Translation (1.132-1.169)

"Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri?

Iam caelum terramque meo sine numine, venti,

miscere et tantas audetis tollere moles?

Quos ego—sed motos praestat componere fluctus.

Post mihi non simili poena commissa luetis.

"Has so great a confidence of your kind held you all? Now do you all, winds, dare to mix the sky and the earth without my divine will and to raise so great masses? [You all], whom I--but it is better to compose the waves, having been moved. Afterward, you all will atone for your crimes to me with a not similar punishment.

Maturate fugam regique haec dicite vestro:

non illi imperium pelagi saevumque tridentem,

sed mihi sorte datum. Tenet ille immania saxa,

vestras, Eure, domos; illa se iactet in aula

Aeolus et clauso ventorum carcere regnet."

Hasten your flight and say these things to your king: that the command of the sea and the savage trident have been given by lot not to him but to me. He holds huge rocks, East Winds, in your homes; let Aeolus toss himself in that hall and let him rule in the closed prison of the winds."

Sic ait, et dicto citius tumida aequora placat

collectasque fugat nubes solemque reducit.

Cymothoe simul et Triton adnixus acuto

detrudunt naves scopulo; levat ipse tridenti

et vastas aperit syrtes et temperat aequor

atque rotis summas levibus perlabitur undas.

Thus he speaks and he calms the swollen seas more quickly than a word, and he puts the clouds, having been gathered, to flight and he chases away the collected clouds, and he leads back the sun. At the same time, Cymothoe and Triton, having striven, dislodge the ships from the sharp crag; he himself raises [the ships] with his trident and he reveals the vast reefs, and he calms the sea, and he glides over the tops of the waves with light wheels.

Ac veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est

seditio saevitque animis ignobile vulgus

iamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat;

tum, pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem

conspexere, silent arrectisque auribus adstant;

And just as when a riot has risen often in a great people, and the common crowd rages with their minds, and now torches and rocks fly, the madness supplies weapons; then, if they by chance have caught sight of some man, serious in loyalty and merits, they are silent and they stand near with their ears, having been pricked up;

ille regit dictis animos et pectora mulcet:

sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam

prospiciens genitor caeloque invectus aperto

flectit equos curruque volans dat lora secundo.

he rules their minds with words, and he soothes their hearts: thus the whole uproar of the sea subsided, after the father, looking out over the seas and having been carried in the open sky, turns his horses, and he, flying in his following chariot, gives reins [to them].

Defessi Aeneadae quae proxima litora cursu

contendunt petere, et Libyae vertuntur ad oras.

Est in secessu longo locus: insula portum

efficit obiectu laterum, quibus omnis ab alto

frangitur inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos.

The tired followers of Aeneas strive to seek the shores, which are closest on their course, and they are turned to the shores of Libya. There is a place in a long inlet: an island makes a harbor with the projection of its sides, by which every wave is broken from the deep and splits itself into the bays, having been led back.

Hinc atque hinc vastae rupes geminique minantur

in caelum scopuli, quorum sub vertice late

aequora tuta silent; tum silvis scaena coruscis

desuper, horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbra.

From this side and that side, the vast cliffs and twin crags threaten into the sky, under the peak of which the safe seas are silent widely; then [there is] a stage with wavering woods and from above a dark grove hangs over with a trembling shadow.

Fronte sub adversa scopulis pendentibus antrum;

intus aquae dulces vivoque sedilia saxo,

Nympharum domus. Hic fessas non vincula naves

ulla tenent, unco non alligat ancora morsu.

Under the opposite face, [there is] a cave with hanging rocks; inside, [there are] sweet waters and seats from living rock, the home of the Nymphs. Here not any chains hold the tired ships, the anchor does not bind with a curved bite.