Latin translation 304-330 (Dido); 331-361 (Aeneas); 362-387 (Dido); 401-415 (Ants); 441-449 (Oak Tree)

'dissimulare etiam sperasti, perfide, tantum               305
posse nefas tacitusque mea decedere terra?

Did you really hope, traitor, to be able to hide such evils and did you hope <to be able> to leave from my land silently?

nec te noster amor nec te data dextera quondam
nec moritura tenet crudeli funere Dido? (307-308)

Does neither our love to you nor our right hand at one time having been given nor Dido about to die from cruel disasters not hold you?

quin etiam hiberno moliri sidere classem
et mediis properas Aquilonibus ire per altum,               310
crudelis?

Oh and also are you hurring to construct your fleet under the wintery stars and do you hurry to go in the middle of the Aquilo winds that flows through the deep, cruel one?

quid, si non arva aliena domosque
ignotas peteres, et Troia antiqua maneret,
Troia per undosum peteretur classibus aequor? (311-313)

what if you were not seeking foreign fields and unknown homes, and if ancient Troy were remaining then would Troy now be sought by your fleet through the wavy seas?

mene fugis? … (quando aliud mihi iam miserae nihil ipsa reliqui)

Are you fleeing me? … (Since I myself have nothing remaining for wretched me,)

per ego has lacrimas dextramque tuam te…
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. (314-319)

For I beg you by these tears and by your right hand by your marriage and by the marriage rights having been begun, if there was any place up until now for begging I beg you have pity on this falling house and drop that mind of your, If ever I’ve deserved anything from you if there was anything sweet about me to you.

te propter Libycae gentes Nomadumque tyranni               320
odere, infensi Tyrii; te propter eundem
exstinctus pudor et, qua sola sidera adibam,
fama prior.

because of you the Lybian races and kings of the nomads and the angy Carthageneans hate <me>; because of you that same one my modestly is extinguished and my prior fame by wich I alone was approaching the stars.

cui me moribundam deseris hospes
(hoc solum nomen quoniam de coniuge restat)? (323-324)

for whom are you stranger, desrting me about to die since on ly the namme from our marriage remains?

quid moror? an mea Pygmalion dum moenia frater               325
destruat aut captam ducat Gaetulus Iarbas?

What am I waiting for? or am I waiting for Pygmailion, my brother, to demolish my walls or <am I waiting for> Getulian Iarbus to lead <my> capture?

saltem si qua mihi de te suscepta fuisset
ante fugam suboles, si quis mihi parvulus aula
luderet Aeneas, qui te tamen ore referret, (327-329)

at least if there had been some offspring having been picked up and acknowledged by you for me before your flight, <at least> if there had been some little Aeneas for me playing in our palace who recalls you by his face,

non equidem omnino capta ac deserta viderer.'               330

then I would not entirely seem so captive and deserted.”

Dixerat. ille Iovis monitis immota tenebat
lumina et obnixus curam sub corde premebat.
tandem pauca refert: (331-333)

She had spoken. Becaues of the warnings of Jupiter, he was unmoved and having struggled he was pressing his care deep in his heart. Finally he says his few <words>:

'ego te, quae plurima fando
enumerare vales, numquam, regina, negabo
promeritam, nec me meminisse pigebit Elissae               335
dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus.

For I never deny that you, queen, have deserved all these many things which you are able to list and nor will it ever displease me to recall <the name> Elissa while I myself can recall myself and while spirit rules my limbs.

pro re pauca loquar. neque ego hanc abscondere furto
speravi (ne finge) fugam, nec coniugis umquam
praetendi taedas aut haec in foedera veni. (337-339)

Let me speak a few things on my behaf of my caseand never did I hope to hide my escape (don’t make it up by trickery) nor ever did I hold out the marriage torches of a husband nor did I enter into an agreement with you like this.

me si fata meis paterentur ducere vitam               340
auspiciis et sponte mea componere curas,

If only my fates now allowed me to live my life according to my own will and to deal with my cares by my own will,

urbem Troianam primum dulcisque meorum
reliquias colerem, Priami tecta alta manerent,
et recidiva manu posuissem Pergama victis. (342-344)

I would cherish the city of Troy first and I would cherish the sweet remnant of my friend, and the high roofs of Priam would remain and I would already place renewed Pergama with my own hands for the defeated.

sed nunc Italiam magnam Gryneus Apollo,               345
Italiam Lyciae iussere capessere sortes;
hic amor, haec patria est.

but now, Grynian Apollo <ordered me to reach> great Italy, the Lycian oracles ordered <me> to reach Italy; this is my passion, this is my fatherland.

si te Karthaginis arces
Phoenissam Libycaeque aspectus detinet urbis,
quae tandem Ausonia Teucros considere terra
invidia est? (347-350)

If the towers of Carthage and the sight of this Lybian city hold you Phoenician woman, then why begrudge the Trojans to settle Atonian lands?

et nos fas extera quaerere regna.               350
me patris Anchisae, quotiens umentibus umbris
nox operit terras, quotiens astra ignea surgunt,
admonet in somnis et turbida terret imago;

and it is right for us to settle in an outside kingdom. The ghost of Anchises, my father, warms me in dreams as often as the night covers the lands with dark, as often as the burning stars rise, and the troubled ghost terrifies me;

me puer Ascanius capitisque iniuria cari,
quem regno Hesperiae fraudo et fatalibus arvis.               355

My boy Ascanius whom I am robbing of the kingdom of Hisperia and the fated fields and the injury to his dear head <move> me.

nunc etiam interpres divum Iove missus ab ipso
(testor utrumque caput) celeris mandata per auras
detulit: (356-358)

Now even the interpreter of the Gods having been sent by Jupiter himself he carried down the orders through the swift breezes (I swear by each of our heads):

ipse deum manifesto in lumine vidi
intrantem muros vocemque his auribus hausi. (358-359)

I myself saw him in clear light entering the walls and I drank in his voice with my own ears.

desine meque tuis incendere teque querelis;               360
Italiam non sponte sequor.'

Stop making bothe me and you mad with your complaints; I follow Italy not by my own will.”

migrantis cernas totaque ex urbe ruentis:
ac velut ingentem formicae farris acervum
cum populant hiemis memores tectoque reponunt, (401-403)

You might see <them> migrating and rushing out of the whole city: and just as ants when they devestate a huge pile of grain and bring it back to their colony mindful of winter,

it nigrum campis agmen praedamque per herbas
convectant calle angusto; (404-405)

This dark marching column of ants goes on the plains and they carry their prizes through the grass in a narrow path;

pars grandia trudunt               405
obnixae frumenta umeris, pars agmina cogunt
castigantque moras, opere omnis semita fervet.

part of them push the great burden on their shoulders having leaned on it, part of them collect the crowd and castigate the delaying ones, the whole path boils with work.

quis tibi tum, Dido, cernenti talia sensus,
quosve dabas gemitus, cum litora fervere late
prospiceres arce ex summa, totumque videres               410
misceri ante oculos tantis clamoribus aequor!

what kind of feeling did you have then, Dido, as you are now seeing such things, or what groans were you giving when you saw that the whole shore, far and wide, was boiling, and when you saw that the whole sea was mixed with such shouting right before your eyes!

improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis! (412)

O wicked love, to what end do you not drive mortal hearts!

ire iterum in lacrimas, iterum temptare precando
cogitur et supplex animos summittere amori,
ne quid inexpertum frustra moritura relinquat.               415

She is compelled to go <to him> in tears and to test him by means of beseeching and as a humble supliet she is forced to submit her mind to love, lest she, about to die, leave anything untried.

ac velut annoso validam cum robore quercum
Alpini Boreae nunc hinc nunc flatibus illinc
eruere inter se certant; (441-443)

Just as when the Alpine North winds struggle among themselves to uproot the mighty oak with aged strength with blasts now from here not from there;

it stridor, et altae
consternunt terram concusso stipite frondes; (443-444)

a roar goes, and the high fronds strew the ground with the trunk having been hit;

ipsa haeret scopulis et quantum vertice ad auras               445
aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit:

<the oak tree> itself clings to the crags and as much as it <stretched> by its head to the high breezes, it stretches its roots into Tartarus:

haud secus adsiduis hinc atque hinc vocibus heros
tunditur, et magno persentit pectore curas;
mens immota manet, lacrimae volvuntur inanes. (447-449)

by no means otherwise the hero is struck by constant voices now this way now that way, and he feels turmoil in his great heart; his mind remains unmoved and useless tears fall.