Aeneid IV 659-705

dixit, et os impressa toro 'moriemur inultae, sed moriamur' ait.

Dido spoke, and her face pressed on the couch, she says “thus I will die unavenged, but let me die.

'sic, sic iuvat ire sub umbras. hauriat hunc oculis ignem crudelis ab alto Dardanus, et nostrae secum ferat omina mortis.'

Thus, thus it pleases me to go under the darkness. Let the cruel Trojan drink in this flame with his eyes from the sea, and let him carry all the signs of my death with himself.”

dixerat, atque illam media inter talia ferro conlapsam aspiciunt comites, ensemque cruore spumantem sparsasque manus

She had spoken, and also her handmaidens obvserve her having been collapsed by a sword, in the midst of such words, they observe a two-edged sword foaming with blood and her hands splattered with blood.

it clamor ad alta atria: concussam bacchatur Fama per urbem.

A shout rises to the higest court: Rumor rushes about wildly through the troubled city.

lamentis gemituque et femineo ululatu tecta fremunt, resonat magnis plangoribus aether,

The houses roar with shreiking and groaning and feminine wailing, the heavens resound with a great striking of the breast in sorrow,

non aliter quam si immissis ruat hostibus omnis Karthago aut antiqua Tyros

not otherwise than if (as if) all of Carthage or ancient Tyre were falling to ruin by enemies having been let loose,

flammaeque furentes culmina perque hominum volvantur perque deorum.

and raging flames should flow over the rooves of men and gods.

audiit exanimis trepidoque exterrita cursu unguibus ora soror foedans et pectora pugnis per medios ruit, ac morientem nomine clamat:

Her sister (Anna) breathless having been terrified heard and rushed through the midst with an anxious gait, disfiguring her face with fingernails and her breasts with fists, she calls upon the dying by name:

'hoc illud, germana, fuit? me fraude petebas? hoc rogus iste mihi, hoc ignes araeque parabant?

“So this was for that, sister? Were you soliciting me with deceit? was that pyre of yours, were these flames and altars preparing for me?

quid primum deserta querar? comitemne sororem sprevisti moriens?

What, abandoned, should I complain of first? Dying, did you scorn your sister, your companion?

eadem me ad fata vocasses, idem ambas ferro dolor atque eadem hora tulisset.

You should have called me to your same fate, and the same grief at the same time should have carried us both off by a sword.

his etiam struxi manibus patriosque vocavi voce deos, sic te ut posita, crudelis, abessem?

I even prepared this pyre with my hands, and I called the ancestral gods with my voice, so that, cruel sister, I might be absent while you were laid to rest in this manner?

exstinxti te meque, soror, populumque patresque Sidonios urbemque tuam.

you have destroyed yourself and me, sister, and your people and your ancestors of Sidon and your city.

date, vulnera lymphis abluam et, extremus si quis super halitus errat, ore legam.'

Grant that, I should cleanse your wounds with water and, if any final exhalation flutters above, I will gather your soul with a kiss.”

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

Thus spoken, she had climbed up high steps, and was embracing her cherished half-dead sister in her lap with a groan and also she was drying the dark blood from her robe.

illa gravis oculos conata attollere rursus deficit; infixum stridit sub pectore vulnus.

She fails again in her effort to lift her heavy eyes; the wound thrusted under her heart gurgles.

ter sese attollens cubitoque adnixa levavit,

Three times raising herself up, and with her effort leaned on her elbow,

ter revoluta toro est oculisque errantibus alto quaesivit caelo lucem ingemuitque reperta.

three times having fallen over in her bed she sought the light in the high sky with her roaming eyes and groaned when the light was discovered.

Tum Iuno omnipotens longum miserata dolorem difficilisque obitus Irim demisit Olympo

Then all-powerful Juno pitying this extended suffering and of her laborious death sent Iris down from Mt Olympus

quae luctantem animam nexosque resolveret artus.

so that she may free the struggling soul and the entangled bodily limbs.

nam quia nec fato merita nec morte peribat, sed misera ante diem subitoque accensa furore,

For since she was dying neither by fate or a well-earned death, but miserable before her day and suddenly inflamed by madness,

nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem abstulerat Stygioque caput damnaverat Orco.

Proserpina had not yet carried off a blonde lock of hair from the top of her head or condemned her life for Styx or Orcus.

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

Therefore dewey Iris flies down with her saffron-colored wings through the sky dragging a thousand different colors in the sun facing opposite and stood above Dido’s head.

'hunc ego Diti sacrum iussa fero teque isto corpore solvo':

“I ordered by Juno carry off this hair as a sacred offering to Pluto and I release you thither from your body:”

sic ait et dextra crinem secat,

She says this and cuts a lock of hair with her right hand,

omnis et una dilapsus calor atque in ventos vita recessit. 

and all together the departed warmth and her life receded into the breeze