Aeneid 6.450-476, 788-800, 847-853 Translation

Inter quas Phoenissa recens a vulnere Dido

errabat silva in magna; quam Troius heros

ut primum iuxta stetit agnovitque per umbras

obscuram, qualem primo qui surgere mense

aut videt aut vidisse putat per nubila lunam

demisit lacrimas dulcique adfatus amore est:

Among whom Phoenician Dido, fresh from her wound, was wandering in the great forest; as the Trojan hero first stood close to her and recognized her, obscure, through the shades, of what sort [he], who either sees or thinks that [he] has seen that the moon rises in the first month through the clouds, he sent down tears and he addressed [her] with sweet love:

"Infelix Dido, verus mihi nuntius ergo

venerat exstinctam ferroque extrema secutam?

Funeris heu tibi causa fui? Per sidera iuro,

per superos et si qua fides tellure sub ima est,

invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi.

Sed me iussa deum, quae nunc has ire per umbras,

per loca senta situ cogunt noctemque profundam,

imperiis egere suis; nec credere quivi

hunc tantum tibi me discessu ferre dolorem.

Siste gradum teque aspectu ne subtrahe nostro.

Quem fugis? Extremum fato quod te adloquor hoc est."

"Unhappy Dido, therefore had a true message come to me that [you] had been extinguished and had followed the final things with iron? Alas, was I the cause of death for you? I swear through the stars, through the gods, and if there is any faith under the deepest earth, unwilling, queen, I departed from your shore. But the commands of the gods, which now force [me] to go through these shades, through places rough from neglect, and the deep night, drove me with their orders; nor was I able to believe that I carried this so great grief to you by my departure. Stop your step and do not withdraw yourself from our sight. Whom do you flee? This is the last thing which I address you by fate."

Talibus Aeneas ardentem et torva tuentem

lenibat dictis animum lacrimasque ciebat.

Illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat

nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur

quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes.

Tandem corripuit sese atque inimica refugit

in nemus umbriferum coniunx ubi pristinus illi

respondet curis aequatque Sychaeus amorem.

Nec minus Aeneas casu concussus iniquo

prosequitur lacrimis longe et miseratur euntem.

Aeneas was trying to soothe her mind, burning and watching fierce[ly], with such words and he was trying to stir his tears. She, having been turned away, was holding her eyes, fixed on the ground, nor is she moved with respect to her face by his conversation, having been begun, more than if hard flint or the Marpesian rock should stand. Finally, she snatched herself away and she, hostile, fled back into the shade-bearing grove, where her former husband Sychaeus responds to her with care and he equals her love. And not less Aeneas, having been shaken by her unjust misfortune, pursues [her] from afar with tears and he pities her, going.

"Huc geminas nunc flecte acies, hanc aspice gentem

Romanosque tuos. Hic Caesar et omnis Iuli

progenies magnum caeli ventura sub axem.

Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti saepius audis,

Augustus Caesar, divi genus, aurea condet

saecula qui rursus Latio regnata per arva

Saturno quondam, super et Garamantas et Indos

proferet imperium; iacet extra sidera tellus,

extra anni solisque vias, ubi caelifer Atlas

axem umero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum.

Huius in adventum iam nunc et Caspia regna

responsis horrent divum et Maeotia tellus,

et septem gemini turbant trepida ostia Nili."

Now turn your twin eyes to this place, look at this race and your Romans. Here [is] Caesar and all the offspring of Iulus, about to come under the great axis of the sky. Here [is] a man, this is [he], whom you rather often hear is promised to you, Augustus Caesar, the offspring of a god, who will found golden ages again in Latium, through the fields, having been formerly ruled by Saturn, he will extend his military power over both the Garamantes and the Indi; his land lies beyond the stars, beyond the roads of the year and the sun, where sky-bearing Atlas twists the axis, having been fastened with burning stars, on his shoulder. Now already both the Caspian kingdoms and Maeotian land shudder against his arrival with the responses of the gods, and the trembling mouths of the seven-mouthed Nile River make an uproar.

"Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera

(credo equidem), vivos ducent de marmore vultus,

orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus

describent radio et surgentia sidera dicent:

tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento

(hae tibi erunt artes), pacique imponere morem,

parcere subiectis et debellare superbos."

"Others will hammer out bronzes, breathing rather softly (indeed I believe), they will lead the living faces from marble, they will plead cases better, and they will describe motions of the sky with a compass and they will tell the rising stars: you, Roman, remember to rule peoples with command (these will be the skills for you), and to place the custom on peace, to spare the vanquished and to conquer the arrogant."