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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book IV Chapter 17: Dido speaks to Anna | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
O Anna, dost thou see yon busy shore? From every side they come. their canvas wooes the winds, and o'er each prow the merry seamen hang their votive flowers. Dear sister, since I [Note 1] did forebode this grief, I shall be strong to bear it. One sole boon my sorrow asks thee, Anna! Since of thee, thee only, did that traitor [Note 2] make a friend, and trusted thee with what he hid so deep -- the feelings of his heart; since thou alone hast known what way, what hour the man would yield to soft persuasion -- therefore, sister, haste, and humbly thus implore our haughty foe: I was not with the Greeks what time they swore at Aulis to cut off the seed of Troy; I sent no ships to Ilium. Pray, have I profaned Anchises' tomb, or vexed his shade? Why should his ear be deaf and obdurate to all I say? What haste? May he not make one last poor offering to her whose love is only pain? O, bid him but delay till flight be easy and the winds blow fair. I plead no more that bygone marriage-vow by him forsworn, nor ask that he should lose his beauteous Latium and his realm to be. Nothing but time I crave! to give repose and more room to this fever, till my fate teach a crushed heart to sorrow. I implore this last grace. (To thy sister's grief be kind!) I will requite with increase, till I die. Note 1: I = Dido Event: Love and Death of Dido |
416-436 'Anna, uides toto properari litore circum: undique conuenere; uocat iam carbasus auras, puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas. hunc ego si potui tantum sperare dolorem, et perferre, soror, potero. miserae hoc tamen unum exsequere, Anna, mihi; solam nam perfidus ille te colere, arcanos etiam tibi credere sensus; sola uiri mollis aditus et tempora noras. i, soror, atque hostem supplex adfare superbum: non ego cum Danais Troianam exscindere gentem Aulide iuraui classemue ad Pergama misi, nec patris Anchisae cinerem manisue reuelli: cur mea dicta negat duras demittere in auris? quo ruit? extremum hoc miserae det munus amanti: exspectet facilemque fugam uentosque ferentis. non iam coniugium antiquum, quod prodidit, oro, nec pulchro ut Latio careat regnumque relinquat: tempus inane peto, requiem spatiumque furori, dum mea me uictam doceat fortuna dolere. extremam hanc oro ueniam (miserere sororis), quam mihi cum dederit cumulatam morte remittam.' |