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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book IV Chapter 25: Dido's curse | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Aurora's first young beams to earth were pouring as from Tithonus' saffron bed she sprang; while from her battlements the wakeful Queen watched the sky brighten, saw the mated sails push forth to sea, till all her port and strand held not an oar or keel. Thrice and four times she smote her lovely breast with wrathful hand, and tore her golden hair. Great Jove, she cries, Shall that departing fugitive [Note 1] make mock of me, a queen? Will not my men-at-arms draw sword, give chase, from all my city thronging? Down from the docks, my ships! Out, out! Begone! Take fire and sword! Bend to your oars, ye slaves! What have I said? Where am I? What mad thoughts delude this ruined mind? Woe unto thee, thou wretched Dido, now thy impious deeds strike back upon thee. Wherefore struck they not, as was most fit, when thou didst fling away thy sceptre from thy hand? O lying oaths! O faith forsworn! of him who brings, they boast, his father's gods along, and bowed his back to lift an age-worn sire! Why dared I not seize on him, rend his body limb from limb, and hurl him piecemeal on the rolling sea? Or put his troop of followers to the sword, Ascanius too, and set his flesh before that father for a feast? Such fearful war had been of doubtful issue. Be it so! What fears a woman dying? Would I had attacked their camp with torches, kindled flame from ship to ship, until that son and sire, with that whole tribe, were unto ashes burned in one huge holocaust -- myself its crown! Great orb of light whose holy beam surveys all earthly deeds! Great Juno, patroness of conjugal distress, who knowest all! Pale Hecate, whose name the witches cry at midnight crossways! O avenging furies! O gods that guard Queen Dido's dying breath! Give ear, and to my guiltless misery extend your power. Hear me what I pray! If it be fated that yon creature curst drift to the shore and happy haven find, if Father love's irrevocable word such goal decree -- there may he be assailed by peoples fierce and bold. A banished man, from his Iulus' kisses sundered far, may his own eyes see miserably slain his kin and kind, and sue for alien arms. nor when he basely bows him to receive terms of unequal peace, shall he be blest with sceptre or with life; but perish there before his time, and lie without a grave upon the barren sand. For this I pray. This dying word is flowing from my heart with my spilt blood. And -- O ye Tyrians! I sting with your hatred all his seed and tribe forevermore. This is the offering my ashes ask. Betwixt our nations twain, No love! No truce or amity! Arise, Out of my dust, unknown Avenger, rise! To harry and lay waste with sword and flame those Dardan settlers, and to vex them sore, to-day, to-morrow, and as long as power is thine to use! My dying curse arrays shore against shore and the opposing seas in shock of arms with arms. May living foes pass down from sire to son insatiate war! Event: Love and Death of Dido Note 1: fugitive = Aeneas |
584-629 Et iam prima nouo spargebat lumine terras Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile. regina e speculis ut primam albescere lucem uidit et aequatis classem procedere uelis, litoraque et uacuos sensit sine remige portus, terque quaterque manu pectus percussa decorum flauentisque abscissa comas 'pro Iuppiter! ibit hic,' ait 'et nostris inluserit aduena regnis? non arma expedient totaque ex urbe sequentur, diripientque rates alii naualibus? ite, ferte citi flammas, date tela, impellite remos! quid loquor? aut ubi sum? quae mentem insania mutat? infelix Dido, nunc te facta impia tangunt? tum decuit, cum sceptra dabas. en dextra fidesque, quem secum patrios aiunt portare penatis, quem subiisse umeris confectum aetate parentem! non potui abreptum diuellere corpus et undis spargere? non socios, non ipsum absumere ferro Ascanium patriisque epulandum ponere mensis? uerum anceps pugnae fuerat fortuna. fuisset: quem metui moritura? faces in castra tulissem implessemque foros flammis natumque patremque cum genere exstinxem, memet super ipsa dedissem. Sol, qui terrarum flammis opera omnia lustras, tuque harum interpres curarum et conscia Iuno, nocturnisque Hecate triuiis ululata per urbes et Dirae ultrices et di morientis Elissae, accipite haec, meritumque malis aduertite numen et nostras audite preces. si tangere portus infandum caput ac terris adnare necesse est, et sic fata Iouis poscunt, hic terminus haeret, at bello audacis populi uexatus et armis, finibus extorris, complexu auulsus Iuli auxilium imploret uideatque indigna suorum funera; nec, cum se sub leges pacis iniquae tradiderit, regno aut optata luce fruatur, sed cadat ante diem mediaque inhumatus harena. haec precor, hanc uocem extremam cum sanguine fundo. tum uos, o Tyrii, stirpem et genus omne futurum exercete odiis, cinerique haec mittite nostro munera. nullus amor populis nec foedera sunto. exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor qui face Dardanios ferroque sequare colonos, nunc, olim, quocumque dabunt se tempore uires. litora litoribus contraria, fluctibus undas imprecor, arma armis: pugnent ipsique nepotesque.' |