Aeneid

Virgil

Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.

  1. A king we had; Aeneas,—never man
  2. in all the world more loyal, just and true,
  3. nor mightier in arms! If Heaven decree
  4. his present safety, if he now do breathe
  5. the air of earth and is not buried low
  6. among the dreadful shades, then fear not thou!
  7. For thou wilt never rue that thou wert prompt
  8. to do us the first kindness. O'er the sea
  9. in the Sicilian land, are cities proud,
  10. with martial power, and great Acestes there
  11. is of our Trojan kin. So grant us here
  12. to beach our shattered ships along thy shore,
  13. and from thy forest bring us beam and spar
  14. to mend our broken oars. Then, if perchance
  15. we find once more our comrades and our king,
  16. and forth to Italy once more set sail,
  17. to Italy, our Latin hearth and home,
  18. we will rejoicing go. But if our weal
  19. is clean gone by, and thee, blest chief and sire,
  20. these Libyan waters keep, and if no more
  21. Iulus bids us hope,—then, at the least,
  22. to yon Sicilian seas, to friendly lands
  23. whence hither drifting with the winds we came,
  24. let us retrace the journey and rejoin
  25. good King Acestes.” So Ilioneus
  26. ended his pleading; the Dardanidae
  27. murmured assent.
  1. Then Dido, briefly and with downcast eyes,
  2. her answer made: “O Teucrians, have no fear!
  3. Bid care begone! It was necessity,
  4. and my young kingdom's weakness, which compelled
  5. the policy of force, and made me keep
  6. such vigilant sentry my wide co'ast along.
  7. Aeneas and his people, that fair town
  8. of Troy—who knows them not? The whole world knows
  9. those valorous chiefs and huge, far-flaming wars.
  10. Our Punic hearts are not of substance all
  11. insensible and dull: the god of day
  12. drives not his fire-breathing steeds so far
  13. from this our Tyrian town. If ye would go
  14. to great Hesperia, where Saturn reigned,
  15. or if voluptuous Eryx and the throne
  16. of good Acestes be your journey's end,
  17. I send you safe; I speed you on your way.
  18. But if in these my realms ye will abide,
  19. associates of my power, behold, I build
  20. this city for your own! Choose haven here
  21. for your good ships. Beneath my royal sway
  22. Trojan and Tyrian equal grace will find.
  23. But O, that this same storm had brought your King.
  24. Aeneas, hither! I will bid explore
  25. our Libya's utmost bound, where haply he
  26. in wilderness or hamlet wanders lost.”
  1. By these fair words to joy profoundly stirred,
  2. Father Aeneas and Achates brave
  3. to cast aside the cloud that wrapped them round
  4. yearned greatly; and Achates to his King
  5. spoke thus: “O goddess-born, in thy wise heart
  6. what purpose rises now? Lo! All is well!
  7. Thy fleet and followers are safe at land.
  8. One only comes not, who before our eyes
  9. sank in the soundless sea. All else fulfils
  10. thy mother's prophecy.” Scarce had he spoke
  11. when suddenly that overmantling cloud
  12. was cloven, and dissolved in lucent air;
  13. forth stood Aeneas. A clear sunbeam smote
  14. his god-like head and shoulders. Venus' son
  15. of his own heavenly mother now received
  16. youth's glowing rose, an eye of joyful fire,
  17. and tresses clustering fair. 'T is even so
  18. the cunning craftsman unto ivory gives
  19. new beauty, or with circlet of bright gold
  20. encloses silver or the Parian stone.
  21. Thus of the Queen he sued, while wonderment
  22. fell on all hearts. “Behold the man ye seek,
  23. for I am here! Aeneas, Trojan-born,
  24. brought safely hither from yon Libyan seas!
  25. O thou who first hast looked with pitying eye
  26. on Troy's unutterable grief, who even to us
  27. (escaped our Grecian victor, and outworn
  28. by all the perils land and ocean know),
  29. to us, bereft and ruined, dost extend
  30. such welcome to thy kingdom and thy home!
  31. I have no power, Dido, to give thanks
  32. to match thine ample grace; nor is there power
  33. in any remnant of our Dardan blood,
  34. now fled in exile o'er the whole wide world.
  35. May gods on high (if influence divine
  36. bless faithful lives, or recompense be found
  37. in justice and thy self-approving mind)
  38. give thee thy due reward. What age was blest
  39. by such a birth as thine? What parents proud
  40. such offspring bore? O, while the rivers run
  41. to mingle with the sea, while shadows pass
  42. along yon rounded hills from vale to vale,
  43. and while from heaven's unextinguished fire
  44. the stars be fed—so Iong thy glorious name,
  45. thy place illustrious and thy virtue's praise,
  46. abide undimmed.—Yet I myself must go
  47. to lands I know not where.” After this word
  48. his right hand clasped his Ioved Ilioneus,
  49. his left Serestus; then the comrades all,
  50. brave Gyas, brave Cloanthus, and their peers.