Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Anchises bade us speedily set sail,
  2. nor lose a wind so fair; and answering him,
  3. Apollo's priest made reverent adieu:
  4. “Anchises, honored by the love sublime
  5. of Venus, self and twice in safety borne
  6. from falling Troy, chief care of kindly Heaven,
  7. th' Ausonian shore is thine. Sail thitherward!
  8. For thou art pre-ordained to travel far
  9. o'er yonder seas; far in the distance lies
  10. that region of Ausonia, Phoebus' voice
  11. to thee made promise of. Onward, I say,
  12. o blest in the exceeding loyal love
  13. of thy dear son! Why keep thee longer now?
  14. Why should my words yon gathering winds detain?”
  15. Likewise Andromache in mournful guise
  16. took last farewell, bringing embroidered robes
  17. of golden woof; a princely Phrygian cloak
  18. she gave Ascanius, vying with the King
  19. in gifts of honor; and threw o'er the boy
  20. the labors of her loom, with words like these:
  21. “Accept these gifts, sweet youth, memorials
  22. of me and my poor handicraft, to prove
  23. th' undying friendship of Andromache,
  24. once Hector's wife. Take these last offerings
  25. of those who are thy kin—O thou that art
  26. of my Astyanax in all this world
  27. the only image! His thy lovely eyes!
  28. Thy hands, thy lips, are even what he bore,
  29. and like thy own his youthful bloom would be.”
  30. Thus I made answer, turning to depart
  31. with rising tears: “Live on, and be ye blessed,
  32. whose greatness is accomplished! As for me,
  33. from change to change Fate summons, and I go;
  34. but ye have won repose. No leagues of sea
  35. await your cleaving keel. Not yours the quest
  36. of fading Italy's delusive shore.
  37. Here a new Xanthus and a second Troy
  38. your labor fashioned and your eyes may see—
  39. more blest, I trust, less tempting to our foes!
  40. If e'er on Tiber and its bordering vales
  41. I safely enter, and these eyes behold
  42. our destined walls, then in fraternal bond
  43. let our two nations live, whose mutual boast
  44. is one Dardanian blood, one common story.
  45. Epirus with Hesperia shall be
  46. one Troy in heart and soul. But this remains
  47. for our sons' sons the happy task and care.”