Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. “O dearer to thy sister than her life,”
  2. Anna replied, “wouldst thou in sorrow's weed
  3. waste thy long youth alone, nor ever know
  4. sweet babes at thine own breast, nor gifts of love?
  5. Will dust and ashes, or a buried ghost
  6. reck what we do? 'T is true thy grieving heart
  7. was cold to earlier wooers, Libya's now,
  8. and long ago in Tyre. Iarbas knew
  9. thy scorn, and many a prince and captain bred
  10. in Afric's land of glory. Why resist
  11. a love that makes thee glad? Hast thou no care
  12. what alien lands are these where thou dost reign?
  13. Here are Gaetulia's cities and her tribes
  14. unconquered ever; on thy borders rove
  15. Numidia's uncurbed cavalry; here too
  16. lies Syrtis' cruel shore, and regions wide
  17. of thirsty desert, menaced everywhere
  18. by the wild hordes of Barca. Shall I tell
  19. of Tyre's hostilities, the threats and rage
  20. of our own brother? Friendly gods, I bow,
  21. wafted the Teucrian ships, with Juno's aid,
  22. to these our shores. O sister, what a throne,
  23. and what imperial city shall be thine,
  24. if thus espoused! With Trojan arms allied
  25. how far may not our Punic fame extend
  26. in deeds of power? Call therefore on the gods
  27. to favor thee; and, after omens fair,
  28. give queenly welcome, and contrive excuse
  29. to make him tarry, while yon wintry seas
  30. are loud beneath Orion's stormful star,
  31. and on his battered ships the season frowns.”