Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Noised swiftly through the little town it flies
  2. that to the precinct of the Tuscan King
  3. armed horsemen speed. Pale mothers in great fear
  4. unceasing pray; for panic closely runs
  5. in danger's steps; the war-god drawing nigh
  6. looms larger; and good sire Evander now
  7. clings to the hand of his departing son
  8. and, weeping without stay, makes sad farewell:
  9. “O, that great Jove would give me once again
  10. my vanished years! O, if such man I were,
  11. as when beneath Praeneste's wall I slew
  12. the front ranks of her sons, and burned for spoil
  13. their gathered shields on my triumph day;
  14. or when this right hand hurled king Erulus
  15. to shades below, though—terrible to tell —
  16. Feronia bore him with three lives, that thrice
  17. he might arise from deadly strife o'erthrown,
  18. and thrice be slain—yet all these lives took I,
  19. and of his arms despoiled him o'er and o'er:
  20. not now, sweet son (if such lost might were mine),
  21. should I from thy beloved embrace be torn;
  22. nor could Mezentius with insulting sword
  23. do murder in my sight and make my land
  24. depopulate and forlorn. O gods in Heaven,
  25. and chiefly thou whom all the gods obey,
  26. have pity, Jove, upon Arcadia's King,
  27. and hear a father's prayer: if your intent
  28. be for my Pallas a defence secure,
  29. if it be writ that long as I shall live,
  30. my eyes may see him, and my arms enfold,
  31. I pray for life, and all its ills I bear.
  32. But if some curse, too dark to tell, impend
  33. from thee, O Fortune blind! I pray thee break
  34. my thread of miserable life to-day;
  35. to-day, while fear still doubts and hope still smiles
  36. on the unknown to-morrow, as I hold
  37. thee to my bosom, dearest child, who art
  38. my last and only joy; to-day, before
  39. th' intolerable tidings smite my ears.”
  40. Such grief the royal father's heart outpoured
  41. at this last parting; the strong arms of slaves
  42. lifted him, fallen in swoon, and bore him home.