The Æneid of Virgil translated into English prose — John Shaqi
The Æneid of Virgil translated into English proseVirgil
General
The Æneid of Virgil translated into English prose
Virgil
Aeneas (Legendary character); Epic poetry, Latin -- Translations into English; Legends -- Rome
Danaans from the top of the citadel. That hour I, spent
with care and overborne with sleep, was in the hold of
our ill-starred bridal chamber, weighed down as I lay, by
slumber sweet and sound, the very image of the deep
calm of death. Meantime, my peerless helpmate removes
from the house arms of every sort: yes, my trusty sword 5
she had withdrawn from my pillow, and now she calls
Menelaus to come in, and throws wide the door, hoping,
I doubt not, that the greatness of the boon would soften
her lover’s heart, and that the memory of her crime of
old could thus be wiped from men’s minds. Why make 10
the story long? They burst into the chamber, along with
them that child of Æolus,[222] then as ever the counsellor
of evil. Recompense, ye gods, the Greeks in kind, if
these lips, that ask for retribution, are pure and loyal.
But you; what chance has brought you here in your lifetime, 15
let me ask in turn? Are you come under the spell
of ocean-wandering, or by the command of heaven? or
what tyranny of fortune constrains you to visit these
sad, sunless dwellings, the abode of confusion?”
In this interchange of talk, the Dawn-goddess in her 20
flushing car, careering through the sky, had well passed
the summit of the arch; and perchance they had spent
all their allotted time in converse like this, had not the
Sibyl warned her companion with brief address: “Night
is hastening, Æneas; and we, as we weep, are making 25
hours pass. This is the spot where the road parts in
twain. The right, which goes under the palace-wall of
mighty Dis—there lies our way to Elysium; the left
puts in motion the tortures of the wicked, and sends
them to Tartarus, the home of crime.” Deiphobus replied: 30
“Frown not, dread priestess; I depart, to make
the ghostly number complete, and plunge again in darkness.
Go on your way, our nation’s glory, go: may your
experience of fate be more blest.” He said, and, while
yet speaking, turned away. 35
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