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
But good Æneas, though yearning to solace and soothe
her agonized spirit, and by his words to check the onset of
sorrow, with many a groan, his whole soul upheaved by
the force of love, goes nevertheless about the commands
of Heaven, and repairs to his fleet. The Teucrians redouble 15
their efforts, and along the whole range of the shore
drag their tall ships down. The keels are careened and
floated. They carry oars with their leaves still on, and
timber unfashioned as it stood in the woods, so strong their
eagerness to fly. You may see them all in motion, streaming 20
from every part of the city. Even as ants when they
are sacking a huge heap of wheat, provident of winter
days, and laying up the plunder in their stores; a black
column is seen moving through the plain, and they convey
their booty along the grass in a narrow path: some are 25
putting their shoulders to the big grains, and pushing them
along; others are rallying the force and punishing the
stragglers; the whole track is in a glow of work. What
were your feelings then, poor Dido, at a sight like this!
How deep the groans you heaved, when you looked out 30
from your lofty tower on a beach all seething and swarming,
and saw the whole sea before you deafened with that
hubbub of voices! Tyrant love! what force dost thou not
put on human hearts? Again she has to condescend to
tears, again to use the weapons of entreaty, and bow her 35
spirit in suppliance under love’s yoke, lest she should have
left aught untried, and be rushing on a needless death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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