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
And now Aurora was beginning to sprinkle the earth
with fresh light, rising from Tithonus’[182] saffron couch.
Soon as the queen from her watch-tower saw the gray
dawn brighten, and the fleet moving on with even canvas,
and coast and haven forsaken, with never an oar left,
thrice and again smiting her beauteous breast with her
hands, and rending her golden locks, “Great Jupiter!” 5
cries she, “shall he go? Shall a chance-comer boast of
having flouted our realm? Will they not get their arms
at once, and give chase from all the town, and pull, some
of them, the ships from the docks? Away! bring fire;
quick! get darts, ply oars! What am I saying? Where 10
am I? What madness turns my brain? Wretched Dido!
do your sins sting you now? They should have done so
then, when you were giving your crown away. What
truth! what fealty!—the man who, they say, carries
about with him the gods of his country, and took up on 15
his shoulders his old worn-out father! Might I not have
caught and torn him piecemeal, and scattered him to the
waves?—destroyed his friends, aye, and his own Ascanius,
and served up the boy for his father’s meal? But the
chance of a battle would have been doubtful. Let it have 20
been. I was to die, and whom had I to fear? I would
have flung torches into his camp, filled his decks with flame,
consumed son and sire and the whole line, and leapt myself
upon the pile. Sun, whose torch shows thee all that is
done on earth, and thou, Juno, revealer and witness 25
these stirrings of the heart, and Hecate, whose name is
yelled in civic crossways by night, avenging fiends, and
gods of dying Elissa, listen to this! Let your power stoop
to ills that call for it, and hear what I now pray! If
it must needs be that the accursed wretch gain the haven 30
and float to shore—if such the requirement of Jove’s
destiny, such the fixed goal—yet grant that, harassed
by the sword and battle of a warlike nation, a wanderer
from his own confines, torn from his Iulus’ arms, he may
pray for succour, and see his friends dying miserably round 35
him! Nor when he has yielded to the terms of an unjust
peace, may he enjoy his crown, or the life he loves; but
may he fall before his time, and lie unburied in the midst
of the plain! This is my prayer—these the last accents
that flow from me with my life-blood. And you, my
Tyrians, let your hatred persecute the race and people for
all time to come. Be this the offering you send down to
my ashes: never be there love or league between nation 5
and nation. Arise from my bones, my unknown avenger,
destined with fire and sword to pursue the Dardanian
settlers, now or in after-days, whenever strength shall be
given! Let coast be at war with coast, water with wave,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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