Translation II 268 - 297 Flashcards
(6 cards)
Tempus erat quo prima quies mortalibus aegris
incipit et dono divum gratissima serpit.
In somnis, ecce, ante oculos maestissimus Hector
visus adesse mihi largosque effundere fletus,
raptatus bigis ut quondam, aterque cruento
pulvere perque pedes trajectus lora tumentis.
It was the time when the first rest begins for weary mortals and the most welcome thing creeps on by the gift of the gods. In a dream, look before my eyes the most mournful Hector seemed to be present to me and to pour out abundant tears, as formerly snatched by the 2-horsed chariot, and dark with bloody dust and his swollen feet having been pierced by thongs.
Ei mihi, qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo
Hectore qui redit exuvias indutus Achilli,
vel Danaum Phrygios iaculatus puppinus ignis;
Alas for me, how he was, how much change from that Hector who returns having had put on the spoils of Achilles, or having hurled the Trojan fires at the ships of the Greeks;
squalentem barbam et concretos sanguine crinis
vulneraque illa gerens, quae circum plurima muros
accepit patrios. Ultro flens ipse videbar
compellare virum et maestas expromere voces:
wearing a filthy beard and hair matted with blood and those wounds, which very many he received around the ancestral walls. Further I myself was seeming to address the man crying and to put forth mournful words:
“O lux Dardaniae, spes O fidissima Teucrum,
quae tantae tenuere morae? Quibus Hector ab oris
exspectate venis? Ut te post multa tuorum
funera, post varios hominumque urbisque labores
defessi aspicimus! Quae causa indigna serenos
foedavit vultus? Aut cur haec vulnera cerno?”
“Oh light of Troy, oh greatest hope of the Trojans, what so great delays have held you? From what shores Hector do you come awaited? We look upon you after the many deaths of your people, after the various struggles of both the people and the city tired! what unworthy cause has defiled your serene face? why do I perceive these wounds?”
Ille nihil, nec me quaerentem vana moratur,
sed graviter gemitus imo de pectore ducens,
“Heu fuge, nate dea, teque his” ait “eripe flammis.
Hostis habet muros; ruit alto a culmine Troia.
Sat patriae Priamoque datum: si Pergama dextra
defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.
That one said nothing, nor does he heed me asking idle things, but drawing a groan heavily from the bottom of his chest, he says “Alas flee, goddess born, and snatch yourself from these flames. The enemy has the walls; Troy falls from its high summit. Enough has been given to country and king: if Pergamum would be able to be defended by a right hand then it would have been defended by this one.
Sacra suosque tibi commendat Troia penatis;
hos cape fatorum comites, his moenia quaere
magna, pererrato statues quae denique ponto.”
Sic ait et manibus vittas Vestamque potentem
aeternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem.
Troy entrusts sacred things and its gods to you; take these as comrades of the fates, seek great walls for these which will finally establish the waves having been traversed.”
Thus he said and he lifts the bands with his hands and mighty Vesta and the eternal flame in the inmost sanctuary.
