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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book IV Chapter 2: Anna's reply | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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O dearer to thy sister than her life, Anna replied, wouldst thou in sorrow's weed waste thy long youth alone, nor ever know sweet babes at thine own breast, nor gifts of love? Will dust and ashes, or a buried ghost reck what we do? T is true thy grieving heart was cold to earlier wooers, Libya's now, and long ago in Tyre. Iarbas knew thy scorn, and many a prince and captain bred in Afric's land of glory. Why resist a love that makes thee glad? Hast thou no care what alien lands are these where thou dost reign? Here are Gaetulia's cities and her tribes unconquered ever; on thy borders rove Numidia's uncurbed cavalry; here too lies Syrtis' cruel shore, and regions wide of thirsty desert, menaced everywhere by the wild hordes of Barca. Shall I tell of Tyre's hostilities, the threats and rage of our own brother? [Note 1] Friendly gods, I bow, wafted the Teucrian ships, with Juno's aid, to these our shores. O sister, what a throne, and what imperial city shall be thine, if thus espoused! With Trojan arms allied how far may not our Punic fame extend in deeds of power? Call therefore on the gods to favor thee; and, after omens fair, give queenly welcome, and contrive excuse to make him [Note 1] tarry, while yon wintry seas are loud beneath Orion's stormful star, and on his battered ships the season frowns. Note 1: brother = Pygmalion Event: Love and Death of Dido |
31-53 Anna refert: 'o luce magis dilecta sorori, solane perpetua maerens carpere iuuenta nec dulcis natos Veneris nec praemia noris? id cinerem aut manis credis curare sepultos? esto: aegram nulli quondam flexere mariti, non Libyae, non ante Tyro; despectus Iarbas ductoresque alii, quos Africa terra triumphis diues alit: placitone etiam pugnabis amori? nec uenit in mentem quorum consederis aruis? hinc Gaetulae urbes, genus insuperabile bello, et Numidae infreni cingunt et inhospita Syrtis; hinc deserta siti regio lateque furentes Barcaei. quid bella Tyro surgentia dicam germanique minas? dis equidem auspicibus reor et Iunone secunda hunc cursum Iliacas uento tenuisse carinas. quam tu urbem, soror, hanc cernes, quae surgere regna coniugio tali! Teucrum comitantibus armis Punica se quantis attollet gloria rebus! tu modo posce deos ueniam, sacrisque litatis indulge hospitio causasque innecte morandi, dum pelago desaeuit hiems et aquosus Orion, quassataeque rates, dum non tractabile caelum.' |