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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book IV Chapter 5: Talk of Venus and Juno | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
In answer (reading the dissembler's mind which unto Libyan shores were fain to shift Italia's future throne) thus Venus spoke: T were mad to spurn such favor, or by choice be numbered with thy foes. But can it be that fortune on thy noble counsel smiles? To me Fate shows but dimly whether Jove unto the Trojan wanderers ordains a common city with the sons of Tyre, with mingling blood and sworn, perpetual peace. His wife thou art; it is thy rightful due to plead to know his mind. Go, ask him, then! For humbly I obey! With instant word Juno the Queen replied: Leave that to me! But in what wise our urgent task and grave may soon be sped, I will in brief unfold to thine attending ear. A royal hunt in sylvan shades unhappy Dido gives for her Aeneas, when to-morrow's dawn uplifts its earliest ray and Titan's beam shall first unveil the world. But I will pour black storm-clouds with a burst of heavy hail along their way; and as the huntsmen speed to hem the wood with snares, I will arouse all heaven with thunder. The attending train shall scatter and be veiled in blinding dark, while Dido and her hero out of Troy to the same cavern fly. My auspices I will declare -- if thou alike wilt bless; and yield her in true wedlock for his bride. Such shall their spousal be! To Juno's will Cythera's Queen inclined assenting brow, and laughed such guile to see. |
105-128 Olli (sensit enim simulata mente locutam, quo regnum Italiae Libycas auerteret oras) sic contra est ingressa Venus: 'quis talia demens abnuat aut tecum malit contendere bello? si modo quod memoras factum fortuna sequatur. sed fatis incerta feror, si Iuppiter unam esse uelit Tyriis urbem Troiaque profectis, misceriue probet populos aut foedera iungi. tu coniunx, tibi fas animum temptare precando. perge, sequar.' tum sic excepit regia Iuno: 'mecum erit iste labor. nunc qua ratione quod instat confieri possit, paucis (aduerte) docebo. uenatum Aeneas unaque miserrima Dido in nemus ire parant, ubi primos crastinus ortus extulerit Titan radiisque retexerit orbem. his ego nigrantem commixta grandine nimbum, dum trepidant alae saltusque indagine cingunt, desuper infundam et tonitru caelum omne ciebo. diffugient comites et nocte tegentur opaca: speluncam Dido dux et Troianus eandem deuenient. adero et, tua si mihi certa uoluntas, conubio iungam stabili propriamque dicabo. hic hymenaeus erit.' non aduersata petenti adnuit atque dolis risit Cytherea repertis. |