Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars. Lucan

Чтение книги онлайн.

       We pray thee, choose not; but in rays direct

       Vouchsafe thy radiance to thy city Rome.

       Press thou on either side, the universe

       Should lose its equipoise: take thou the midst,

       And weight the scales, and let that part of heaven

       Where Caesar sits, be evermore serene

       And smile upon us with unclouded blue.

       Then may all men lay down their arms, and peace

       Through all the nations reign, and shut the gates

       That close the temple of the God of War.

       Be thou my help, to me e'en now divine!

       Let Delphi's steep her own Apollo guard,

       And Nysa keep her Bacchus, uninvoked.

       Rome is my subject and my muse art thou!

      First of such deeds I purpose to unfold

       The causes — task immense — what drove to arms

       A maddened nation, and from all the world

       Struck peace away.

      By envious fate's decrees

       Abide not long the mightiest lords of earth;

       Beneath too heavy a burden great the fall.

       Thus Rome o'ergrew her strength. So when that hour,

       The last in all the centuries, shall sound

       The world's disruption, all things shall revert

       To that primaeval chaos, stars on stars

       Shall crash; and fiery meteors from the sky

       Plunge in the ocean. Earth shall then no more

       Front with her bulwark the encroaching sea:

       The moon, indignant at her path oblique,

       Shall drive her chariot 'gainst her brother Sun

       And claim the day for hers; and discord huge

       Shall rend the spheres asunder.

       On themselves

       Great powers are dashed: such bounds the gods have placed

       Upon the prosperous; nor doth Fortune lend

       To any nations, so that they may strike

       The sovereign power that rules the earth and sea,

       The weapons of her envy. Triple reign

       And baleful compact for divided power —

       Ne'er without peril separate before —

       Made Rome their victim. Oh! Ambition blind,

       That stirred the leaders so to join their strength

       In peace that ended ill, their prize the world!

       For while the Sea on Earth and Earth on Air

       Lean for support: while Titan runs his course,

       And night with day divides an equal sphere,

       No king shall brook his fellow, nor shall power

       Endure a rival. Search no foreign lands:

       These walls are proof that in their infant days

       A hamlet, not the world, was prize enough

       To cause the shedding of a brother's blood.

      Concord, on discord based, brief time endured,

       Unwelcome to the rivals; and alone

       Crassus delayed the advent of the war.

       Like to the slender neck that separates

       The seas of Graecia: should it be engulfed

       Then would th' Ionian and Aegean mains (4)

       Break each on other: thus when Crassus fell,

       Who held apart the chiefs, in piteous death,

       And stained Assyria's plains with Latian blood,

       Defeat in Parthia loosed the war in Rome.

       More in that victory than ye thought was won,

       Ye sons of Arsaces; your conquered foes

       Took at your hands the rage of civil strife.

       The mighty realm that earth and sea contained,

       To which all peoples bowed, split by the sword,

       Could not find space for two (5). For Julia bore,

       Cut off by fate unpitying(6), the bond

       Of that ill-omened marriage, and the pledge

       Of blood united, to the shades below.

       Had'st thou but longer stayed, it had been thine

       To keep the husband and the sire apart,

       And, as the Sabine women did of old,

       Dash down the threatening swords and join the hands.

       With thee all trust was buried, and the chiefs

       Could give their courage vent, and rushed to war.

      Lest newer glories triumphs past obscure,

       Late conquered Gaul the bays from pirates won,

       This, Magnus, was thy fear; thy roll of fame,

       Of glorious deeds accomplished for the state

       Allows no equal; nor will Caesar's pride

       A prior rival in his triumphs brook;

       Which had the right 'twere impious to enquire;

       Each for his cause can vouch a judge supreme;

       The victor, heaven: the vanquished, Cato, thee. (7)

       Nor were they like to like: the one in years

       Now verging towards decay, in times of peace

       Had unlearned war; but thirsting for applause

       Had given the people much, and proud of fame

       His former glory cared not to renew,

СКАЧАТЬ