The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse. Virgil

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СКАЧАТЬ Still to his father reaching out Iulus tender-young:

       'If thou art on thy way to die, then bear us through it all;

       But if to thee the wise in arms some hope of arms befall,

       Then keep this house first! Unto whom giv'st thou Iulus' life,

       Thy father's, yea and mine withal, that once was called thy wife?'

      So crying out, the house she filled with her exceeding moan,

       When sudden, wondrous to be told, a portent was there shown;680

       For as his woeful parents' hands and lips he hangs between,

       On topmost of Iulus' head a thin peaked flame is seen,

       That with the harmless touch of fire, whence clearest light is shed,

       Licks his soft locks and pastures round the temples of his head.

       Quaking with awe from out his hair we fall the fire to shake,

       And bring the water of the well the holy flame to slake.

       But joyous to the stars aloft Anchises raiseth eyes,

       And with his hands spread out abroad to very heaven he cries:

       'Almighty Jove, if thou hast will toward any prayers to turn,

       Look down on us this while alone; if aught our goodness earn,690

       Father, give help and strengthen us these omens from the sky!'

      Scarce had the elder said the word ere crashing suddenly

       It thundered on the left, and down across the shades of night

       Ran forth a great brand-bearing star with most abundant light;

       And clear above the topmost house we saw it how it slid

       Lightening the ways, and at the last in Ida's forest hid.

       Then through the sky a furrow ran drawn out a mighty space,

       Giving forth light, and sulphur-fumes rose all about the place.

      My father vanquished therewithal his visage doth upraise,

       And saith a word unto the Gods that holy star to praise:700

       'Now, now, no tarrying is at all, I follow where ye lead;

       O Father-Gods heed ye our house and this my son's son heed!

       This is your doom; and Troy is held beneath your majesty.

       I yield, O son, nor more gainsay to go my ways with thee.'

      He spake; and mid the walls meanwhile we hear the fire alive

       Still clearer, and the burning place more nigh the heat doth drive.

      'O hasten, father well-beloved, to hang about my neck!

       Lo, here my shoulders will I stoop, nor of the labour reck.

       And whatsoever may befall, the two of us shall bide

       One peril and one heal and end: Iulus by my side710

       Shall wend, and after us my wife shall follow on my feet

       Ye serving-folk, turn ye your minds these words of mine to meet:

       Scant from the city is a mound and temple of old tide,

       Of Ceres' lone, a cypress-tree exceeding old beside.

       Kept by our fathers' worshipping through many years agone:

       Thither by divers roads go we to meet at last in one.

       Now, father, take thy fathers' Gods and holy things to hold,

       For me to touch them fresh from fight and murder were o'erbold,

       A misdeed done against the Gods, till in the living flood

       I make a shift to wash me clean.'720

      I stooped my neck and shoulders broad e'en as the word I said,

       A forest lion's yellow fell for cloth upon them laid,

       And took my burden up: my young Iulus by my side,

       Holding my hand, goes tripping short unto his father's stride;

       My wife comes after: on we fare amidst a mirky world.

       And I, erewhile as nothing moved by storm of weapons hurled,

       I, who the gathering of the Greeks against me nothing feared,

       Now tremble at each breath of wind, by every sound am stirred,

       Sore troubled for my fellows both, and burden that I bore.

      And now we draw anigh the gates, and all the way seemed o'er,730

       When sudden sound of falling feet was borne upon our ears,

       And therewithal my father cries, as through the dusk he peers,

       'Haste, son, and get thee swift away, for they are on us now;

       I see the glittering of the brass and all their shields aglow.'

      What Godhead nought a friend to me amidst my terror there

       Snatched wit away I nothing know: for while I swiftly fare

       By wayless places, wandering wide from out the road I knew,

       Creusa, whether her the Fates from me unhappy drew,

       Whether she wandered from the way, or weary lagged aback,

       Nought know I, but that her henceforth mine eyes must ever lack.740

       Nor turned I round to find her lost, nor had it in my thought,

       Till to that mound and ancient house of Ceres we were brought;

       Where, all being come together now, there lacked but her alone,

       And there her fellows' hopes, her son's, her husband's were undone.

      On whom of men, on whom of Gods, then laid I not the guilt?

       What saw I bitterer to be borne in all the city spilt?

       Ascanius and Anchises set the Teucrian Gods beside,

       I give unto my fellows there in hollow dale to hide,

       But I unto the city turn with glittering weapons girt;

       Needs must I search all Troy again, and open every hurt,750

       And into every peril past must thrust my head once more.

       And first I reach the walls again and mirk ways of the СКАЧАТЬ