The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse. Virgil

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СКАЧАТЬ Nay, surely nought so dull as this the souls within us are,

       Nor turns the sun from Tyrian town, so far off yoking steed.

       So whether ye Hesperia great, and Saturn's acres need,

       Or rather unto Eryx turn, and King Acestes' shore,570

       Safe, holpen will I send you forth, and speed you with my store:

       Yea and moreover, have ye will in this my land to bide.

       This city that I build is yours: here leave your ships to ride:

       Trojan and Tyrian no two wise at hands of me shall fare.

       And would indeed the King himself, Æneas, with us were,

       Driven by that self-same southern gale: but sure men will I send,

       And bid them search through Libya from end to utmost end,

       Lest, cast forth anywhere, he stray by town or forest part."

      Father Æneas thereupon high lifted up his heart,

       Nor stout Achates less, and both were fain the cloud to break;580

       And to Æneas first of all the leal Achates spake:

      "O Goddess-born, what thought hereof ariseth in thy mind?

       All safe thou seest thy ships; thy folk fair welcomed dost thou find:

       One is away, whom we ourselves saw sunken in the deep;

       But all things else the promised word thy mother gave us keep."

      Lo, even as he spake the word the cloud that wrapped them cleaves,

       And in the open space of heaven no dusk behind it leaves;

       And there Æneas stood and shone amid the daylight clear,

       With face and shoulders of a God: for loveliness of hair

       His mother breathed upon her son, and purple light of youth,590

       And joyful glory of the eyes: e'en as in very sooth

       The hand gives ivory goodliness, or when the Parian stone,

       Or silver with the handicraft of yellow gold is done:

       And therewithal unto the Queen doth he begin to speak,

       Unlooked-for of all men:

       "Lo here the very man ye seek,

       Trojan Æneas, caught away from Libyan seas of late!

       Thou, who alone of toils of Troy hast been compassionate,

       Who takest us, the leavings poor of Danaan sword, outworn

       With every hap of earth and sea, of every good forlorn,

       To city and to house of thine: to thank thee to thy worth,600

       Dido, my might may compass not; nay, scattered o'er the earth

       The Dardan folk, for what thou dost may never give thee meed:

       But if somewhere a godhead is the righteous man to heed,

       If justice is, or any soul to note the right it wrought,

       May the Gods give thee due reward. What joyful ages brought

       Thy days to birth? what mighty ones gave such an one today?

       Now while the rivers seaward run, and while the shadows stray

       O'er hollow hills, and while the pole the stars is pasturing wide,

       Still shall thine honour and thy name, still shall thy praise abide

       What land soever calleth me."610

       Therewith his right hand sought

       His very friend Ilioneus, his left Serestus caught,

       And then the others, Gyas strong, Cloanthus strong in fight.

      Sidonian Dido marvelled much, first at the hero's sight,

       Then marvelled at the haps he had, and so such word doth say:

      "O Goddess-born, what fate is this that ever dogs thy way

       With such great perils? What hath yoked thy life to this wild shore?

       And art thou that Æneas then, whom holy Venus bore

       Unto Anchises, Dardan lord, by Phrygian Simoïs' wave?

       Of Teucer unto Sidon come a memory yet I have,

       Who, driven from out his fatherland, was seeking new abode620

       By Belus' help: but Belus then, my father, over-rode

       Cyprus the rich, and held the same as very conquering lord:

       So from that tide I knew of Troy and bitter Fate's award,

       I knew of those Pelasgian kings—yea, and I knew thy name.

       He then, a foeman, added praise to swell the Teucrian fame,

       And oft was glad to deem himself of ancient Teucer's line.

       So hasten now to enter in 'neath roofs of me and mine.

       Me too a fortune such as yours, me tossed by many a toil,

       Hath pleased to give abiding-place at last upon this soil,

       Learned in illhaps full wise am I unhappy men to aid."630

      Such tale she told, and therewith led to house full kingly made

       Æneas, bidding therewithal the Gods with gifts to grace;

       Nor yet their fellows she forgat upon the sea-beat place,

       But sendeth them a twenty bulls, an hundred bristling backs

       Of swine, an hundred fatted lambs, whereof his ewe none lacks,

       And gifts and gladness of the God.

       Meanwhile the gleaming house within with kingly pomp is dight,

       And in the midmost of the hall a banquet they prepare:

       Cloths laboured o'er with handicraft, and purple proud is there;

       Great is the silver on the board, and carven out of gold640

       The mighty deeds of father-folk, a long-drawn tale, is told,

       Brought down through many and many an one from when their race began.

      Æneas, through whose father's heart unquiet love there ran,

       Sent on the swift Achates now unto the ships to speed,

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