Received an ARC copy of The Big Book of Science Fiction recently

Because I don't care to give away everything, since it's a flash fiction that I translated for The Big Book of Science Fiction (edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer), let's just say that there's something within the introduction that's an added bonus for readers.  The book will be released in the US on July 12th.  This is my third translation to be published.  More on this story and the anthology at a later date.

A little something I'm working on now

Working on a first draft translation of these seven paragraphs to add to the ones I've already done in my translation of Roberto Arlt's "El Jorobadito" ("The Little Hunchback"):

Pero de este extremo al otro, en el que me colocan mis irreductibles enemigos, media una igual distancia de mentira e incomprensión. Mis detractores aseguran que soy un canalla monstruoso, basando esta afirmación en mi jovialidad al comentar ciertos actos en los que he intervenido, como si la jovialidad no fuera precisamente la prueba de cuán excelentes son las condiciones de mi carácter y qué comprensivo y tierno al fin y al cabo.

Por otra parte, si hubiera que tamizar mis actos, ese tamiz a emplearse debería llamarse Sufrimiento. Soy un hombre que ha padecido mucho. No negaré que dichos padecimientos han encontrado su origen en mi exceso de sensibilidad, tan agudizada que cuando me encontraba frente a alguien he creído percibir hasta el matiz del color que tenían sus pensamientos, y lo más grave es que no me he equivocado nunca. Por el alma del hombre he visto pasar el rojo del odio y el verde del amor, como a través de la cresta de una nube los rayos de luna más o menos empalidecidos por el espesor distinto de la masa acuosa. Y personas hubo que me han dicho:

-¿Recuerda cuando usted, hace tres años, me dijo que yo pensaba en tal cosa? No se equivocaba.

He caminado así, entre hombres y mujeres, percibiendo los furores que encrespaban sus instintos y los deseos que envaraban sus intenciones, sorprendiendo siempre en las laterales luces de la pupila, en el temblor de los vértices de los labios y en el erizamiento casi invisible de la piel de los párpados, lo que anhelaban, retenían o sufrían. Y jamás estuve más solo que entonces, que cuando ellos y ellas eran transparentes para mí. De este modo, involuntariamente, fui descubriendo todo el sedimento de bajeza humana que encubren los actos aparentemente más leves, y hombres que eran buenos y perfectos para sus prójimos, fueron, para mí, lo que Cristo llamó sepulcros encalados. Lentamente se agrió mi natural bondad convirtiéndome en un sujeto taciturno e irónico. Pero me voy apartando, precisamente, de aquello a lo cual quiero aproximarme y es la relación del origen de mis desgracias. Mis dificultades nacen de haber conducido a la casa de la señora X al infame corcovado.

En la casa de la señora X yo "hacía el novio" de una de las niñas. Es curioso. Fui atraído, insensiblemente, a la intimidad de esa familia por una hábil conducta de la señora X, que procedió con un determinado exquisito tacto y que consiste en negarnos un vaso de agua para poner a nuestro alcance, y como quien no quiere, un frasco de alcohol. Imagínense ustedes lo que ocurriría con un sediento. Oponiéndose en palabras a mis deseos. Incluso, hay testigos. Digo esto para descargo de mi conciencia. Más aún, en circunstancias en que nuestras relaciones hacían prever una ruptura, yo anticipé seguridades que escandalizaron a los amigos de la casa. Y es curioso. Hay muchas madres que adoptan este temperamento, en la relación que sus hijas tienen con los novios, de manera que el incauto -si en un incauto puede admitirse un minuto de lucidez- observa con terror que ha llevado las cosas mucho más lejos de lo que permitía la conveniencia social.

Y ahora volvamos al jorobadito para deslindar responsabilidades. La primera vez que se presentó a visitarme en mi casa, lo hizo en casi completo estado de ebriedad, faltándole el respeto a una vieja criada que salió a recibirlo y gritando a voz en cuello de manera que hasta los viandantes que pasaban por la calle podían escucharle:

-¿Y dónde está la banda de música con que debían festejar mi hermosa presencia? Y los esclavos que tienen que ungirme de aceite, ¿dónde se han metido? En lugar de recibirme jovencitos con orinales, me atiende una vieja desdentada y hedionda. ¿Y ésta es la casa en la cual usted vive?

One interesting challenge, looking back at what I did back in 2013-2014, is going to be conveying in English the sort of affected voice the narrator has without it appearing to be stilted.  I sense multiple rewrites in the weeks to come (I aim to have the complete first draft completed around the end of the month).  Should be a rewarding one, though, even if I'm uncertain if I could ever get my translation published elsewhere once I'm done with revisions (the author's works are now in public domain, or else I wouldn't even be posting these excerpts for translation online).

A continued exercise in translation: more from Roberto Arlt's "The Little Hunchback"

Below is the part that I translated last year, followed by the first draft of the next half-page.  I will be editing this for smoothness this weekend, followed by more pages:

The diverse and exaggerated rumors spread as the result of the behavior that I observed in the company of Rigoletto, the hunchback, in Mrs. X's house, in time turned many people against me.

However, my peculiarities did not incur greater misfortunes until I perfected them by strangling Rigoletto.

Wringing the hunchback's neck has been for me a most ruinous and reckless act for my interests, one that threatens the existence of a benefactor of humanity.

The police, judges and newspapers have fallen on me.  And at this hour I still ask myself (considering the rigors of justice) if Rigoletto was not called to be a captain of men, a genius, or a philanthropist. Nothing else explains the cruelties of the law in taking revenge on the arrogance of a good-for-nothing, which, in order to pay for his insolence, it is insufficient for a brigade of well-born people to administer all the kicks they can to the rear.

I am not unaware that worse events occur on the planet, but this is no reason for me to stop watching anxiously the leprous walls of the dungeon where I am housed awaiting a worse fate.But it was written that from a deformed man many difficulties would arise for me.

 I remember (and this bit of information for fans of theosophy and metaphysics) that from my tender infancy hunchbacks grabbed my attention. I hated them yet was attracted to them, as I detest and yet it calls to me the open depth under the balcony of a ninth floor, to which railing I have approached more than once with trembling heart of caution and delicious dread. And so, like in front of a vacuum I can not escape the terror of imagining myself falling in the air with my stomach contracted in asphyxia from crumbling, in the presence of a deformed man I can not escape the nauseous thought of imagining myself hunchbacked, grotesque, frightening, abandoned by all, housed in a kennel, pestered by the leashes of ferocious boys that stick needles in the hump...

It's terrible ... not to mention that all hunchbacks are evil beings, possessed, wicked ... so that by choking Rigoletto I think I have the right to say that I did a huge favor to society, for I have liberated  all sensitive hearts like mine from an awful and disgusting spectacle. Without adding that the hunchback was a cruel man. So cruel that I was obliged to tell him every day:

 "Look, Rigoletto, do not be perverse. I prefer anything to seeing you with a whip hitting an innocent pig. What has the sow done? Nothing. Is not it true that it has not done anything? ..."
  
"Why do you care?"
       
"She has not done anything, and you stubborn, obstinate, cruel man, you vent your fury on the poor beast..."

"Since she has annoyed me for a long while I am going to sprinkle gas on the sow and then set her on fire."
      
After saying these words, the hunchback discharged lashes on the beast's long-maned back, grinding his teeth like a theatrical demon. And I said:

"'I'm going to wring your neck, Rigoletto. Listen to my paternal warnings, Rigoletto. It suits you..."

Preaching in the desert would have been more effective.  He took delight in contravening my orders and showing at all times his sardonic and fiery temper.  It was useless to threaten to tan his hide or knock the hump through his chest.  He continued observing an impure behavior.

Returning to my current situation, I will say that if there is something with which I reproach myself, it is having made the ingenious error of confessing such minutiae to reporters.

I believed that they would interpret them, but here I have now doomed myself to a damaged reputation, because to that mob at least they have written that I am a madman, claiming with all seriousness that under the union of my acts they discovered the characteristics of a perverse cynicism.

Certainly, my attitude in Mrs. X's house, accompanied by the hunchback, had not been that of a member of the Almanach de Gotha.  No.  At least I wouldn't be able to affirm it under my word of honor.


Yes, very rough, as I often transcribed it into very literal English first before "breaking" it to make for a better read.

Finally resumed working on a long-delayed translation project

Just a brief note:  I am planning on devoting some time in the coming weeks to completing a translation project of a story collection that I believe is now in public domain.  When I finish the first story and have revised it, I'll check and see about posting here.  My ultimate goal is to sometime in the next couple of years get this published, so I might need to keep this under wraps some, just in case I don't go the self-publishing route.

But it is nice at least to have a pleasant diversion again to distract me from some stressful situations in my professional life.  That is all, more or less.

Rough translation of the Aeneid, Book II, lines 13-30

Now to tackle a bit more of the opening to Book II, picking up with the introduction of the infamous Trojan horse.  Again, this is a first draft and not an editing of old translation notes, as was the case for Book I:

Fracti bello fatisque repulsi
ductores Danaum tot iam labentibus annis
instar montis equum divina Palladis arte
aedificant, sectaque intexunt abiete costas;
votum pro reditu simulant; ea fama vagatur.
huc delecta virum sortiti corpora furtim
includunt caeco lateri penitusque cavernas
ingentis uterumque armato milite complent. 

Broken by war and repelled by the fates after many seasons slipped by, the Danaan leaders through the artifice of divine Pallas constructed a horse as big as a mountain, cutting pines to weave its ribs; they feigned a votive offering for a return home; this rumor was spread around.  They chose by lot men to furtively inclose in the dark flank and within the vast hollow belly they filled with armed soldiers.

A bit rough toward the end; likely needs to have the repetitions broken somewhat to make it smoother in English.

Est in conspectu Tenedos, notissima fama
insula, dives opum Priami dum regna manebant,
nunc tantum sinus et statio male fida carinis:
huc se provecti deserto in litore condunt. 
Nos abiisse rati et vento petiisse Mycenas.
Ergo omnis longo soluit se Teucria luctu;
panduntur portae, iuvat ire et Dorica castra
desertosque videre locos litusque relictum:
hic Dolopum manus, hic saevus tendebat Achilles;
classibus hic locus, hic acie certare solebant.

 There is within view Tenedos, a well-known island, rich in power while Priam remained in power, now so great a bay and anchorage is treacherous:  here the Greeks establish themselves on the deserted shore.  We thought they had departed and were before the wind sailing to Mycenae.  Therefore the Teucerian city was freed of her long sorrow:  the gates are opened, we delight in going from the city to the deserted Doric camp and to see the abandoned shore:  here the Thessalians stayed, here fierce Achilles; here the ships were drawn up, here the accustomed battle lines were drawn.

Although a bit too literal in places, I believe the substance of the passage is transferred adequately here.  Vergil uses triple replication of certain phrases (here, it is hīc) frequently to achieve a certain effect and while in a later edit, especially if it were to cast this into a English-style poem, such phrasings would be altered or lost, here it stands as a marker for the effect achieved by reading this passage in Latin.

More on the Trojans' reactions to seeing the Trojan Horse in the coming days or weeks.

Rough translation of the Aeneid, Book II, Lines 1-13

After posting my 1994 translation notes of Vergil's Aeneid, Book I (minus some breaks that I translated this year to cover the gaps of 5-10 lines here and there), over the first three months, now I'm going to begin posting shorter (mostly paragaph-sized breaks) translations that I will do for the first time of Book II, as outside of one key flashback passage that I had to translate for an exam, I didn't have to translate any of Books II or III (or for that matter, V, VII-XII) for my Intermediate Latin class twenty years ago.  Should be interesting to see how this goes (I'll be comparing what I write to published translations to make sure I'm not too far off the mark, but it certainly will be my word choices and will likely be more literal than the prose or poetry translations available).  So here goes, with Aeneas beginning to narrate the seven years' of misfortunes that his band of Trojan warriors have suffered, beginning with the Trojan Horse:

Conticuere omnes intentique ora tenebant
inde toro pater Aeneas sic orsus ab alto:
Infandum, regina, iubes renovare dolorem,
Troianas ut opes et lamentabile regnum
eruerint Danai, quaeque ipse miserrima vidi
et quorum pars magna fui. quis talia fando
Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Ulixi
temperet a lacrimis? et iam nox umida caelo
praecipitat suadentque cadentia sidera somnos.
sed si tantus amor casus cognoscere nostros
et breviter Troiae supremum audire laborem,
quamquam animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit,
incipiam.

They all fell silent and eager they continued to hold so as Father Aeneas from his couch on high thus began:  "Unspeakable, O Queen, you order me to renew grief, by telling of how the Greeks overthrew the power of Troy, that lamentable kingdom, the heart-breaking events which I myself saw and in which I played a great part.  Who could tell such a story, Myrmidon, Dolopian, or harsh soldier of Ulysses, without crying?  And now the dewy night falls from the heavens and the setting stars urge sleep.  But if you have such a desire to know of our disasters and briefly hear of Troy's final agony, although my soul shudders to recall and recoils in sorrow, I shall begin.

In a few days, or more likely a week or so, I will begin translating the lines that deal with the discovery of the Trojan Horse on the beach and the fate of Laocoōn and his sons.  Hopefully this first, rough draft gives at least some idea of the sorrowful story that Aeneas is about to tell.

Aeneid translation notes, Book I, lines 657-756

Now to post my translation of the final 100 lines of Book I.  In these lines, Venus, as if she were in an old Folger's cofee commercial, has secretly replaced Ascanius, Aenea's son (and her grandson), with her son Cupid, in order to make Dido fall in love with Aeneas.  Yes, this is one of the earliest soap opera angles still extant, but the payoff perhaps is a bit different than typical soap opera fare.  The concluding lines set up Aeneas' recounting of the previous seven years, between the Fall of Troy and his arrival in Carthage, in Books II and III.  Speaking of said books, outside of a stray passage on an exam, I did not translate anything from those books for my 1994 intermediate Latin course, so I am likely going to engage in a years-long translation of those books and others not covered (we did translate about half of Book IV and a couple excerpts from Book VI), just to say that I did so.  And now for the rest of Book I:

At Cytherea novas artes, nova pectore versat
Consilia, ut faciem mutatus et ora Cupido
pro dulci Ascanio veniat, donisque furentem
incendat reginam, atque ossibus implicet ignem;
quippe domum timet ambiguam Tyriosque bilinguis;
urit atrox Iuno, et sub noctem cura recursat.
Ergo his aligerum dictis adfatur Amorem:

'Nate, meae vires, mea magna potentia solus,
nate, patris summi qui tela Typhoia temnis,
ad te confugio et supplex tua numina posco.
Frater ut Aeneas pelago tuus omnia circum
litora iactetur odiis Iunonis iniquae,
nota tibi, et nostro doluisti saepe dolore.
Hunc Phoenissa tenet Dido blandisque moratur 
vocibus; et vereor, quo se Iunonia vertant
hospitia; haud tanto cessabit cardine rerum.
Quocirca capere ante dolis et cingere flamma
reginam meditor, ne quo se numine mutet,
sed magno Aeneae mecum teneatur amore.
Qua facere id possis, nostram nunc accipe mentem.
Regius accitu cari genitoris ad urbem
Sidoniam puer ire parat, mea maxima cura,
dona ferens, pelago et flammis restantia Troiae:
hunc ego sopitum somno super alta Cythera
aut super Idalium sacrata sede recondam,
ne qua scire dolos mediusve occurrere possit.
Tu faciem illius noctem non amplius unam
falle dolo, et notos pueri puer indue voltus,
ut, cum te gremio accipiet laetissima Dido
regalis inter mensas laticemque Lyaeum,
cum dabit amplexus atque oscula dulcia figet,
occultum inspires ignem fallasque veneno.'

Paret Amor dictis carae genetricis, et alas
exuit, et gressu gaudens incedit Iuli.
At Venus Ascanio placidam per membra quietem
inrigat, et fotum gremio dea tollit in altos
Idaliae lucos, ubi mollis amaracus illum
floribus et dulci adspirans complectitur umbra. 

All the while Cytherean Venus keeps turning new plans, new artifices in her heart, so that Cupid's face and mouth may arrive in place of dear Ascanius, may inflame the queen's bones to madness.  Truly the goddess fears the deceitful, double-tongued Tyrians, the thought of fierce Juno keeps vexing her at night.  Therefore these words she addressed to winged Love:  "Son, my strength, my great power, you alone disdain the Typhoean weapons of Jupiter.  I flee to you and as a suppliant I seek your divine power.  That your brother Aeneas is being tossed about all the seas because of the fierce hatred of Juno, this you know, and you have often grieved with me.  Now Phoenician Dido has him and is delaying him with her blandishments and I fear what may come of her Junoian hospitality:  by no means will she cease at such a crisis.  For this reason, I am considering capturing her with wiles and encircling her with passion, so that she will not be changed by another divinity, so that she herself may be held by me with a great love for Aeneas.  Now accept my thought on how we will do this:  the royal son, beloved by his father, has been called to the city of the Phoenicians and he is preparing to go, whom I care about the most, bringing gifts of Troy remaining from fire and sea; I will hide him drugged into sleep upon high Cythera or upon Idalium in a temple sacred to me, whereby he will not be able to know my deceit or to interfere in the midst of them.  You shall for one night, no longer, by cunning assume his appearance and don the boy's face, since it is well known to you, in order that, when Dido takes you in her royal lap amid the table and the Lyaean wine, when she gives you and embrace and plants a fragrant kiss, you shall breathe into her the invisible fire and poison of love and she will not know."  Cupid obeyed the words of his beloved mother and he doffed his wings and laughing he strode the walk of Iulus.  But Venus diffused quiet and rest into Ascanius' limbs, and taking him to her bosom the goddess bore him to the groves of high Idalia, where the soft, sweet marjoram flowered and breathed its sweet shade, embracing him.  

And now for Cupid to have his fun...along with more feast descriptions that would make an epic fantasy author weep for the ability to describe the feast so:

Iamque ibat dicto parens et dona Cupido
regia portabat Tyriis, duce laetus Achate.
Cum venit, aulaeis iam se regina superbis
aurea composuit sponda mediamque locavit.
Iam pater Aeneas et iam Troiana iuventus
conveniunt, stratoque super discumbitur ostro.
Dant famuli manibus lymphas, Cereremque canistris
expediunt, tonsisque ferunt mantelia villis.
Quinquaginta intus famulae, quibus ordine longam
cura penum struere, et flammis adolere Penatis;
centum aliae totidemque pares aetate ministri,
qui dapibus mensas onerent et pocula ponant.
Nec non et Tyrii per limina laeta frequentes
convenere, toris iussi discumbere pictis.
Mirantur dona Aeneae, mirantur Iulum
flagrantisque dei voltus simulataque verba,
[pallamque et pictum croceo velamen acantho.]
Praecipue infelix, pesti devota futurae,
expleri mentem nequit ardescitque tuendo
Phoenissa, et pariter puero donisque movetur.
Ille ubi complexu Aeneae colloque pependit
et magnum falsi implevit genitoris amorem,
reginam petit haec oculis, haec pectore toto
haeret et interdum gremio fovet, inscia Dido,
insidat quantus miserae deus; at memor ille
matris Acidaliae paulatim abolere Sychaeum
incipit, et vivo temptat praevertere amore
iam pridem resides animos desuetaque corda.

And now happy Cupid goes obeying his mother's words, bearing gifts to the Tyrians, happily following the lead of Achates.  When he arrives, the queen has placed herself on a couch in the middle with golden tapestries about her.  Now father Aeneas and the Trojan youths come together and recline upon a crimson tapestry.  Servants give them water for their hands, and baskets of bread and they brought out napkins with clipped tufts of hair.  Within there are fifty maidservants, in a long line, whose task it was to lay out the food and to worship the household gods with flames, one hundred other women servants and men servants of similar age, they are the ones who load the table with the feast and hand out the goblets.  Likewise also the Tyrians, crowding through the happy doors, come together, biddened they recline on the embroidered couch.  They admire Aeneas's gifts, Iulus, with the glowing face of the god and his feigned words, and the cloak and robe embroidered with yellow acanthus.  Especially unfortunate, plagued by future doom, her mind unable to be satisfied, Dido burned with gazing and by the boy and the gifts was equally moved.  When he embraces Aeneas he hung on his neck and satisfies the great love of his pretended father, he seeks the queen.  Dido's eyes and her heart hang wholly on him and sometimes fondling him on her lap, the unfortunate woman unaware how a great god sat there.  But mindful of his Acidalian mother, gradually he begins to remove the memory of Sychaeus from Dido and trying to surpass with a loving love for Aeneas a spirit for some time unstirred and a heart now having become unaccustomed to love.

And now that Love has struck Dido, the action falls toward the final scene of Book I, where she asks Aeneas to tell of his adventures from the Fall of Troy to his arrival here in Carthage.

Postquam prima quies epulis, mensaeque remotae,
crateras magnos statuunt et vina coronant.
Fit strepitus tectis, vocemque per ampla volutant
atria; dependent lychni laquearibus aureis
incensi, et noctem flammis funalia vincunt.
Hic regina gravem gemmis auroque poposcit
implevitque mero pateram, quam Belus et omnes
a Belo soliti; tum facta silentia tectis:
'Iuppiter, hospitibus nam te dare iura loquuntur,
hunc laetum Tyriisque diem Troiaque profectis
esse velis, nostrosque huius meminisse minores.
Adsit laetitiae Bacchus dator, et bona Iuno;
et vos, O, coetum, Tyrii, celebrate faventes.'
Dixit, et in mensam laticum libavit honorem,
primaque, libato, summo tenus attigit ore,
tum Bitiae dedit increpitans; ille impiger hausit
spumantem pateram, et pleno se proluit auro
post alii proceres. Cithara crinitus Iopas
personat aurata, docuit quem maximus Atlas.
Hic canit errantem lunam solisque labores;
unde hominum genus et pecudes; unde imber et ignes;
Arcturum pluviasque Hyadas geminosque Triones;
quid tantum Oceano properent se tinguere soles
hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet.
Ingeminant plausu Tyrii, Troesque sequuntur.
Nec non et vario noctem sermone trahebat
infelix Dido, longumque bibebat amorem,
multa super Priamo rogitans, super Hectore multa;
nunc quibus Aurorae venisset filius armis,
nunc quales Diomedis equi, nunc quantus Achilles.
'Immo age, et a prima dic, hospes, origine nobis
insidias,' inquit, 'Danaum, casusque tuorum,
erroresque tuos; nam te iam septima portat
omnibus errantem terris et fluctibus aestas.'

When the first lull in the feasting comes with the removal of the tables, they set up great bowls full of wine and they wreathe it with garlands.  Noise fills the palace and their voices roll in the spacious hall; they hand down lamps from the gold-paneled ceiling and being lit the lamp's flames conquer the night.  Dido demands the bowl heavy with gems and gold and fills it with unmixed wine, which Belus and all from Belus were accustomed to drink; then silence was made in the hall:  "Jupiter, for they say that you give the laws for hosts, may you wish this day to be happy for the Tyrians and those who had set out from Troy and may you want our children to remember this happy day.  May Bacchus the giver of joy and good Juno be present and may you, O Tyrians, celebrate this favorable union."  She speaks and she pours the sacrifical wine onto the table and then after the libation has been poured, she first touches it, just barely, with the top of her lip; then chiding she gives it to Bitius; he quickly guzzles it, splashing the frothing wine over himself, after which the other nobles follow suit.  Long-haired Iopas plays his gilded harp, which great Atlas taught him.  He sings of the wandering moon and the sun's eclipses, from what source the human race and animals came, causes of rain and lightning, of Arcturus and watery Hyades and the twin Triones; why the winter suns hasten so much to dip themselves into Ocean, or what delay hinders the lazy nights.  The Tyrians redouble their applause and the Trojans follow.  Likewise, unfortunate Dido was drawing out the night with varied conversation and she was drinking deep draughts of love, asking much about Priam, much about Hector, now what Aurora's son's armor was when he came, now about the type of Diomede's horses, about how great was Achilles.  "Rather that you come and from the first speak to us, guest, of the beginning of the treachery," she said, "of the Greeks and the cause of your wanderings; for this is now the seventh summer that has carried you on every land and sea."

And with this, my 1994 translation of Book I comes to a close.  I have come to enjoy editing and posting this 20 year-old translation more than I realize, and perhaps after a short break, I will test my rusty Latin translation skills and present a prose translation of the other books in the months and years to come.  Later, I'll post my thoughts on the overall story of Book I, more in the vein of an appreciation than anything else.

Aeneid translation notes, Book I, lines 561-656

Now the story of Book I is beginning to draw to a close.  The scattered Trojans have arrived, almost as supplicants, to the Libyan shore and Queen Dido has come to render her judgment.  From here, the story begins to turn into a tragedy of the sort that centuries later the likes of Shakespeare could turn into something poignant.  However, this is but one of the many twists and turns in the narrative of "that man marked by his piety"; other facets are soon to come to the fore.  What I recall from first reading this in Latin 20 years ago is that while on the surface the love story that is introduced in the final 200 lines of Book I can seem rather stilted by modern standards, there is a symbolic level, between nascent Carthage and the Rome-to-be, that adds more layers to what transpires.  While this section stops just short of the introduction of the love angle, there are signs here of what is to come when Aeneas and Achates emerge from their cloud hiding to greet their lost comrades.

Tum breviter Dido, voltum demissa, profatur:
'Solvite corde metum, Teucri, secludite curas.
Res dura et regni novitas me talia cogunt
moliri, et late finis custode tueri.
Quis genus Aeneadum, quis Troiae nesciat urbem,
virtutesque virosque, aut tanti incendia belli?
Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Poeni,
nec tam aversus equos Tyria Sol iungit ab urbe.
Seu vos Hesperiam magnam Saturniaque arva,
sive Erycis finis regemque optatis Acesten,
auxilio tutos dimittam, opibusque iuvabo.
Voltis et his mecum pariter considere regnis;
urbem quam statuo vestra est, subducite navis;
Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur.
Atque utinam rex ipse Noto compulsus eodem
adforet Aeneas! Equidem per litora certos
dimittam et Libyae lustrare extrema iubebo,
si quibus eiectus silvis aut urbibus errat.'

Then Dido briefly with a downcast look said:  "Dismiss fear from your hearts, Trojans, shut out grief.  Harsh necessity and the newness of the realm force me to make such things and guards to watch far and wide the boundary.  Who does not know of the followers of Aeneas nor of the city of Troy, of the valor of its men or the fires of the great war?  We Phoenicians do not have such hard hearts nor does the sun bridle his horses so far away from Carthage.  Whether you do go to mighty Hesperia and the Saturnian lands or if you choose the summit of Eryx and Acestes for a king, I will help send you all on your way with my wealth.  Or is it your weill to settle in this realm as equals?  The city which is being built, it is yours; draw up your ships, there will be no difference between Trojan and Carthaginian to me.  And oh would that your great leader himself would appear.  Indeed, I will send out reliable men throughout the shores and I will order them to search the extreme limits of Libya, if, as a castaway he is wandering in any of my woods and any of my towns."

 I had to fill in a gap of a couple of lines and I reworded a couple of phrases here, but on the whole this is what I wrote in 1994.  I think the loftiness of Dido's speech can be seen here in my translation, but some of it is perhaps a bit much, at least for those who read this and don't hear the intonations of the original.  Now for Aeneas' sudden appearance at this audience:

His animum arrecti dictis et fortis Achates
et pater Aeneas iamdudum erumpere nubem
ardebant. Prior Aenean compellat Achates:
'Nate dea, quae nunc animo sententia surgit?
omnia tuta vides, classem sociosque receptos.
Unus abest, medio in fluctu quem vidimus ipsi
submersum; dictis respondent cetera matris.'  

Vix ea fatus erat, cum circumfusa repente
scindit se nubes et in aethera purgat apertum.
Restitit Aeneas claraque in luce refulsit,
os umerosque deo similis; namque ipsa decoram
caesariem nato genetrix lumenque iuventae
purpureum et laetos oculis adflarat honores:
quale manus addunt ebori decus, aut ubi flavo
argentum Pariusve lapis circumdatur auro.

Tum sic reginam adloquitur, cunctisque repente
improvisus ait: 'Coram, quem quaeritis, adsum,
Troius Aeneas, Libycis ereptus ab undis.
O sola infandos Troiae miserata labores,
quae nos, reliquias Danaum, terraeque marisque
omnibus exhaustos iam casibus, omnium egenos,
urbe, domo, socias, grates persolvere dignas
non opis est nostrae, Dido, nec quicquid ubique est
gentis Dardaniae, magnum quae sparsa per orbem.
Di tibi, si qua pios respectant numina, si quid
usquam iustitia est et mens sibi conscia recti,
praemia digna ferant. Quae te tam laeta tulerunt
saecula? Qui tanti talem genuere parentes?
In freta dum fluvii current, dum montibus umbrae
lustrabunt convexa, polus dum sidera pascet,
semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt,
quae me cumque vocant terrae.' Sic fatus, amicum
Ilionea petit dextra, laevaque Serestum,
post alios, fortemque Gyan fortemque Cloanthum.

Their spirits were raised by these words and brave Achates and father Aeneas for some time were eager to break out of the cloud.  Achates first spoke of Aeneas:  "Goddess-born, what purpose now surges in your soul?  All are safe, you see, ships and comrades received.  One is missing, which we saw ourselves sink in the middle of the sea; the rest correspond to your mother's words."  Scarely had he finished when suddenly the cloud that poured around them parted and dissolved in the open sky.  Aeneas remained and in the clear light his face and shoulders shined like a god's; and indeed Venus herself breathed on her son's beautiful locks and added the ruddy glow of youth and joyous grace to his eyes:  such beauty as the hands of an artist add to ivory, or where silver or Parian stone is surrounded by yellow gold.  Then he addressed the queen, unexpected by everyone, he suddenly said these words:  "In your presence, I, the man whom you are seeking, am present, the Trojan Aeneas, saved from the Libyan sea.  Oh, only you have pitied the accursed hardships of the Trojans, which us, the remnants left by the Greeks, exhausted now by misfortune everywhere on land and on sea, lacking everything, a city, a home you offer to share, it is not in our power to pay fully the gratitude worthy of you, Dido, nor in the power of whatever of the Trojan race there is anywhere, which are dispersed across the great world.  To you may the gods bring, if they regard the name of piety, if justice counts for anything anywhere and if to their minds is a conscious to itself a virtue, a fitting reward.  What so happy of an age produced you?  What so marvelous of parents have borne such a lady?  While into the sea rivers flow, while the shadows traverse the mountains, while the sky feeds the stars, your honor, your name, and your praise always will remain, whatever lands call me."  Saying this, Aeneas sought the right hand of Ilioneus and the left hand of Serestus, next the others, and brave Gyas and brave Cloanthus.

 I loved the metaphors employed here to describe the emergent hero.  It may be a bit too much again for some, but it is beautiful-sounding to me.  Now on Dido's greeting of the hero and the dinner plans that follow:

Obstipuit primo aspectu Sidonia Dido,
casu deinde viri tanto, et sic ore locuta est:
'Quis te, nate dea, per tanta pericula casus
insequitur? Quae vis immanibus applicat oris?
Tune ille Aeneas, quem Dardanio Anchisae
alma Venus Phrygii genuit Simoentis ad undam?
Atque equidem Teucrum memini Sidona venire
finibus expulsum patriis, nova regna petentem
auxilio Beli; genitor tum Belus opimam
vastabat Cyprum, et victor dicione tenebat.
Tempore iam ex illo casus mihi cognitus urbis
Troianae nomenque tuum regesque Pelasgi.
Ipse hostis Teucros insigni laude ferebat,
seque ortum antiqua Teucrorum ab stirpe volebat.
Quare agite, O tectis, iuvenes, succedite nostris.
Me quoque per multos similis fortuna labores
iactatam hac demum voluit consistere terra.
Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco.'

Sic memorat; simul Aenean in regia ducit
tecta, simul divom templis indicit honorem.
Nec minus interea sociis ad litora mittit
viginti tauros, magnorum horrentia centum
terga suum, pinguis centum cum matribus agnos,
munera laetitiamque dii.

At domus interior regali splendida luxu
instruitur, mediisque parant convivia tectis:
arte laboratae vestes ostroque superbo,
ingens argentum mensis, caelataque in auro
fortia facta patrum, series longissima rerum
per tot ducta viros antiqua ab origine gentis. 

 
Sidonian Dido stood agape at first sight, then at the many misfortunes of the man, and she said thus from her mouth:  "What misfortune, goddess-born, pursues you through so many dangers?  What force drives you to these dreadful shores?  Are you that Aeneas who to the Trojan Anchises kind Venus bore in Phrygia by the waters of Simois?  And indeed I recall that Teucer, coming to Sidon, expelled from his country's borders, seeking Belus to help found a new kingdom; when my father Belus was ravaging fertile Cyprus and it was held defeated under his sway.  From that time on, it has been known to me the misfortune of the city of Troy, your name and the names of the Greek kings.  Although Teucer himself was an enemy, he extolled the glories of Troy and he often wished that he had been born of the race of the ancient Trojans.  Oh, therefore, come, young men, enter into my house.  Fortune also tossed me about in many similar hardships until at last it would have it that I halt here on this land.  I know from my evil misfortunes to not ignore those suffering seeking help."  Thus she recalled; at the same time, she led Aeneas to her regal abode, at the same time she orders a sacrifice in the temple of the gods.  Meanwhile, she moreover sends twenty bulls to the comrades on the shore, a hundred great bristling hog backs, a hundred fat lambs with their mothers, as gifts and to celebrate the day.  However, in the inner part of the palace was being prepared with regal luxury, and in the halls they prepared a banquet feast; in the house the tapestries were worked with skill and was of proud purple, an enormous display of silver is on the tables, engraved with gold the brave deeds of her ancestors, a very long succession of deeds through so many heroes back to the beginnings of her people.

George R.R. Martin has nothing on feast descriptions here...

Aeneas (neque enim patrius consistere mentem
passus amor) rapidum ad navis praemittit Achaten,
Ascanio ferat haec, ipsumque ad moenia ducat;
omnis in Ascanio cari stat cura parentis.
Munera praeterea, Iliacis erepta ruinis,
ferre iubet, pallam signis auroque rigentem,
et circumtextum croceo velamen acantho,
ornatus Argivae Helenae, quos illa Mycenis,
Pergama cum peteret inconcessosque hymenaeos,
extulerat, matris Ledae mirabile donum:
praeterea sceptrum, Ilione quod gesserat olim,
maxima natarum Priami, colloque monile
bacatum, et duplicem gemmis auroque coronam.
Haec celerans ita ad naves tendebat Achates. 

Aeneas (parental love could not indeed suffer his mind to stand fast) sent swift Achates back to the ships, so that he should take this news to Ascanius and to lead him to the city; all of the care of the father were for dear Ascanius.  He ordered for gifts snatched from the ruins of Troy, a figured robe stiff with gold and a veil woven with the golden acanthus, the arrangement of the Greek Helen, which she had taken from Mycenae when she was leaving for Troy and her unholy marriage, a fabulous gift of her mother Lyda; the sceptor that the oldest of Priam's daughters, Ilione, held, and a necklace strung with pearls and a double crown with gems and gold.  Achates, given these orders, hastened his way toward the ships.

Vergil makes a surprising mistake here; Helen flees from Sparta, not Mycenae.  Again, the descriptions are purposely redundant in order to create a larger rhythm here, one that perhaps is largely lost on modern readers used to fewer descriptions of things being collected into a group.

The next scene will show Venus intervening again in the affairs of her son, yet this time it would seem to go against the destiny that Jupiter foretold.  If I have the time, in the next few days, I'll post the final 100 lines of Book I in a single post, or perhaps split it in twain. 

Aeneid translation notes, Book I, lines 520-560

Now to cover the embassy sent to beseech Dido to grant them aid.  Not quite as exciting as the previous passage, but still may be of some interest to readers.

Postquam introgressi et coram data copia fandi,
maximus Ilioneus placido sic pectore coepit:
'O Regina, novam cui condere Iuppiter urbem
iustitiaque dedit gentis frenare superbas,
Troes te miseri, ventis maria omnia vecti,
oramus, prohibe infandos a navibus ignis,
parce pio generi, et propius res aspice nostras.
Non nos aut ferro Libycos populare Penatis
venimus, aut raptas ad litora vertere praedas;
non ea vis animo, nec tanta superbia victis.
Est locus, Hesperiam Grai cognomine dicunt,
terra antiqua, potens armis atque ubere glaebae;
Oenotri coluere viri; nunc fama minores
Italiam dixisse ducis de nomine gentem.
Hic cursus fuit,
cum subito adsurgens fluctu nimbosus Orion
in vada caeca tulit, penitusque procacibus austris
perque undas, superante salo, perque invia saxa
dispulit; huc pauci vestris adnavimus oris.
Quod genus hoc hominum? Quaeve hunc tam barbara morem
permittit patria? Hospitio prohibemur harenae;
bella cient, primaque vetant consistere terra.
Si genus humanum et mortalia temnitis arma
at sperate deos memores fandi atque nefandi. 

'Rex erat Aeneas nobis, quo iustior alter,
nec pietate fuit, nec bello maior et armis.
Quem si fata virum servant, si vescitur aura
aetheria, neque adhuc crudelibus occubat umbris,
non metus; officio nec te certasse priorem
poeniteat. Sunt et Siculis regionibus urbes
armaque, Troianoque a sanguine clarus Acestes.
Quassatam ventis liceat subducere classem,
et silvis aptare trabes et stringere remos:
si datur Italiam, sociis et rege recepto,
tendere, ut Italiam laeti Latiumque petamus;
sin absumpta salus, et te, pater optime Teucrum,
pontus habet Libyae, nec spes iam restat Iuli,
at freta Sicaniae saltem sedesque paratas,
unde huc advecti, regemque petamus Acesten.'

Talibus Ilioneus; cuncti simul ore fremebant
Dardanidae. 

When they had entered and were given the opportunity of speaking face to face with the queen, Ilioneus, the leader, with calm in his heart, began:  "O queen, granted by Jupiter to build a new city and to restrain the proud peoples with justice, we miserable Trojans, carried by the winds over the entire sea, pray to you; keep away the fire from our ships, spare my pious people and look closer at our situation.  We have not come to Libya with swords or to plunder your household gods or to take plunder and to drive it to the shore; that force nor such haughtiness is not for a defeated soul.  There is a place that the Greeks call Hesperia, an ancient land, powerful in arms and fertile soil.  Men of Oenotrius have cultivated it, the story has told us that their descendents have named it Italy from the name of their leader.  This was our course, [unfinished line], when suddenly the surging tide of stormy Orion drove us into the hidden shoals and dispersed us with the boisterous south winds through the waves and over the impenetrable rocks and the salt waves overcame us; we few have swum to your shores.  What kind of men are these?  What land permits such barbarous law?  We have been kept off of the refuge of the beach:  your men arouse war and they prevent us to stand on the beach.  If you scorn the human race and the arms of mortal beings, expect the gods to be mindful of right and wrong.  Aeneas was our king, than whom no other was more fair and pious, or greater in war and arms.  If the fates save the man, if he still breathes the air of heaven and if he as yet not been laid dead in the harsh underworld, there is no fear to us, do not regret to have been the first to contend in rivalry of kindness:  in Sicily there are cities and arms, and Acestes is of clear Trojan blood.  Let us be permitted to beach our ships shattered by the winds and to hew timber in the woods and to trim the oars, in order that we might seek fertile Italy and Latium, if we are given to extend our course to Italy with our king and companions; but if the health is destroyed, and you, noblest father of the Trojans, if the Sea of Libya holds you and the hope not remains of Iulus, at least then let us seek the waters of Sicily and a home already prepared from which we were borne away, and let us seek King Acestes."  Iionous said this; and all of the Trojans shouted with one voice.

Dido's response and what follows afterwards will be posted sometime during the weekend.  Changed the wording slightly from my 1994 translation, but on the whole, kept over 90% of it the same.  Quite rough in patches, though.

Aeneid translation notes, Book I, lines 441-519

Ah, the "fun part" of Book I is about to begin, as Vergil recounts the Trojan War, filling in details not explicitly covered in the Homeric poems.  I remember these being fun to translate twenty years ago, although I seem to have left several lines untranslated then that I'll have to attempt to do now.  Leaning more and more to translating Books II and III after I finish posting my Book I notes, despite the need for more time to do all-new translations due to virtually none of them being translated for class back then (I do have copies of my old tests and there were unseen translation passages from near the beginning of Book II that I can use).  Of course, this is perhaps a personal conceit, seeing how there have yet to be any responses to this (not that I expected any, as part of the reason for doing this was transferring my old notes to a digital medium in order to preserve them better), but certainly a better use of my time than blogging about something that I'll forget the specifics of within a week.  Now onto the building action:

Lucus in urbe fuit media, laetissimus umbra,
quo primum iactati undis et turbine Poeni
effodere loco signum, quod regia Iuno
monstrarat, caput acris equi; sic nam fore bello
egregiam et facilem victu per saecula gentem.
Hic templum Iunoni ingens Sidonia Dido
condebat, donis opulentum et numine divae,
aerea cui gradibus surgebant limina, nexaeque
aere trabes, foribus cardo stridebat aenis.
Hoc primum in luco nova res oblata timorem
leniit, hic primum Aeneas sperare salutem
ausus, et adflictis melius confidere rebus.
Namque sub ingenti lustrat dum singula templo,
reginam opperiens, dum, quae fortuna sit urbi,
artificumque manus inter se operumque laborem
miratur, videt Iliacas ex ordine pugnas,
bellaque iam fama totum volgata per orbem,
Atridas, Priamumque, et saevum ambobus Achillem.
Constitit, et lacrimans, 'Quis iam locus' inquit 'Achate,
quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?
En Priamus! Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi;
sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
Solve metus; feret haec aliquam tibi fama salutem.'
Sic ait, atque animum pictura pascit inani,
multa gemens, largoque umectat flumine voltum.

A sacred grove was in the middle of the city, happiest shade, in which place the Phoenicians, thrown by storm and sea, first dug up the symbol, which royal Juno pointed out, the head of a fierce horse; this indeed destined the Carthaginians to be distinguished in war and easy to sustain for ages.  Here the Sidonian queen Dido was building an enormous temple for Juno, rich in offerings and the presence of the goddess, on the steps of which were leading up to a threshold of bronze, beams jointed with bronze and the bronze doors creaked as they turned in their sockets.  in this grove for the first time Aeneas dared to hope for safety and trust for the better in his afflictions.  While waiting for the queen and surveying everything under the roof of the huge temple, as he admired the fortune of the city and the craftsmanship of the artisans he saw Troy in order the battle as the Trojan War was made known throughout the whole world.  The sons of Atreus and Priam and Achilles who was harsh to both sides.  He halted and lamented, "What place now," he said, "Achates, in the whole world does not know of our labor?  Behold, Priam.  Even here are our own rewards of praise.  There is compassion for suffering and mortal things touch the heart.  Dismiss fear; this fame will bring some kind of safety to you."  He said this, and his spirit feeds on the empty picture, sighing often, he wets his face with plentiful crying.  

A little rough, but hints of grandeur peek through here and there.  More is to be seen in the following scenes depicted in the friezes Aeneas is gazing upon:

Namque videbat, uti bellantes Pergama circum
hac fugerent Graii, premeret Troiana iuventus,
hac Phryges, instaret curru cristatus Achilles.
Nec procul hinc Rhesi niveis tentoria velis
adgnoscit lacrimans, primo quae prodita somno
Tydides multa vastabat caede cruentus,
ardentisque avertit equos in castra, prius quam
pabula gustassent Troiae Xanthumque bibissent.
Parte alia fugiens amissis Troilus armis,
infelix puer atque impar congressus Achilli,
fertur equis, curruque haeret resupinus inani,
lora tenens tamen; huic cervixque comaeque trahuntur
per terram, et versa pulvis inscribitur hasta.
Interea ad templum non aequae Palladis ibant
crinibus Iliades passis peplumque ferebant,
suppliciter tristes et tunsae pectora palmis;
diva solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat.
Ter circum Iliacos raptaverat Hectora muros,
exanimumque auro corpus vendebat Achilles.
Tum vero ingentem gemitum dat pectore ab imo,
ut spolia, ut currus, utque ipsum corpus amici,
tendentemque manus Priamum conspexit inermis.
Se quoque principibus permixtum adgnovit Achivis,
Eoasque acies et nigri Memnonis arma.
Ducit Amazonidum lunatis agmina peltis
Penthesilea furens, mediisque in milibus ardet,
aurea subnectens exsertae cingula mammae,
bellatrix, audetque viris concurrere virgo.

For he was gazing at the Greek soldiers encircling the Pergama citadel here fleeing, the Trojan youth pursuing them, there crested Achilles pressing the Phrygians in his chariot.  In another picture through his tears he recognizes Rhesus' white tents, in their first sleep betrayed by Tydeus' son [Diomedes] laying waste with great slaughter, diverting the fiery horses to his camp before they could eat of the Trojan pasture or drink from the Xanthus.  In another part Troilus having lost his arms, the unhappy boy being unequal to Achilles in battle, knocked out of his chariot, the horses dragging him face-up by both his long hair and neck and his spear makes a mark through the earth.  Meanwhile to the temple of unjust Pallas the Trojan women were going with their hair disheveled and they were carrying a robe as supplicants, sad and beating their breasts with the palms of their hands; the goddess was turned away, holding her eyes fixed on the ground.  Three times around the walls of Troy Achilles had dragged Hector's lifeless body and he was selling it for gold to Priam.  Then indeed Aeneas gave an enormous groan from the bottom of his heart, when he viewed the spoils, the chariot, and the corpse of his friend himself, and Priam, extending his unarmed hands.  He recognized also himself fighting against the Greek leaders and he recognized the battle line of the easterners and black Memnon's arms.  Penthesilea, in the midst leading an army of Amazons in the thousands with their crescent-shaped shields, raging in her eagerness for war, fastening a golden girdle beneath her exposed breasts, and although a girl she dared to fight with men, a warrior-woman.

So many stories in so few lines... and now for the bridge to the next scene, which will be posted later in the week:

Haec dum Dardanio Aeneae miranda videntur,
dum stupet, obtutuque haeret defixus in uno,
regina ad templum, forma pulcherrima Dido,
incessit magna iuvenum stipante caterva.
Qualis in Eurotae ripis aut per iuga Cynthi
exercet Diana choros, quam mille secutae
hinc atque hinc glomerantur oreades; illa pharetram
fert umero, gradiensque deas supereminet omnis:
Latonae tacitum pertemptant gaudia pectus:
talis erat Dido, talem se laeta ferebat
per medios, instans operi regnisque futuris.
Tum foribus divae, media testudine templi,
saepta armis, solioque alte subnixa resedit.
Iura dabat legesque viris, operumque laborem
partibus aequabat iustis, aut sorte trahebat:
cum subito Aeneas concursu accedere magno
Anthea Sergestumque videt fortemque Cloanthum,
Teucrorumque alios, ater quos aequore turbo
dispulerat penitusque alias avexerat oras.
Obstipuit simul ipse simul perculsus Achates
laetitiaque metuque; avidi coniungere dextras
ardebant; sed res animos incognita turbat.
Dissimulant, et nube cava speculantur amicti,
quae fortuna viris, classem quo litore linquant,
quid veniant; cunctis nam lecti navibus ibant,
orantes veniam, et templum clamore petebant. 

And while the Trojan Aeneas was stupefied,  clinging to one spot in a fixed gaze, the queen marched to the Temple, the beautiful body of Dido, thronged by a great crowd of young men.  Such as Diana on Eurotas' banks or the ridge of Cynthus where she trains her chorus, here and there a thousand mountain nymphs are gathering around her from behind; she bears her quiver on her shoulder and proceeding she towers above all the other goddesses (joy strike the quiet heart of Latona):  such was Dido, she was bearing such delight in herself amongst the men urging on the project and the future kingdom.  Then at the gates of the shrine, under the dome of the temple, hedged in by guards and resting on the high throne she sat.  She was giving justice and laws to the men, and she was equalizing the workloads into fair shares or by drawing lots:  when Aeneas suddenly saw approaching with a great crowd Antheas and Sergestus and brave Cloanthus and the other Trojans, whom the black storm had scattered on the sea and had borne away to entirely different shores.  And Aeneas himself stood agape, and Achates struck by joy and fear; they were eager to join hands; but uncertain of their spirits and wrapped in the hollow cloud they are watching what the fortune of their men would be, which shore they left their ships, why they came; for the men were gathered from the entire fleet seeking favor and in the midst of shouting they were heading for the temple.

Here is a fitting pause for the moment.  This is a bit rougher than the preceding passage, but there is a palpable sense of joy in these verses.  The next section will deal with Dido's reaction to their pleas and what follows afterward.

Aeneid translation notes, Book I, lines 372-440

In my last post, I paused just before Aeneas responds to his disguised mother, Venus, about his travails.  These lines cover not just his response to her, but also his initial trip into the newly-founded city of Carthage.  Near the end of this section is one of Vergil's most famous lines, a metaphor concerning the habits of summer bees.  I remember well my professor spending a lot of time one class session on this and hopefully it will resonate with some readers here as well.

'O dea, si prima repetens ab origine pergam,
et vacet annalis nostrorum audire laborum,
ante diem clauso componat Vesper Olympo.
Nos Troia antiqua, si vestras forte per auris
Troiae nomen iit, diversa per aequora vectos
forte sua Libycis tempestas adpulit oris.
Sum pius Aeneas, raptos qui ex hoste Penates
classe veho mecum, fama super aethera notus.
Italiam quaero patriam et genus ab Iove summo.
Bis denis Phrygium conscendi navibus aequor,
matre dea monstrante viam, data fata secutus;
vix septem convolsae undis Euroque supersunt.
Ipse ignotus, egens, Libyae deserta peragro,
Europa atque Asia pulsus.' Nec plura querentem
passa Venus medio sic interfata dolore est: 

"O goddess, if first I repeat from the beginning our tale and if you have the leisure to listen to our hardships, sooner would Vester end the day with the doors of Olympus closed.  We come from the ancient city of Troy, if you per chance have heard of the name of Troy, and a storm has pushed us to the shores of Libya.  I am pious Aeneas, who carried my Penates snatched from my enemies and bore them with me via ship, known by reputation beyond the sky.  I am hunting for the Italian homeland and the race of people descended from Jupiter.  I set sail of the sea near Troy with twenty ships, my goddess mother pointing the way, following the given fates; barely seven survived, beaten down by the winds and sun.  I myself unknown, in need, wandering through the desert of Libya, driven from Europe and Asia."  Venus enduring his complaining no more interrupted him in the middle of his complaining.

Outside of changing the wording slightly to correct a few careless manuscript errors, this is the same as what I wrote twenty years ago.

'Quisquis es, haud, credo, invisus caelestibus auras
vitalis carpis, Tyriam qui adveneris urbem.
Perge modo, atque hinc te reginae ad limina perfer,
Namque tibi reduces socios classemque relatam
nuntio, et in tutum versis aquilonibus actam,
ni frustra augurium vani docuere parentes.
Aspice bis senos laetantis agmine cycnos,
aetheria quos lapsa plaga Iovis ales aperto
turbabat caelo; nunc terras ordine longo
aut capere, aut captas iam despectare videntur:
ut reduces illi ludunt stridentibus alis,
et coetu cinxere polum, cantusque dedere,
haud aliter puppesque tuae pubesque tuorum
aut portum tenet aut pleno subit ostia velo.
Perge modo, et, qua te ducit via, dirige gressum.'

"Whoever you are, by no means, I believe, that the gods hate you as you still breathe, you who are approaching the Tyrian city.  Take yourself from here to the threshold of the queen.  For I announce to you that your comrades are brought back and your fleet restored, driven into safety by the reversed winds unless in my vain my proud parents taught me augury.  Look over there, twelve swans rejoicing as a flock, whom the bird of Jupiter having swooped down in the heavens was throwing into confusion in the open sky; now in a long line they are seen either to seize the land or to look down now on the lands once seen:  as the restored swans mock the rustling birds and a company encircles the sky and gives song, not otherwise both your ships and your young men either are in port or have entered the harbor under sail.  Now proceed and, where the road leads you, guide your step."

 If I were even more literal, I would have said "twice six swans," but as it stands, I like the avian metaphor employed here.

Dixit, et avertens rosea cervice refulsit,
ambrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem
spiravere, pedes vestis defluxit ad imos,
et vera incessu patuit dea. Ille ubi matrem
adgnovit, tali fugientem est voce secutus:
'Quid natum totiens, crudelis tu quoque, falsis
ludis imaginibus? Cur dextrae iungere dextram
non datur, ac veras audire et reddere voces?' 
Talibus incusat, gressumque ad moenia tendit:
at Venus obscuro gradientes aere saepsit,
et multo nebulae circum dea fudit amictu,
cernere ne quis eos, neu quis contingere posset,
molirive moram, aut veniendi poscere causas.
Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque revisit
laeta suas, ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo
ture calent arae, sertisque recentibus halant.

Venus said this and turning aside her rosy neck shined, her hair on her head exhaling the ambrosial perfume; the robe flowed down to bellow at her feet; and laid open the true walk of a goddess.  Aeneas when he recognized his mother was fleeing said the following words:  "Why do you so often tease your son with false disguises?  Why is it not allowed for us to join hands and hear and tell the truth?"  Aeneas said this chiding his mother but to the walls of Carthage he went.  However Venus inclosed the walking Aeneas and Achates in a dark mist, and the goddess surrounded them in a robe of many clouds by her supernatural power, so that no one could discern them or touch them or make delay or to demand the reasons of their coming.  Venus herself went aloft to Paphos and revisited the happy seat of hers, where her temple was, and one hundred altars burning Sabean incense breathed forth fresh garlands.

While my old translation lacks elegance at times, there are times that I wish I could see those who have pretensions of writing "epic fantasy" would at least learn to use some of the rhetoric that Vergil employs here.  The mist isn't quite as clichéd as I would have thought based on encountering it elsewhere.  Maybe it's just because it is kept to just a few descriptive lines and isn't laborious described over multiple sentences.

Corripuere viam interea, qua semita monstrat.
Iamque ascendebant collem, qui plurimus urbi
imminet, adversasque adspectat desuper arces.
Miratur molem Aeneas, magalia quondam,
miratur portas strepitumque et strata viarum.
Instant ardentes Tyrii pars ducere muros,
molirique arcem et manibus subvolvere saxa,
pars optare locum tecto et concludere sulco.
[Iura magistratusque legunt sanctumque senatum;]
hic portus alii effodiunt; hic alta theatris
fundamenta locant alii, immanisque columnas
rupibus excidunt, scaenis decora alta futuris.
Qualis apes aestate nova per florea rura
exercet sub sole labor, cum gentis adultos
educunt fetus, aut cum liquentia mella
stipant et dulci distendunt nectare cellas,
aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto
ignavom fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent:
fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella.
'O fortunati, quorum iam moenia surgunt!'
Aeneas ait, et fastigia suspicit urbis.
Infert se saeptus nebula, mirabile dictu,
per medios, miscetque viris, neque cernitur ulli.

Meanwhile Aeneas and Achates hurried along their way, which a path pointed out.  Now they were ascending the hill, part of which overhangs the city, and from above the towers faced opposite.  Aeneas admiring the structure of the city, formerly huts, admiring the gates and pavement and the din of the street.  Eagerly the Tyrians pressed on; part to extend the walls and by their hands rolling up the stones to make the citadel, part to choose the laws, and they chose magistrates and the revered Senate.  Here some were digging the harbor; there others established the deep foundations of a theater, a high beauty for the future stage.  Just as hard work occupies bees in the beginning of summer under the sun in the flowery fields, when the adults lead forth their swarm, or stuff the cells with liquid honey and sweet nectar they distend them, or they receive the loads of those coming in or in battle formation made they prevent the lazy drones from the hive:  the work glows and the honey smells of fragrent thyme.  "O fortunate ones, who now raise their walls!"  Aeneas went and looked up at the top of the city.  The inclosing cloud surrounding him, marvelous to say, through the midst of men, and he mingles with them, not seen by any.

 Sometimes I am saddened by the realization that such extended metaphors and similes are held in low esteem in contemporary writing, because as I typed out (and edited for clarity) the bee section, I found myself visualizing the bustling new town rising up in a montage of movement.  Yet beyond visualizing this, I could smell the honey and feel the movements to and fro.  This is simply a very vividly described comparison and it is something that makes me enjoy Vergil's poetry beyond whatever is being described in its plot.

The next passage, to be posted either tomorrow or sometime during the week, will shift to a retelling of key scenes from the Trojan War.  The next 50 lines or so should be of interest to those who (infelix!) are not as inclined as I am to enjoy passages such as the one translated above.  And with this post, I've now posted a rough prose translation (over 80% being directly taken from my 1994 course notes and the rest either edits or filling in the gaps of those notes) of a little over half of Book I and its 756 lines.  At this rate, I might finish before month's end and if I'm insane, I'll do a fresh translation (the course didn't involve translating much beyond sections of Books IV and VI) of the other books over a period of years.  Might as well showcase a hobby of mine, no?
  

Aeneid translation notes, Book I, lines 305-371

Outside of a large gap between lines 305-310, these notes are much more intact.  Whether that's a good or bad thing I'll leave up to the reader to decide.

At pius Aeneas, per noctem plurima volvens,
 ut primum lux alma data est, exire locosque
explorare novos, quas vento accesserit oras,
qui teneant, nam inculta videt, hominesne feraene,
quaerere constituit, sociisque exacta referre.
Classem in convexo nemorum sub rupe cavata
arboribus clausam circum atque horrentibus umbris
occulit; ipse uno graditur comitatus Achate,
bina manu lato crispans hastilia ferro. 

But pious Aeneas, many thoughts turning in his head during the night, as soon as the kindly dawn arrives, decides to go out and explore the new land, to which shores the winds had brought them, who possesses them (now he sees wilderness), whether man or beast, and he reports back to his companions.  He hides the ships in the secret grove under the hollowed out rock with trees hemming them round about with their trembling shadows; with his comrade Achates he marches on, brandishing a pair of broad-bladed spears.

Most of this I just wrote and it is a very early and rough draft, but I do like the imagery of the shadows trembling rather than the trees themselves.

Cui mater media sese tulit obvia silva,
virginis os habitumque gerens, et virginis arma
Spartanae, vel qualis equos Threissa fatigat
Harpalyce, volucremque fuga praevertitur Hebrum.
Namque umeris de more habilem suspenderat arcum
venatrix, dederatque comam diffundere ventis,
nuda genu, nodoque sinus collecta fluentis.
Ac prior, 'Heus' inquit 'iuvenes, monstrate mearum
vidistis si quam hic errantem forte sororum,
succinctam pharetra et maculosae tegmine lyncis,
aut spumantis apri cursum clamore prementem.'

To Aeneas his mother presents herself on the path in the midst of the woods, offering the appearance and clothing of a Spartan girl and the arms of a maid of Sparta, such as the Thracian Harpalyce, when she tries the horses in her swift course of the Hebrus.  For according to custom she had hung on her shoulders an easily handled bow as a huntress and had allowed the wind to scatter her hair, bare up to her knee, having collected the flowing folds in a knot.  Then at first she said, "Hello, young man, if you have seen any one of my sisters wandering here, girded with a quiver and a spotted lynx hide, or running behind a foaming board shouting, show me."

The allusions interest me; I have forgotten or have never learned about Harpalyce's tale.  Vergil's use of similes here deepens the encounter.

Sic Venus; et Veneris contra sic filius orsus: 
'Nulla tuarum audita mihi neque visa sororum—
O quam te memorem, virgo? Namque haud tibi voltus
mortalis, nec vox hominem sonat: O, dea certe—
an Phoebi soror? an nympharum sanguinis una?—
sis felix, nostrumque leves, quaecumque, laborem, 
et, quo sub caelo tandem, quibus orbis in oris
iactemur, doceas. Ignari hominumque locorumque
erramus, vento huc vastis et fluctibus acti:
multa tibi ante aras nostra cadet hostia dextra.'

Venus said this; and in turn her son replied, "I have neither heard nor seen any of your sisters, O how should I call you, maiden?  For by no means do you have a mortal countenance, nor does your voice sound human; Oh, certainly you are a goddess (are you the sister of Apollo?  Or are you of the blood of nympths?), be kind and light our labor, whoever you are, and tell me under what heaven, on what shore have we finally been tossed; we wander ignorant of the men and place, driven by wind and an enormous wave to this place:  many sacrifices will fall to you by my right hand before your altar."

The language here is elevated, yet in Latin it does not feel turgid or overly artificial.  Venus continues:

Tum Venus: 'Haud equidem tali me dignor honore;
virginibus Tyriis mos est gestare pharetram,
purpureoque alte suras vincire cothurno.
Punica regna vides, Tyrios et Agenoris urbem;
sed fines Libyci, genus intractabile bello.
Imperium Dido Tyria regit urbe profecta,
germanum fugiens. Longa est iniuria, longae
ambages; sed summa sequar fastigia rerum.

Then Venus said:  "Indeed I am not worthy of such an honor; it is the custom of Tyrian girls to wear quivers and to bind high scarlet boots to the calves.  You see the Carthaginian kingdom, the city of Tyre and Agenor; but bordered by Libya, an intractable people in war.  Dido rules this realm, having come from Tyre, fleeing her brother.  The story of her wrongs is a long one:  but I will attend to the main points of her story.

Most of the next part comes not from my first draft notes, but from my midterm exam (minus one later correction I made due to a singular mistake on the exam).

'Huic coniunx Sychaeus erat, ditissimus agri
Phoenicum, et magno miserae dilectus amore,
cui pater intactam dederat, primisque iugarat
ominibus. Sed regna Tyri germanus habebat
Pygmalion, scelere ante alios immanior omnes.
Quos inter medius venit furor. Ille Sychaeum
impius ante aras, atque auri caecus amore,
clam ferro incautum superat, securus amorum
germanae; factumque diu celavit, et aegram,
multa malus simulans, vana spe lusit amantem.
Ipsa sed in somnis inhumati venit imago
coniugis, ora modis attollens pallida miris,
crudeles aras traiectaque pectora ferro
nudavit, caecumque domus scelus omne retexit.

"She was the wife of Sychaeus, richest in the land of the Phoenicans, and he was cherished with love by this pitiable woman, whose father gave her to him untouched and during the first omens.  But the ruler of Tyre was her brother Pygmalion, an evil man before all, whose furor came between them.  That man came upon Sychaeus before the altar, seeking the place of his gold, and he killed him, heedless of the love of his sister; and for a long time he hid this deed and by many evil pretensions vainly kept up the hope of his sister.  But in her sleep her husband's ghost itself came, looking pale as the dead, with a bloody mouth; he bared his chest pierced cruelly by the sword at the altar, and he revealed all of the dark crime of the household.

And now for the second half of Dido's story, which will provide a convenient pausing place, even though there is still another 40 lines or so to the scene:

Tum celerare fugam patriaque excedere suadet,
auxiliumque viae veteres tellure recludit
thesauros, ignotum argenti pondus et auri.
His commota fugam Dido sociosque parabat:
conveniunt, quibus aut odium crudele tyranni
aut metus acer erat; navis, quae forte paratae,
corripiunt, onerantque auro: portantur avari
Pygmalionis opes pelago; dux femina facti.
Devenere locos, ubi nunc ingentia cernis
moenia surgentemque novae Karthaginis arcem,
mercatique solum, facti de nomine Byrsam,
taurino quantum possent circumdare tergo.
Sed vos qui tandem, quibus aut venistis ab oris,
quove tenetis iter? 'Quaerenti talibus ille
suspirans, imoque trahens a pectore vocem:

"He then persuaded her to hasten her flight and to leave her homeland and as help for the journey he disclosed the location of an ancient treasure in the earth and an incalculable weight of silver and gold.  These words by Sychaeus aroused Dido and she was preparing to escape with her comrades.  Those who either hated the cruelty of the tyrant or feared his harshness assembled; ships, which by chance were already prepared, they seized and loaded them with the gold.  The resources of greedy Pygmalion was carried off by the waves; the leader of the undertaking was a woman.  They arrived at the place where now you can see huge walls arising and the citadel of the new town of Carthage and the ground was bought, called Byrsa from the name of the deal, for as much land as they were able to surround with a bull's hide.  But what of you?  From what shore do you come?  What way are you going?"  To Venus who asked such things Aeneas, taking in a deep breath and drawing the words from deep with him, replied:

And you can find out Aeneas' response in a few days.  Almost exactly halfway through Book I.  Hope you are enjoying this as much as I am re-reading the poem and re-living memories twenty years gone.  Tempus fugit.

Aeneid translation notes, Book I, lines 223-304

After the storm, feast, and lament, the action here shifts away from the Trojans and toward the gods and their machinations.  This passage is one of several scattered throughout the poem that is meant to tie together the mythological past (most of the allusions to the Trojans and Rome were established well before Vergil) and contemporary history.  Here Venus pleads with Jupiter on behalf of her son Aeneas and his Trojans.  Jupiter consoles her with the promise of empire for Aeneas' descendents, the Roman people.

Et iam finis erat, cum Iuppiter aethere summo
despiciens mare velivolum terrasque iacentis
litoraque et latos populos, sic vertice caeli
constitit, et Libyae defixit lumina regnis.
Atque illum talis iactantem pectore curas
tristior et lacrimis oculos suffusa nitentis
adloquitur Venus: 'O qui res hominumque deumque
aeternis regis imperiis, et fulmine terres,
quid meus Aeneas in te committere tantum,
quid Troes potuere, quibus, tot funera passis,
cunctus ob Italiam terrarum clauditur orbis?
Certe hinc Romanos olim, volventibus annis,
hinc fore ductores, revocato a sanguine Teucri,
 qui mare, qui terras omni dicione tenerent,
pollicitus, quae te, genitor, sententia vertit?
Hoc equidem occasum Troiae tristisque ruinas
solabar, fatis contraria fata rependens;
nunc eadem fortuna viros tot casibus actos
insequitur. Quem das finem, rex magne, laborum?
Antenor potuit, mediis elapsus Achivis,
Illyricos penetrare sinus, atque intima tutus
regna Liburnorum, et fontem superare Timavi,
unde per ora novem vasto cum murmure montis
it mare proruptum et pelago premit arva sonanti.
Hic tamen ille urbem Patavi sedesque locavit
Teucrorum, et genti nomen dedit, armaque fixit
Troia; nunc placida compostus pace quiescit:
nos, tua progenies, caeli quibus adnuis arcem,
navibus (infandum!) amissis, unius ob iram
prodimur atque Italis longe disiungimur oris.
Hic pietatis honos? Sic nos in sceptra reponis?' 

And now the end [of the feast], when Jupiter discerning from the highest sky the sea winged with sails and the outspread lands and coasts and widespread nations, there on heaven's summit he rested and on the Libyan kingdom he fixed his gaze.  And with such cares in his heart, Venus accosted him, sadder than was her wont, her bright eyes filled with tears:  "Oh you who rule the affairs of gods and men with eternal power and frightening thunder, what great offense has my Aeneas committed to you, what could the Trojans commit, who have endured so many disasters the world is closed to them on account of Italy?  Surely at some point that as the years rolled by that the Romans, from these men, from the restored blood of Teucer, on the sea and all lands they will hold sway, as you promised.  Father, what argument has turned you?  Because of this, indeed, I was consoling myself for the fall of Troy and the sad collapse, balancing contrary fates with other fates; now the same fortune follows them who have endured so much.  What end, great king, do you give for their ordeals?  Antenor, having escaped from the midst of the Greeks, was able to penetrate the Illyric gulf and reach in safety the inland kingdoms of the Liburnians and cross the Timavus, from which source through nine mouths it goes with a rumble from the mountains as a dashing sea and it overwhelms the fields with its noisy flood.  Here nevertheless that man founded the city of Patavium, gave homes to the Teucrians, gave them a name, hung up the Trojan arms, and now placid he rests at ease:  we, however, your own children, to whom you promise the heavens, lost our ships (unspeakable!) and are betrayed on account of someone's anger and we are separated a long way from the coast of Italy.  Is this the reward for loyalty?  In this way do you put us into royal power?"

There were a lot of gaps in my translation notes and as I noted in yesterday's post, I consulted two translation I had on hand as well as my Latin dictionary and the annotations in the edition I'm re-reading in order to fill them.  I also rewrote a few sentences that were erroneous in detail, but on the whole, the majority is left as I wrote it in 1994.  The next part, Jupiter's response, was a separate assignment back in February 1994 and I wrote most of it out in detail back then, so there shouldn't be as many gaps to fill.

 Olli subridens hominum sator atque deorum,
voltu, quo caelum tempestatesque serenat,
oscula libavit natae, dehinc talia fatur:
'Parce metu, Cytherea: manent immota tuorum
fata tibi; cernes urbem et promissa Lavini
moenia, sublimemque feres ad sidera caeli
magnanimum Aenean; neque me sententia vertit.
Hic tibi (fabor enim, quando haec te cura remordet,
longius et volvens fatorum arcana movebo)
bellum ingens geret Italia, populosque feroces
contundet, moresque viris et moenia ponet,
tertia dum Latio regnantem viderit aestas,
ternaque transierint Rutulis hiberna subactis.
At puer Ascanius, cui nunc cognomen Iulo
additur,—Ilus erat, dum res stetit Ilia regno,—
triginta magnos volvendis mensibus orbis
imperio explebit, regnumque ab sede Lavini
transferet, et longam multa vi muniet Albam.
Hic iam ter centum totos regnabitur annos
gente sub Hectorea, donec regina sacerdos,
Marte gravis, geminam partu dabit Ilia prolem.
Inde lupae fulvo nutricis tegmine laetus
Romulus excipiet gentem, et Mavortia condet
moenia, Romanosque suo de nomine dicet.
His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono;
imperium sine fine dedi. Quin aspera Iuno,
quae mare nunc terrasque metu caelumque fatigat,
consilia in melius referet, mecumque fovebit
Romanos rerum dominos gentemque togatam:
sic placitum. Veniet lustris labentibus aetas,
cum domus Assaraci Phthiam clarasque Mycenas
servitio premet, ac victis dominabitur Argis.
Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar,
imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris,—
Iulius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo.
Hunc tu olim caelo, spoliis Orientis onustum,
accipies secura; vocabitur hic quoque votis.
Aspera tum positis mitescent saecula bellis;
cana Fides, et Vesta, Remo cum fratre Quirinus,
iura dabunt; dirae ferro et compagibus artis
claudentur Belli portae; Furor impius intus,
saeva sedens super arma, et centum vinctus aenis
post tergum nodis, fremet horridus ore cruento.'

The father of men and the gods, his face smiling, which clears the skies and storms, kissed his daughter, then he said the following:  "Spare yourself of fear, Cytherea, the fate of your own children remains unchanged; you perceive the city and the promis of the walls of Lavinium and carrying aloft great-soled Aeneas to the sky as a constellation; my purpose has not changed.  For you (indeed I will tell you, since this worry eats at you, unrolling the scroll of the fates farther), he will bring brutal war to Italy and he will crush fierce people and he will place walls and laws on these people, until a third summer shall see him ruling in Latium and three winters will pass after the Rutulians have been subdued.  But the boy Ascanius, to which the cognomen of Iulus is added (Ilus was his surname, when Troy stood), shall rule for thirty years with their swift passing months, and he will transfer the seat from Lavinium and will fortify Alba Longa.  Here now for three hundred years it will ruled by Hector's people, until a royal priestess pregnant by Mars shall produce in birth twin boys.  Afterwards, happy Romulus in the tawny hide of the she-wolf nurse shall take up the people and establish the Mavortian walls and he shall call them Romans from his own name.  To these I place neither limits of government nor of time:  imperium without end I have given them.  Yes, even fierce Juno, who soon shall weary of fear on sea and land and sky, will change her plans for the better, and with me shall cherish the Romans, the toga-wearing lords of the world and people.  It is thus decreed.  As the years go gliding by, a time will come when the house of Assaracus will subject Phthia and bright Mycenae in slavery and conquered Argos will be ruled over.  Caesar's illustrious line will be born of the Trojans, empire bounded by ocean, fame which reaches the stars, Julius, derived from the great name of Iulus.  You shall soon receive untroubled to the sky him burdened with Oriental  spoils he also will be envoked in prayers.  Then with war abandoned the harsh ages grow mild; hoary Fides and Vesta, Remus with his brother Quirinus will make laws, and the Gates of War, grim with iron and fastened with bars, are closed.  Within evil rage sitting tied up, bound by 100 knots of bronze, roars with his bloody mouth."

There are echoes here with other passages in the poem, particularly the shield images near the end of Book VI.  This is perhaps one of the more nationalistic passages in the poem, but it is interesting to contrast this rosy "future" with the travails that the Trojans have suffered thus far.  Not much was changed here, only a few lines near the end that I had left blank in 1994.  Now for the bridge between this section and the resumption of Aeneas' story:

Haec ait, et Maia genitum demittit ab alto,
ut terrae, utque novae pateant Karthaginis arces
hospitio Teucris, ne fati nescia Dido
finibus arceret: volat ille per aera magnum
remigio alarum, ac Libyae citus adstitit oris.
Et iam iussa facit, ponuntque ferocia Poeni
corda volente deo; in primis regina quietum
accipit in Teucros animum mentemque benignam.

This said, he sends down from on high the son of Maia, so that Carthage, the new town, might extend hospitality to the Teucrians, as Dido did not know their fate and might them keep away:  he flies through the air on great beating wings and swiftly he reached the Libyan shore.  He now does as commanded, and the fierce Phoenicians put aside their feelings in accordance with the god's will; among the first the queen adopts toward the Teucrians a peaceful mind and spirit.

This last part I didn't translate back in 1994, so I worked it out now in consultation with dictionaries and other translations, but the phrasing is mine alone.  Later in the week, I'll post, maybe in sections, Aeneas's exploration of the area and Venus's disguised visit to him, where she reveals to him the history of both Carthage and its queen Dido.