Translated by Maaira Khan Y11 (London)
Aeneid 6, lines 456-474
Aeneas, having been involved in a tragic love affair with Dido, Queen of Carthage, meets her shade in the underworld for the final time…
“Infelix Dido, verus mihi nuntius ergo
venerat exstinctam, ferroque extrema secutam?
Funeris heu tibi causa fui? Per sidera iuro,
per superos, et si qua fides tellure sub ima est,
invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi.
Sed me iussa deum, quae nunc has ire per umbras,
per loca senta situ cogunt noctemque profundam,
imperiis egere suis; nec credere quivi
hunc tantum tibi me discessu ferre dolorem.
Siste gradum, teque aspectu ne subtrahe nostro.
Quem fugis? Extremum fato, quod te adloquor, hoc est.”
Talibus Aeneas ardentem et torva tuentem
lenibat dictis animum, lacrimasque ciebat.
Illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat,
nec magis incepto voltum sermone movetur,
quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes.
tandem corripuit sese, atque inimica refugit
in nemus umbriferum, coniunx ubi pristinus illi
respondet curis aequatque Sychaeus amorem.
“Unfortunate Dido, so the news that came to me was true!
You ended it all, extinguishing your own life with a blade?
The funeral pyre! No! Was I the cause of your death? I swear by the stars,
By the heavens high above and by whichever faith exists below the depths of the earth,
Unwillingly, dear queen, did I depart from your shores!
But the orders of the gods compel me to venture through these shadows,
Through deadly, desolate territories and through night, eternal night.
By their command I am driven onwards; how ever could I have known
That my embarking would bring such harrowing tortures to you?
Stand here! Do not step away! Do not withdraw from my sight!
You flee? From whom? My final word to you, by fate– it is this!”
In this way Aeneas was appeasing the ghastly, glaring woman
And her searing soul with his words, whilst stirring his own tears.
But the queen turned away, holding her eyes fixed to the ground;
Her face is unstirred by the speech Aeneas began,
Standing as if she were an unyielding flint or the marble mountain of Paros.
At last, taking the commands of none other than herself, bitterly she receded
To the grove of the shades, where her former husband,
Sychaeus, bestows upon her the worthy love for her love.
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