Borbonii: N. BORBONII VANDOPERANI FERRARIA. Quam scripsit annum agens XIIII

1. Nox hyemalis erat, densis obscura tenebris,
2. Aëre commoto, pluuiosaque flantibus austris,
3. Cum defessa sopor mea membra profundus haberet:
4. Ecce mihi in somnis offert se Mulciber atro
5. Terribilis uultu, uelut è fornace reuertens,
6. Perfusus sudore artus, ferrugine crinem,
7. Puluerea facie atque oculis flammantibus horrens:
8. Treis secum famulos immania corpora habebat,
9. Nudos membra, atque unoculos , uulgoque Cyclopas
10. Recte appellatos, Steropes à fulgure, Brontes
11. A tonitru, nomen sortitur ab igne Pyragmon:
12. His comitatus erat, cum me somno usque grauatum
13. Talibus increpuit: Puer (inquit) inique, patrisque;
14. Immemor et patriae, cur tempus segniter istud
15. Conteris? Et pulchrum sine fructu prodigis aeuum?
16. Et patris interea retices nomenque, decusque,
17. Ingeniumque tui fabros qui in pace gubernat
18. Accingitque suos ad opus, moderatur, alitque
19. Prouidus, et laetus sua reddere praemia cuique:
20. Infelix patrij cur non reminisceris agri?

1. It was a wintry night, dark with dense shadows,
2. With the air in commotion, and rainy with the south winds blowing,
3. When deep sleep held my wearied limbs:
4. Behold, in dreams Mulciber presents himself to me, black,
5. Terrible in visage, as though returning from a furnace,
6. His limbs drenched with sweat, his hair ferruginous,
7. Bristling with a dust-powdered face and blazing eyes:
8. He had with him three attendants, bodies immense,
9. Limbs naked, and one-eyed, and by the common folk called Cyclopes
10. Rightly so named—Steropes from lightning, Brontes
11. From thunder, and Pyragmon takes his name from fire:
12. Attended by these, when I, quite weighed down by sleep,
13. Thus he rebuked: “Boy,” he says, “unjust, and of your father
14. And fatherland forgetful, why do you sluggishly waste this time,
15. And lavish your fair prime without fruit?
16. And meanwhile do you keep silent about your father’s name and honor,
17. And your own talent—your father who in peace governs craftsmen,
18. And girds his men for work, directs, and nourishes them,
19. Foresightful, and glad to render to each his rewards:
20. Unhappy one, why do you not remember the ancestral field?

21. Vnde tibi haec nemorum tam dira obliuio? Quae te
22. Aequaleisque simul toties, mixtasque puellas
23. Ludenteis habuere? Omnis cum frondibus arbos
24. Luxuriat, uarijsque adrident floribus agri?

21. Whence to you this so dire oblivion of the groves? What
22. together with your peers so often, and mingled maidens,
23. playing, have held you? When every tree with leaves
24. luxuriates, and the fields smile with various flowers?

25. Num fontem et riuos per amoena uireta fluenteis,
26. Queis sine tota tui patris Ferraria friget,
27. Num loca es oblitus, queis diuum lumina gaudent?
28. Quaeque homines mage miranturque Thessala Tempe?
29. Quam suum et Elysium manes?

25. Surely not the spring and the rivulets flowing through the pleasant green-places,
26. without which all your father’s Ferrara grows cold,
27. Have you forgotten the places where the divine luminaries rejoice?
28. and which men marvel at more than Thessalian Tempe?
29. which the Manes more than their own Elysium?

Clementia coeli
30. Illhic tanta, et fertilitas, et copia rerum:
31. Siccine contemnis patriam, patriosque penates,
32. Infelix puer? Haec Musis dignissima sedes
33. Incelebris semper, semperque ignota iacebit?
34. Audi agendum, quae pauca tibi curanda relinquo:
35. Si sapis haec memori mea pectore dicta reconde:
36. Est scribenda tibi Ferraria carmine, cunctis
37. Quo ferri ignaris ars innotescat habendi:
38. Ferri, inter tanta multa metalla bonique malique
39. Fructum et perniciem, uitam exitiumque ferentis:
40. Quippe rudis tellus incultaque scinditur illo,
41. Aptaque fit segetes homini praebere quotannis:
42. Plantaeque et uites omni squalore resecto
43. Annua cum folijs iuuenescunt dona ferentes.

The clemency of heaven
30. There, so great both fertility and abundance of things:
31. Thus do you contemn your fatherland and your paternal Penates,
32. unhappy boy?
33. Will this seat most worthy of the Muses lie uncelebrated forever, and forever unknown?
34. Hear what must be done, the few things I leave to you to care for:
35. If you are wise, store these my words in a mindful breast:
36. Ferrara must be written by you in song, so that to all
37. who are ignorant of iron the art of handling it may become known:
38. of iron, which among so many metals brings both the fruit of good and of ill,
39. both perdition and benefit, life and destruction:
40. indeed the rude and untilled earth is cleft by it,
41. and becomes apt to offer sown crops to man year by year:
42. and plants and vines, with all squalor cut away,
43. grow young again each year with their leaves, bearing gifts.

44. Ferro aedes tolluntur, et aspera saxa secantur.
45. Humanos omneis ferrum conducit ad usus:
46. Illo etiam ad caedes hominum et funebria bella,
47. Vindictamque et iter mortis praesentius atrae
48. Vtimur excusso tormentis, atque lacertis,
49. Pennatoque etiam: nullum non robore ferri
50. Patratur facinus, uis, stuprum, furta, rapinae:
51. Nec tamen in culpa est ferrum, set caeca libido
52. Impietasque hominum insignis, qui sponte ruentes
53. In scelus omne, nouos astus artesque nocendi
54. Inducunt, furijs genijsque hortantibus atris.
55. Quod si forte neges nobis parere superbus,
56. Nosti quid patrijs mea possit in aedibus ira,
57. Expertus satis es nostrum dudum ipse furorem,
58. (Si memores) tua cum flamma Bacchante cremaui
59. Carmina, flagraruntque domus pia tecta paternae
60. Funditus, atque ubi nunc Ferraria cresceret herba,
61. Ni pius aetherei uetuisset rector Olympi,
62. Deuictus lachrymisque tuis et amore parentis.

44. By iron houses are raised, and rough stones are cut.
45. Iron conduces to all human uses:
46. With it also for the slaughters of men and funereal wars,
47. and vengeance and a more immediate path of black death
48. we employ it, discharged by engines and by muscles,
49. and even feathered; there is no crime not perpetrated by the strength of iron—
50. violence, rape, thefts, rapines:
51. nor, however, is iron in fault, but blind libido
52. and the remarkable impiety of men, who, rushing of their own accord
53. into every crime, introduce new stratagems and arts of harming,
54. the Furies and black genii urging them on.
55. But if by chance you refuse in your pride to obey us,
56. you know what my anger can do in your father’s house,
57. you yourself have long since sufficiently experienced our frenzy,
58. (if you remember) when with a Bacchic flame I burned
59. your poems, and the devoted roofs of your father’s house blazed
60. utterly, and where now grass would be growing over Ferrara,
61. unless the pious ruler of ethereal Olympus had forbidden it,
62. conquered by your tears and by a parent’s love.

63. Audistin'quae te iandudum scire uolebam?
64. Dixit, et in densas noctis se condidit umbras
65. Cum famulis. Animo fuerat quae dicta uoluto,
66. Attonitus tanto monitu, et parere iubenti
67. Constitui, idque hodie, neque enim rem longius istam
68. Differri patiar, non quod tua Mulciber arma
69. Vel tonitrum metuam tempestatesque sonoras:
70. At quia sopitum iuuat hoc recreare parumper
71. Ingenium, et me tollere humo, atque adsuescere Musis,
72. Et puerilem animum inflammare, et ludere uersu.

63. Have you heard what I wanted you long since to know?
64. He said, and hid himself in the dense shades of night
65. With his servants. I revolve in my mind the things that had been spoken,
66. astonished by so great a monition, and I resolved to obey the one commanding,
67. and to do it today; for I will not allow this matter
68. to be deferred further, not that I fear your Mulciber-wrought arms
69. or the thunder and sonorous tempests:
70. but because it pleases to recreate for a little this slumbering genius,
71. and to lift myself from the ground, and to accustom myself to the Muses,
72. and to inflame the boyish spirit, and to play with verse.

73. Accingor, Tu summe faue pater optime rerum,
74. Qui solus potis es nutu imperioque fauere,
75. Nempe deus, puero uires mentemque ministra.
76. VANDOPERAE locus est cuius Ferraria nomen,
77. Incumbens Barsæ fluuio, septusque uiretis,
78. Haud procul à turri, quam quondam Vandala pubes
79. Struxit, ut historiae et ueterum monimenta loquuntur:
80. Hinc et Vandoperæ facta adpellatio terrae:
81. Hic nostra est (inquam) Ferraria: præsidet illi
82. BORBONIVS genitor, pia quem mihi numina seruent:
83. Is primum perquirit eos qui cædere ligna
84. Et sudare diu, et norunt uibrare securim.
85. Conducti in syluam ueniunt, hic fissile Robur
86. Diuiditur cuneis, Acer, Ornus, Fraxinus, Ilex,
87. Et Picea, et Fagus ueterum altrix, ingemit EchÚ
88. Per syluam, struibus late loca plena tumescunt.

73. I gird myself; do you, highest, favor me, best father of things,
74. you who alone are able to favor by nod and command,
75. indeed, god, supply to the boy strength and mind.
76. There is a place of VANDOPERA whose name is Ferraria,
77. leaning upon the river Barsa, and enclosed with greenwoods,
78. not far from the tower which once the Vandal youth
79. built, as histories and the monuments of the ancients tell:
80. hence too was made the appellation of the land VANDOPERA:
81. here is our Ferraria, I say; BORBONIUS the father presides over it—
82. may the pious numina guard him for me:
83. he first seeks out those who can fell timber
84. and sweat long, and who know how to brandish the axe.
85. Hired they come into the forest; here the split Oak
86. is divided by wedges—the Acer, Ornus, Fraxinus, Ilex,
87. and the Picea, and the Fagus, nurse of the ancients; Echo groans
88. through the wood; far and wide the places, full with piles, swell.

89. Qui uero catus est lignator, quercubus omnis
90. Abstinet, et Larice indomita, Buxoque rebelli,
91. Quandoquidem his carbo semper sit inutilis, et qui
92. Accensus crepitat lauri instar, et exilit ardens,
93. Mox moritur, frigescit opus, faber aestuat ira.
94. Postquam magna satis lignorum copia uisa est,
95. Est gens syluestris tenuisque et paupere cultu,
96. Sorte sua contenta tamen, patiensque laborum:
97. Hi quadam quasi censura ac ratione recensent
98. Lignatoris opus, seriatimque omnia lustrant,
99. Et numero accipiunt, nec uel fallantur in ipso
100. Reddendo carbone patri, ne uel pater illis
101.

89. But the woodcutter who is shrewd keeps away from all oaks,
90. and from untamed larch, and rebellious boxwood,
91. since from these the charcoal is always useless, and which,
92. when kindled, crackles like laurel and leaps ablaze,
93. soon dies; the work grows cold; the smith seethes with anger.
94. After a great enough supply of wood has been seen,
95. there is a woodland folk, meager and of impoverished way of life,
96. yet content with their lot, and patient of labors:
97. these, by a kind of, as it were, audit and method, review
98. the woodcutter’s work, and in series survey everything,
99. and receive by number, nor are they even deceived in the very act
100. of rendering the charcoal to the father, lest even the father to them
101.

Plus pendat quam sint meriti: dein quisque patentem
102. Vestigat sedem, prorsumque humore carentem,
103. Nam bene non coquitur carbo tellure in aquosa,
104.

lest it weigh more than they have merited: then each one an open
102. site tracks down, and altogether lacking in moisture,
103. for charcoal is not well cooked in watery earth,
104.

Set fugit in cineres: quo fit sibi summa locorum
105. Eligat ut prudens: sua sicco denique credat
106. Ligna solo, qui deinde pyram lateque patentem
107.

But it turns to ashes: wherefore it comes about that, as prudent, he choose for himself the highest of places,
105. that he at last entrust his wood to dry soil,
106. who then should make a pyre broad and wide-open
107.

Congeriem fruit et patula radice rotundam,
108. Culmine pyramidi similem, mox fronde uirenti
109. Faginea quernaque tegit, cineresque nigranteis
110.

He piles the congeries, rotund with a patulous base,
108. similar in its summit to a pyramid, soon he covers with green frondage
109. of beech and oak, and the blackening cinders
110.

Et pingues spargit, nec tum obruta ligna patescunt,
111. Atque ubi tempus adest quo uult immittere flammam,
112. Rima latet subtus certa atque angusta, subestque
113.

And he scatters rich sods, nor then do the buried logs lie open,
111. And when the time is at hand at which he wishes to send in the flame,
112. A fissure lies hidden beneath, sure and narrow, and there is beneath
113.

Hac iter in medium struis, atque hac mittitur ignis.
114. Mox iterum rima haec folijs terraque tenaci
115.

By this you make a path into the middle, and by this the fire is sent in.
114. Soon again this crack with leaves and with tenacious earth
115.

Vndique stypatur, uento uia nulla, nec aurae
116. Linquitur, ipse intus frustra permurmurat ignis
117. Aera disquirens, magnoque fragore minatur.

On every side it is packed tight; no path for wind, nor for breezes
116. is left; within, the fire itself murmurs in vain,
117. searching for air, and it threatens with a great crash.

118. Hinc simul erumpunt tanta caligine fumi,
119. Tam graue spirantes, quam qui de faucibus Orci:
120.

118. From here at once fumes burst forth with so caliginous a gloom,
119. exhaling as heavy as those from the jaws of Orcus:
120.

Aut illi, quos (ut fama est) perterritus olim
121. Misit in Alciden Cacus Vulcania proles,
122. Raptor Auentino iamiam moriturus in antro.

Or those whom (as the report goes) long ago, panic-stricken,
121. Cacus, the Vulcanian progeny, sent against Alcides,
122. the robber, on the Aventine, even now about to die in his cave.

123. Huic operi septem sols totidemque necesse est
124. Imperidat noctes uigilans, imbresque futuros
125.

123. For this work it is necessary to spend seven suns and just as many
124. nights in vigilance, and to watch for the coming rains
125.

Praecauerat, flatusque Austri coelique figuram
126. Obseruet Pliadasque nihil pigra plaustra Bootis
127. Hunc fallunt, nihil hunc fallit nimbosus Orion:
128.

He had taken precautions against the blasts of Auster and the figure of the sky;
126. let him observe the Pleiades, and by no means be heedless of the sluggish wains of Boötes;
127. these deceive him; stormy Orion deceives him not at all:
128.

Instabilem Lunae faciem percallet ad unguem.
129. Interea coquitur carbo, ipse subinde quiescit
130.

He masters to the nail the unstable face of the Moon.
129. Meanwhile the charcoal is baked, he himself now and then rests
130.

Carbonarius: hunc coniunx ubi Martius ales
131. Praecinuit lucem, uisit, soletur ut aegrum,
132. Alliaque et cepas adfert oleumque, salemque,
133.

Charcoal-burner: him his spouse, when the Martial bird
131. has pre-sung the light, visits, to solace him as one sick,
132. and brings garlics and onions and oil, and salt,
133.

Atque cadum uilli plenum, pinguemque suillam:
134. Haec etiam noctes aliquot plerunque marito
135. Cum fesso uigilat, nec pernoctare grauatur
136.

And a jar full of cheap wine, and rich pork:
134. She also for several nights, for the most part, with her husband
135. keeps vigil with the weary man, nor does she begrudge staying up all night
136.

Vna, pulmentumque coquens, renouansque cubile,
137. Euerrensque casam, hanc humilem sibi strauerat ante:
138. Hanc habitat laetus, laeta cum coniuge, ibique
139.

Together, cooking pottage and renewing the bed,
137. And sweeping out the cottage, he had previously furnished this humble home for himself:
138. He inhabits this, happy, with his happy wife, and there
139.

Coenitat, à coena fabellas audit, et utrem
140. Inflat, praerudibusque modos integrat agresteis
141. Articulis: stupefactarum tum densa ferarum
142.

He sups, after supper he listens to little fables, and the wineskin
140. he inflates, and he composes rustic modes
141. with very rough joints: then a dense host of astonished wild beasts
142.

Agmina conueniunt, hominemque audire canentem
143. Syluestrem Musam (dictu mirabile) gaudent:
144. Capreoli, ceruique leues, damaeque fugaces,
145.

Bands assemble, and to hear a man singing
143. they rejoice at the Sylvan Muse (marvelous to say):
144. roe-deer, and light stags, and fleet fallow-deer,
145.

Raptoresque lupi, uillisque horrentibus ursi,
146. Et uulpes, curuisque timendi dentibus apri,
147. Arrectis omnes mirabundae auribus astant,
148.

And rapacious wolves, and bears with bristling shag,
146. And foxes, and boars to be feared for their curved tusks,
147. All stand by, marveling, with ears pricked,
148.

concordesque ferae, et cantu fera pectora mulcent:
149. Non secus ac lenissetigres Rhodopeius Orpheus
150. Amphion ue sono blandae testudinis olim
151.

and the beasts are in concord, and with song they soothe wild hearts:
149. Not otherwise than the Rhodopeian Orpheus would have softened tigers
150. or Amphion with the sound of the charming tortoise-shell lyre once
151.

Dicitur, et lapides duxisse in moenia duros.
152. Quin etiam nigris cum pallet nubibus aer,
153.

It is said that he even led hard stones into the walls.
152. Nay even when the air grows pale with black clouds,
153.

Cum tenebris media obscuris in nocte perhorret
154. Telluris facies, tunc exaudire luporum
155. Caecorum rabiem solet, et diros ululatus:
156.

When the face of the earth shudders with dark shadows in the middle of the night,
154. then one is wont to hear the rabid rage of wolves
155. that are blind, and dire ululations:
156.

Deniqud ramatim uolitant lugubre canentes
157. Foeda et lucifugae uolucres, striduntque per umbram.
158.

Finally they flit from branch to branch, singing lugubriously
157. Foul and lucifugal birds, and they screech through the shadow.
158.

Ille nihil motus, comprensa lampade, diuos
159. Inuocat, et sanctum Christi super omnia nomen,
160. Adgrediturque feras: fugiunt, perque inuia lustra
161.

He, unmoved, with the lamp grasped, invokes the gods,
159. and the holy name of Christ above all;
160. and he advances upon the beasts: they flee, and through trackless lairs
161.

Attonite sua tecta petunt, notasque cauernas.
162. Quid memorem fossas et retia, se quibus ille
163.

Thunderstruck they seek their own lairs, and familiar caverns.
162. Why should I recount the ditches and the nets, with which he himself
163.

Cum libet exercet? Ceruus se hic implicat, illhic
164. Incidit in fossam uulpes male uafra, lupusque
165.

When he pleases, he exercises; here a stag entangles itself, there
164. the ill-wily fox falls into a fosse, and the wolf
165.

Pernicies ouium, aeternus pastoribus hostis.
166. Quid modulos auium dicam, quos tempore uerno
167.

Destruction of the sheep, the eternal enemy to shepherds.
166. What shall I say of the modulations of the birds, which in the springtime
167.

Audire est operae pretium: Philomela serenam
168. Flet noctem, ramoque sedens quos forte uiator
169. Astraxit, queritur foetus, et flebile carmen
170.

To hear is worth the effort: Philomela weeps the serene night
168. and, sitting on a branch, she laments the offspring whom by chance a traveler
169. has dragged away, and pours forth a tearful song
170.

Integrat, et moestis implet nemus omne querelis.
171. felix uulgus nimium, sua si bona norit,
172.

She renews it, and fills the whole grove with mournful laments.
171. all too happy the common crowd, if it knew its own goods,
172.

Aerumnasque graues animo tolerauerit aequo.
173. uulgus fucis longe felicius illis
174.

And has borne grave hardships with an equable spirit.
173. the multitude by far happier than those drones
174.

Qui nos compilant, et quos immanis habendi
175. Est amor argenti, quos mundi gloria uexat,
176. Qui carnis desiderium sensumque sequuntur,
177.

Those who plunder us, and those for whom the monstrous love of possessing
175. silver exists, whom the glory of the world vexes,
176. who follow the desire of the flesh and of sense,
177.

Qui spernunt inopes, condemnant uera locutos.
178. gens, o cunctis Erebi dignissima poenis:
179.

Those who spurn the needy, who condemn those who have spoken the truth.
178. people, O most worthy of all the punishments of Erebus:
179.

Quid nostro hoc seclo, quid tempore spurcius isto?
180. Nempe gregem summa debent qui pascere cura,
181.

What in our age, what in this time more filthy?
180. Surely they who ought to pasture the flock with utmost care,

Doctrinaque decet quos praelucere popello,
182. Ii uerum ignorant, uiolant, gaudentque rapinis:
183. Egregie imponunt nobis, animalia uentris,
184.

And doctrine befits those who are to give light to the populace,
182. They, however, are ignorant of the truth, they violate, and they rejoice in rapine:
183. They egregiously impose upon us, animals of the belly,
184.

Et portenta hominum, qui foedo mascula miscent
185. Corpora concubitu, et uetitis complexibus ardent.
186.

And portents of men, who with foul intercourse mix male
185. bodies, and burn with forbidden embraces.
186.

Quis dormire Orcum dubitet? Qui talia monstra
187. Non uoret?

Who would doubt that Orcus sleeps? Who would not such monsters devour?
187. Who would not devour such monsters?

O homines, o fors, o tempora nostra,
188. furor irati et comptenti numinis: o quam
189. Multas tecum animas pessum das foeda meretrix
190.

O men, o Fortune, o our times,
188. the frenzy of an irate and presiding numen: o how
189. Many souls you send to ruin with yourself, foul whore
190.

Purpurea: o infelix seclum, o lachrymabilis aetas
191. Ferrea, uel ferro peior quia durior ipso.
192.

Purple-robed: o unhappy age, o lachrymable age
191. Iron, or worse than iron because harder than it itself.
192.

Quo rapior demens? Quo me furor impulit? Ad rem
193.

Whither am I carried, demented? Whither has fury impelled me? To the matter
193.

Vt redeam, septem interiectis carbo diebus
194. Percoctus trahitur, fumusque ignisque residunt:
195. Tum pyra detegitur rastris, mutata uideres
196.

So, to return, with seven days interposed
194. the charcoal, thoroughly cooked, is drawn out, and the smoke and the fire subside:
195. Then the pyre is uncovered with rakes; you would see it changed
196.

Ligna, ut quae fuerant paulo prius humida et alba,
197. Arida et atra patent, nec sunt tamen igne minuta,
198. Tanta manent, solumque nouum sortita colorem
199.

The logs, which a little earlier had been humid and white,
197. stand open dry and black, nor are they, however, diminished by the fire;
198. they remain just as great, and have only been allotted a new color
199.

Ingegniumque nouum: superest auriga repente
200. Adcurrat, (nam carboni nocet imber) equisque
201. Adiunctis plaustro uectet sub tecta fabrorum.

And an ingenious new device: it remains that a driver suddenly
200. run up, (for rain harms charcoal), and, the horses harnessed,
201. let him convey it by wagon beneath the roofs of the smiths.

202. De carbone satis: Nunc de fossoribus ordo
203. Postulat ut dicam, set quæ puer ipse notaui.

202. Enough about coal: Now the order postulates that I speak of the miners,
203. but what I myself noted as a boy.

204. Ii sunt qui cura multa multoque labore
205. Materiem ferri effodiunt, et uiscera terræ
206.

204. They are those who, with much care and with much labor,
205. excavate the material of iron, and the earth’s viscera.
206.

Ictibus inuadunt crebris, uenasque requirunt
207. Abstrusas, tornoque trahunt et fune sub auras.
208.

They assail with frequent blows, and seek out the veins
207. hidden, and with a windlass and a rope they draw them up into the air.
208.

Quod si forte roges, quanam cognoscitur arte
209. Materiem quæ terra habeat, ferrique fodinam
210. Contineat: norunt pueri, nouÍre bubulci,
211.

But if by chance you ask, by what art it is known
209. what material the earth has, and a mine of iron
210. it contains: boys know it, oxherds know it,
211.

Indicat ipsa soli facies subrufa, nec usquam
212. Tam regio infelix ferrum quæ non ferat ulla est.
213.

The somewhat reddish face of the soil itself indicates it, and nowhere
212. is there any region so ill‑fated as not to bear iron.
213.

At quæ materies solita est excellere, disce.
214. Pondere quæ grauis est, sulumque imitata colorem
215.

But learn what material is wont to excel.
214. That which is heavy in weight, and having imitated the color of the ploughshare
215.

Emicat, haec certa est, haec raro fusa fefellit:
216. Hinc tibi fertilitas ferri promittitur ingens.
217.

It flashes forth; this is certain; this, when smelted, has rarely deceived:
216. From this a vast fertility of iron is promised to you.
217.

Quæ uero leuis est pallensque absumitur igni
218. Persimilis limo, et fornaci congerit atram
219. Colluuiem, missa frustra de follibus aura.

But that which is light and pallid is consumed by the fire
218. very similar to slime, and in the furnace it heaps up black dregs,
219. the air sent from the bellows in vain.

220. Denique materies omnis de more lauanda est,
221. Et quæ crassa nimis, quæque indigesta uidetur
222.

220. Finally all the material must be washed according to custom,
221. both what is too coarse, and what seems undigested
222.

Subijcitur prunis, coquitur, contusa minutim
223. Abluitur lymphis apto currentibus alueo,
224. Hinc ad fornacis radicem et limina fertur.

It is subjected to embers, is cooked, crushed into tiny pieces;
223. it is washed with waters running in a suitable trough,
224. then from here it is carried to the root and thresholds of the furnace.

225. Quadrata est ingens Barsæ prope fluminis undam
226. Infabricata quidem moles, quam nomine dicunt
227.

225. Quadrate and huge, near the wave of the river at Barsa
226. is an unfabricated mass indeed, which by name they call
227.

Fornacem, structa est saxis uulgaribus, intus
228. Sunt silices duri, quibus est mirabile robur
229. Visque resistendi flabris ignique uoraci:
230.

The furnace, inside, is built of common stones,
228. There are hard flints, which have marvelous robustness
229. And a power of resisting blasts and voracious fire:
230.

Hic gemini folles à tergo immania spirant
231. Terga boum, uibrante rota, quam uersat aquarum
232. Impetus adsidue, motantur, flantque uicissim,
233.

Here twin bellows from behind exhale enormous blasts
231. the hides of oxen, by a vibrating wheel which the impetus of the waters
232. assiduously turns, are set in motion, and blow by turns,
233.

Et flant, et reflant, alternis motibus æqui.
234. Adcubat hÓc Fusor, sic illum nomine dicunt,
235.

And they blow, and blow back, equal in alternating motions.
234. Beside this the Founder lies; thus they call him by name,
235.

Excipit hic solers massam, quod fusile ferrum
236. Dicitur, atque regit uentos, lituisque prehensis
237. Ferreis emungit squamas, et perdomat ignes:
238.

Here the skillful one takes up the mass, which is called fusile iron,
236. and he directs the winds, and with iron tongs in hand
237. he presses out the scales, and he subdues the fires:
238.

Seligit impurum puro, noctesque diesque
239. Peruigilans, homo durus, et omnia ferre paratus:
240. Hunc uix sesquihoram toto dormire bimestri
241.

He selects the impure from the pure, nights and days
239. ever-vigilant, a hard man, and prepared to bear everything:
240. this man scarcely sleeps an hour and a half in the whole two-month span
241.

Continuum esse nefas perhibent, quo tempore fornax
242. Visceribus manet integris, follesque supersunt
243. Fortes, qui fessis succurrant fratribus, et qui
244.

They aver that it is a continuous impiety, at the time when the furnace
242. remains with its entrails intact, and the bellows are still present
243. strong, which may come to the aid of their weary brothers, and who
244.

Fornacem renouent, atque ignis ut acrior instet:
245. Hic riuis fluitat ferrum, sæuoque boatu
246. Stricturas uomit, et piceo cum turbine flammas,
247.

They renovate the furnace, and so that the fire may urge more keenly:
245. Here iron flows in rivulets, and with savage bellowing
246. it vomits forth forgings, and flames with a pitch-black whirlwind,
247.

Ingenteisque globos, quos lambere sydera credas:
248. Haud aliter quàm sulphureis ardoribus Aetna
249. Cum fessum latus incassum sub pondere tanto
250.

and enormous globes, which you would think lick the stars:
248. Not otherwise than with sulphurous ardors Etna
249. when her weary flank, in vain, under so great a weight
250.

Nititur Enceladus motare, atque impos anhelat,
251. Fit tonitru, exuperant flammæ, circunfremit æquor.
252.

Enceladus strives to move, and, powerless, he gasps,
251. There is thunder; the flames overtop, the sea roars around.
252.

Carbonem interea qui materiemque ministret
253. Fornaci, simul ac uasto decreuit hiatu,
254. Fusori comes est, is in ipso culmine custos
255.

Meanwhile, he who ministers coal and material to the furnace
253. as soon as the vast yawning has abated,
254. is the caster’s companion; he is the custodian upon the very summit.
255.

Vir stabulat uigilax, uultuque habituque Charonti
256. Persimilis, qui cum artifices qui plurima fingunt
257. Vasa luto primum tornatim: denique formis
258.

A vigilant man stands at his post, and in countenance and in garb to Charon—
256. very similar, when the artificers who fashion very many vessels from clay
257. first by turning on the wheel: finally by forms
258.

Infundunt ferrum: quin et (mirabile uisu)
259. Bombardas conflant, ita enim monstra illa uocantur,
260. Dæmonis inuentum stygij, furor iraque diušm.
261.

They pour in iron; nay even (marvelous to behold)
259. they cast bombards, for thus those monsters are called,
260. an invention of a Stygian demon, the fury and ire of the gods.
261.

Mulciber his primos dum Teuthonas instruit armis:
262. Atque pilas, quibus et muri quatiuntur, et urbes
263. Aequantur turresque solo, robusta teruntur
264.

While Mulciber with these equips the Teutons first with arms:
262. And also the shot, by which even walls are shaken, and cities
263. and towers are leveled to the ground, the sturdy are worn down
264.

Corpora, flammiferi nimirum fulminis instar
265. Hæc tormenta uolant, referuntque tonitrua bombo.
266.

Bodies, indeed in the likeness of flame‑bearing lightning,
265. these artillery pieces fly, and they echo thunders with a boom.
266.

Exin massa recens quæ de fornace petita est,
267. Germanum ferrum nondum meret illa uocari:
268. Est igitur qui mox recoquat, uastaque secundo
269.

Then the fresh mass which has been drawn from the furnace,
267. does not yet merit to be called genuine iron:
268. therefore there is one who soon re-smelts it, and with a second
269.

Fornace emendet, faciatque plicatile ferrum
270. Congestum in globulos: succedunt protinus acres
271. Ipsum qui extenuent poliantque his ferreus ille
272.

He refines it in the furnace, and makes foldable iron
270. massed into little globules: straightway the keen ones succeed,
271. who attenuate and polish it itself; by these that iron
272.

Malleus est ingens, quem maxima tollit aquæ uis.
273. Calfaciunt iterum impigri, uersantque per ignes
274.

The hammer is enormous, which the very great force of water lifts.
273. The industrious heat it again, and they turn it through the fires
274.

Forcipibus duris ferrum, candensque paratis
275. Immergunt lymphis: Chalybes imitantur, apud quos
276. Bilbilis est amnis, qui ferrum temperat, et qui
277.

With hard tongs the iron, and the glowing mass,
275. they immerse in prepared waters: they imitate the Chalybes, among whom
276. Bilbilis is a river, which tempers iron, and which
277.

Ductilius reddit, fabricandisque ensibus aptum.
278. Perdomitum flammis rapiunt, portantque sub ictus
279.

They render it more ductile, and fit for the fabrication of swords.
278. They snatch it, thoroughly tamed by the flames, and carry it under blows
279.

Terrificos, quibus et regio strepit omnis, et aether,
280. Et montes circum, et late nemora alta resultant.
281.

Terrifying, beneath which both the whole region clatters, and the upper air,
280. and the mountains around, and far and wide the lofty groves re-echo.
281.

Mirifice hic massam extendi, ducique uideres
282. In tenues longasque trabes, ceram esse putares.
283.

Marvelously here you would see the mass extended and drawn out
282. Into thin and long beams, you would think it to be wax.
283.

Egregie uero contusum et rite politum
284. Officium patris est æqua perpendere lance
285. Exacta hebdomade.

Excellently indeed hammered and duly polished
284. It is the father's office to weigh with an equal balance
285. when the week has been completed.

Adcurrunt lignator et unà
286. Carbonarius, et fossor, fusorque fabrique:
287. Conueniunt hilares omnes, ut certa laborum
288.

They run up, the woodcutter, and together
286. the charcoal-burner, and the digger, and the founder and the smith:
287. all meet cheerful, so that the definite allotments of the labors
288.

Præmia percipiant, contenti à patre recedunt.
289. Is ne quem imprudens fraudet mercedis honore,
290.

Let them receive the rewards; content, they withdraw from the father.
289. He, lest, unwitting, he defraud anyone of the honor of his wage,
290.

Scripta habet in libro rationum cuncta suorum
291. Nomina, se falli non uult, nec fallere quenquam:
292. Sic habet in promptu quod quisque labore meretur
293.

He has written in the book of accounts all the names of his people
291. he does not wish to be deceived, nor to deceive anyone:
292. thus he has at hand what each one merits by labor
293.

Vt digitos unguesque suos: glomerantur in unum
294. Mox illi aere graues, exhaustaque membra labore
295. Solantur dapibus, ludo uinoque calescunt:
296.

As his own fingers and nails: they are agglomerated into one
294. Soon they, heavy with bronze (money), their limbs exhausted by labor
295. solace themselves with banquets, and grow warm with play and wine:
296.

Præbibit hic socio rodenti turpiter ossa,
297. Ille iacet somno pressus, uinoque sepultus,
298. Mixta uomens misero ac eructans allia Baccho:
299.

This one shamefully drinks beforehand, his comrade gnawing bones,
297. That one lies pressed by sleep, and buried in wine,
298. Vomiting and belching garlic mixed with wretched Bacchus:
299.

Implentur clamore aedes, confusa profecto
300. Colluuio, simul hic omnes uario ore loquuntur:
301. Hic cernas Lapithas, pateras cursare, manusque,
302.

The halls are filled with clamor, a truly confused colluvion
300. at once here all speak with varied mouths:
301. Here you might see Lapiths, pateras racing about, and hands,
302.

Subuerti mensas, effundi saepe cruorem:
303. Sic post uina solet saeuire ignobile uulgus:
304. Ac ita fit tendem, ut quod uel sudoribus illi
305.

To overturn the tables, to have blood often poured out:
303. Thus after wine the ignoble mob is wont to rage:
304. And so at length it comes about, that what even with their sweats they
305.

Nocturnis peperere sibi, peperere diurnis,
306. Hauriat una dies, et multa sequatur egestas.
307.

By nocturnal labors they have procured for themselves, they have procured by diurnal labors,
306. Let one day drain it, and much indigence follow.
307.

Quid mirum? Procerum uitam moresque sequuntur,
308. Sopitis etenim sic grex pastoribus errat.

What wonder? They follow the life and mores of the nobles,
308. for indeed, with the shepherds lulled to sleep, thus the flock errs.

309. Ne tamen hic peccem, sopitos dicere nolim
310. Esse istos uentres, nam quid uigilantius illis
311.

309. Lest I sin here, I would not wish to say
310. that those bellies are asleep; for what is more vigilant than they?
311.

Redditu in augendo, defendendisque suarum
312. Rerum imposturis? Inculcandisque popello
313.

With revenue in augmenting, and in defending the impostures of their own affairs
312. the impostures of their affairs? And in inculcating these upon the little people
313.

Deliramentis hominum, tricisque dolisque?
314. me imprudentem nimium, cur talia dico?

With the deliraments of men, and with tricks and deceits?
314. me, too imprudent, why do I say such things?

315. Inconsultus homo temere molitur, et audet
316. Omnia, prudentem facti non poenitet unquam:
317.

315. The unadvised man rashly undertakes, and dares
316. Everything; the prudent man never repents of the deed:
317.

Horrida nil timeo metuendae fulmina Lernae,
318. Nil metuo longas graueolentis carceris umbras,
319. Nil metuo flammam, qualem nec Mulciber unquam
320.

I fear nothing, the horrid thunderbolts of dread Lerna,
318. I fear nothing, not the long shadows of the malodorous prison,
319. I fear nothing, not the flame, such as not even Mulciber ever
320.

Viderit: o miserum atque infaucto sydere natum
321. Borbonium, o miserum puerum, quid uera profarsi?
322.

Let him see to it: o wretched, and born under an inauspicious star,
321. Bourbon, o wretched boy, what did it avail to have proclaimed truths?
322.

Cur non dissimulas? Cur tam libera lingua est?
323.

Why do you not dissimulate? Why is your tongue so free?
323.

Cur non conniues? Cur non blandiris ubique?
324.

Why do you not connive? Why do you not flatter everywhere?
324.

Cur non das operam lucrando stulte fauori
325. Istorum procerum? Cur non te respicis ipsum?

Why do you not apply yourself to winning, foolishly, the favor
325. of those princes? Why do you not look to your very self?

326. Cur non Hippocrati, cur non das legibus amens
327. Humanis operam, utpossis euadere diues?

326. Why do you not devote effort to Hippocrates; why do you not, mindless, devote effort to human laws,
327. so that you may be able to emerge rich?

328. Viuere securus, preciosa ueste nitere?
329.

328. To live secure, to shine in precious vesture?
329.

me infelicem puerum, quem nulla cupido
330. Vexat opum, quem nullus amor sceleratus habendi
331. Sollicitat: satis est Virtus, satis unica Virtus:
332.

me, an unhappy boy, whom no desire
330. of riches vexes, whom no wicked love of possessing
331. solicits: Virtue is enough, Virtue alone is enough:
332.

Vna satis Virtus, et mens sibi conscia recti:
333. Praeterit ut uentus mundi illectantis imago,
334. Transuersosque agit, et secie deludit inani.

One Virtue suffices, and a mind conscious of its own rectitude:
333. the image of the enticing world passes by like the wind,
334. and drives those turned aside, and deludes with empty show.

335. Hactenus est perstricta breui Ferraria tractu:
336. Multa ego de ferro prudens miranda reliqui,
337.

335. Thus far the ironworks has been sketched in a brief tract:
336. Many marvelous things about iron I, being prudent, have left aside,
337.

Plurima subticui, quae prouectum ipsa poetam
338. Poscere sunt mihi uisa, et sesquipedalem uolumen:
339. Quod lusi pueris lusi, meliora supersunt
340.

Very many things I kept silent, which the thing itself the poet advanced —
338. seemed to me to require, and a sesquipedalian volume:
339. What I played for boys I have played; better things remain
340.

Quae premimus, nec (spero) bonis ingrata futura.
341. Interea sciolique susurronesque nefandi,
342.

What we suppress, and not (I hope) going to be unpleasing to the good.
341. Meanwhile the sciolists and nefarious whisperers,
342.

Qui cum nil praestare queant, aliena reprendunt,
343. Arcadica peduces, et pondus inutile terrae,
344. Rumpantur, patremque suum te Zoile uisant.

Who, since they can perform nothing, reprehend others’ things,
343. Arcadian cattle, and a useless weight of the earth,
344. let them burst, and let them visit their father—you, Zoilus.

345. Vos igitur pueri per summum obsecro tonantem,
346. (Qui natum in terras coelo demisit ab alto,
347.

345. Therefore you, boys, I beseech by the supreme Thunderer,
346. (who sent his son down to the earth from high heaven,
347.

ut nos mortifera primorum labe parentum
348. Ablueret foedos. Et libertate bearet:
349.

that from the mortiferous stain of our first parents
348. he might wash us, foul as we were, and enrich with liberty:
349.

Vtque suo nostras animas à faucibus Orci
350. Sanguine seruaret moriens, coeloque locaret,
351. Et faceret reges, fidei per nobile donum.)
352.

And that with his own blood, dying, he might preserve our souls from the jaws of Orcus,
350. and place them in heaven,
351. and make us kings, through the noble gift of faith.)
352.

Vos (inquam) o pueri ueniam date, parcite uestro
353. BORBONIO, paruumque boni et puerile poema
354. Consulite, haec fuerint nostrae praeludia Musae.

You (I say), O boys, grant pardon, spare your
353. BORBONIO, and the little and puerile poem of a good man
354. Consider, let these be the preludes of our Muse.