Landor: Simonidea, 1806

Si prolixior quam par est videatur praefatio, paucis habe, lector, rationem. Brevissimo quidem operi insisto, me contra detrectatores meos, parum cognitos, defensurus. Nulla enim aetas aut magis superbum aut minus arrogantem tulit.

If the preface seems more prolix than is fitting, have, reader, the reason in a few words. Indeed I set myself to a very brief work, about to defend myself against my detractors, scantily known. For no age has produced one either more proud or less unarrogant.

Est in Gebiro meo quod dolet pudetque scripsisse: in altera editione scriptum celare aut praetermittere dedignabar. De laudibus Bonapartis loquor. Quis autem, ut illustribus exemplis utar, Ciceroni vitio vertendum cenceat, quo auctore tuam equestrem, eamque in rostris deauratam, Senatus, ut nemini antea, Marco Lepido, poni decreverit; cum eiusdem postmodo scelus amentiamque vir ille prudentissimus ac civis optimus S C compresserit.

There is in my Gebir something that it pains and shames me to have written:
in another edition I disdained to conceal or to omit what had been written.
I speak of the praises of Bonaparte. But who, that I may use illustrious examples,
would deem it to be imputed to Cicero as a fault, by whose advocacy the Senate decreed
that your equestrian statue, and that gilded and on the Rostra, be set up to Marcus Lepidus,
as to no one before; although that most prudent man and best citizen afterward crushed
that same man’s crime and madness by a senatorial decree (S.C.).

Iuvenem virtute bellica praeclarum iuvenis laudavi; mendacem, sicarium veneficum, eo tempore pauci comperuerant: nobis haudquaquam notum aut etiam suspectum erat. Has laudes postea vellicabant, quibus non ita Bonapartis essent quam nostrae graves. Si quem etiam horum minorum aliquid offendit, iam ista deseruerit; iam aetas omnia, iam dies mitigarit.

I, as a young man, praised a youth illustrious in martial virtue; that he was a liar, an assassin, a poisoner, at that time few had discovered: to us it was by no means known or even suspected. These praises were later carped at by people to whom they were not so grievous to Bonaparte as burdensome to us. If anything even of these lesser matters offends anyone, by now he will have abandoned such things; by now age has softened all things; by now the day has mitigated them.

Cic. pro Cael. Fortes bonosque comprobavi; insolentes, invidos, imperiosos, odi atque execror constantissime. Eosdem paene crederem Gallos esse, de quibus Plinius, Nec aliter concitantur, ait, quam Phrygii solent, tibicinis sono, semiviri, et ex imperio furentes. Impietas erga deos in patriam celerrime descendit: in deos nulla solos est.

Cic., Pro Caelio. I have approved the brave and the good; the insolent, the envious, the imperious, I hate and execrate most consistently. I could almost believe them to be Gauls, about whom Pliny says, They are not stirred up otherwise than as the Phrygians are wont, by the sound of the piper, half-men, and raging under command. Impiety toward the gods descends most swiftly into impiety against the fatherland: toward the gods it is never solitary.

Vos autem qui satellites mavultis esse quam milites, subdit quam cives, rude donati, cruce digni, in pristinam servitutem, quo ingenium indolesque devocarunt, collapsi iaceatis.
Mirentur qui me norunt condiscipuli, cur Jamesium, tantopere laudaverim: qui ignorant, cur Caninium tetigerim. Primum ad hunc me verto.

But you, who prefer to be satellites rather than soldiers, subjects rather than citizens, dismissed with the rudis, worthy of the cross, may you lie prostrate in your former servitude, whither your disposition and natural character have called you down.
Let the classmates who know me marvel why I have so greatly praised Jamesius; those who are ignorant, why I have touched upon Caninius. First I turn to this man.

Satiricos obscurae atque infimae sortis, in optimos viros et in poetas praestantissimos, ridiculis laudibus subdolus incitabat; inter alios nebulonem nescio quem, Iuvenalis sordibus postmodo obvolutum, et multos annos obeso nare ibidem delitescentem. Huius et similium ea nequaquam merita sunt, ut ipsorum a me nomina, si forte pervenerint, conserventur victum quaerentium partim quotidianis morsibus, partim menstruis soporandos equidem noram, neque offam tamen obieci. Nunc ad Jamesium.

He, sly, was inciting satirists of obscure and lowest lot against the best men and the most outstanding poets with ridiculous praises; among others some ne’er-do-well I-know-not-who, afterward wrapped in Juvenal’s sordidness, and for many years skulking there in the same place with a fat nose. The deserts of this man and of his likes are by no means such that their names, if perchance they have come to me, should be preserved by me: men seeking a living to be lulled to sleep partly by daily morsels, partly by monthly stipends—I for my part knew them so—yet I did not throw a mouthful. Now to Jamesius.

Solus, aetate studiisque provectiorum, neminem flagris eius subieci. Neglegentiorem satellitem maiestas eius aegerrime tulit. Nocte intempesta aliquando excubui, libros terens quos interdiu neglexeram; dies enim saepenumero, venando consumebam, aut fundam iaciendo, aut pugnis agrestibus conserendo manus.

Alone, though of the age and studies of the more advanced, I subjected no one to his scourges.
His Majesty took a more negligent henchman most ill.
In the dead of night I sometimes kept vigil, wearing down the books which I had neglected by day; for I very often consumed the day hunting, or casting the sling, or joining hands in rustic fistfights.

Haec per se ipsa non tam ingrata erant Jamesio miti homini, at qui puerorum audacia, nec non protervitate quadam, mire delectatus esset quam quod leges eius institutaque pili facere videremur. Tum toga correpta, tum frons adducta; tum Clodios nos et Catilinas insecutus est, ultimoque supplicio adfecit. Me schola nec opinantem, neque admonitum dimisit; nihilominus eum Uptonae agentem adii, et dexteram ipse ultro ac bene receptus obtuli.

These things in themselves were not so disagreeable to James, a gentle man—indeed he would have been wondrously delighted by the boldness of boys, and also by a certain petulance— as that we seemed to make his laws and institutes of a hair’s worth. Then the toga was snatched up, then the brow drawn tight; then he pursued us as Clodii and Catilines, and inflicted the ultimate punishment. Me he dismissed from the school, neither expecting it nor warned; nevertheless I approached him while he was residing at Upton, and I myself, unbidden and well received, offered my right hand.

Quid morae nectis, miser heu Britanne!
Quid? fidem speras ubi Gallus hostis?

Why do you weave delays, alas, wretched Briton!
What? Do you hope for faith where the Gaul is an enemy?

Vae reclinantis pudeat! tuorum
Immemor audis?

Woe to the recliner—be ashamed! of your own
Unmindful, do you hear?

Surge; quid cessas? patiare Corsum,
Ut Canopeio cumulata campo
Arma proiecit, rapere insolentem
Pace sub ipsa?

Arise; why do you delay? will you allow the Corsican,
who on the Canopic field has cast down piled arms,
to seize, insolent,
under peace itself?

Forsitan caros nimium penates
Respicis: caros tueamur armis.
Quid licet Romae Fabius morando
Restituit rem:

Perhaps you look back at your dear Penates too much
Let us protect the dear ones with arms.
Granted that at Rome Fabius, by delaying,
Restored the state:

Nonne pugnando potiora gessit
Miles in Gallos, male perduelles:
Nonne rivalem tuus occupavit
Dignior aulam?

Did he not, by fighting, achieve better things
the Soldier against the Gauls, wicked public enemies:
Did not your more worthy one preoccupy
the rival’s court?

Nonne pugnando potiora gessit
Marlburus, campos repetens Batavos;
Nonne, cum lenta sanie fluebat
Turbidus Ister?

Did he not achieve better things by fighting
Marlborough, returning to the Batavian fields;
Did he not, when with sluggish gore there flowed
the turbid Danube?

Quis fuit nescis, ubi vis Iberum
Fracta per Calpes freta tunderetur,
Qui retrectantes laniata membra
Classe recepit?

You know not who he was, when the force was battering the Iberian
straits, broken through at Calpe’s heights, who received back into the
fleet men re‑attempting with lacerated limbs?

Nec minor, iam nunc, domitor tridenti
Fultus est Nelso: quoties sub illo
Horruit vastum pelagus, regente
Fulminis iras!

Nor less, even now, the tamer with the trident
is upheld—Nelson: how often beneath him
the vast sea shuddered, he governing
the thunderbolt’s wrath!

Littori vinctas Phario carinas
Vidit, et ridens Agite o Britanni
Clamat: irrumpunt; superantque malos
Non sua signa.

He saw the ships bound to the Pharian shore,
and, laughing, he cries On, O Britons:
they burst in; and not-their-own standards
surmount the masts.

Nullus invisos tacui tyrannos,
Nullus ultores patriae tacebo:
Improbum damno, celebrarem honestum
Napoleonem.

Never have I kept silent about hated tyrants,
Never will I keep silent about the avengers of the fatherland:
I condemn the wicked man, I would celebrate the honorable
Napoleon.

At suis nunquam sociis venenum
Miscuit Gangi Bromius, neque arcum
In quiescentem Pythius tetendit
Delon Apollo.

But for his own associates never did Bromius of the Ganges mix venom,
nor did the Pythian stretch his bow
against quiescent Delos,
Apollo.

Caucasus portas Libanusque sylvas
Alpium pandit domino irruenti:
Concidunt urbes: Ptolemäïs hosti
Sola resistit.

The Caucasus opens its gates, and Lebanon its forests,
the Alps yield to the onrushing lord:
Cities fall: Ptolemais to the enemy
alone resists.

Erige antiquas Ptolemai turres;
Prima vidisti refugumquid obstat?
I, triumphales agitare currus
Gallia cessas?

Raise the ancient towers of Ptolemais;
You were first to see the refugee—what stands in the way?
Go, drive the triumphal chariots
Gaul, do you delay?

Venit Arctois metuendus armis
Sydnius: pallet labiumque mordet.
Ut nimis noti ferus imperator
Ora tuetur.

He comes with Arctic arms, to be dreaded,
the Sydnian: he grows pale and bites his lip.
As a too-well-known savage commander
he maintains his countenance.

Dum petens pacem nihil arrogares,
Pulcra Libertas lateri accubabat
Martis invicti: fuerasque mundi
Publica cura.

While, seeking peace, you arrogated nothing,
Fair Liberty reclined at the side of unconquered Mars:
and you had been the world’s public care
Public care.

Tene diruptis iterum catenis
Implicas, tanto madidis cruore
Civium? paucos male feriaris
Verna decembres.

Do you, with the chains burst asunder again,
entangle yourself, so soaked with so much citizens’ blood?
May you ill keep few Decembers,
house-born slave.

En! adest vindex: animosus audit
Turbinem belli procul aestuantis:
Cesset, edicit; properatque surdo
Ponere fines.

Behold! the Vindicator is here: stout of heart he hears
the whirlwind of war seething from afar:
Let it cease, he decrees; and he hastens to the deaf
to set bounds.

Ergo liquisti solium paternum,
Ergo, Alexander, populis colentum
Eximis carum caput, exterorum
Spesque salusque.

Therefore you have left the paternal throne,
Therefore, Alexander, worshipped by peoples,
a head dear to the select, of foreigners
both the hope and the salvation.

Ah diu felix tibi sis et orbi,
Sis tuis constans meritis, nec ultra
Dii velint quenquam: valeas; et arma
Iusta valebunt.

Ah, may you be long happy for yourself and for the world,
May you be constant in your own merits, nor beyond
may the gods wish anyone: be strong; and arms
Just will prevail.

Vale o magister, o Jamesi, ave et vale.
Tu dum vocabas saepe plorabam putus,
Versans, minatum ubi maxime est periculum,
Inefficaces, algidus metu, manus:
Nunc, dum voco ipse, nec refers contra, fleo.
At hostis olim tu mihi atque ego tibi!

Farewell, O magister, O James, hail and farewell.
While you kept calling, I, a boy, often wept,
Wringing, where the peril is most threatening,
my ineffectual hands, cold with fear:
Now, while I myself call, and you do not answer back, I weep.
Yet once an enemy you to me, and I to you!

Qui meque teque iam videntes crederent?
Heu, cur reductis abnuebas naribus,
Cui primum amicus ingenuusque omnis puer.
Et cui secundum ipse aemulus dabat locum?

Who, seeing now both me and you, would believe?
Alas, why were you refusing with upturned nostrils,
he to whom every boy, friendly and freeborn, was first a friend.
And to whom did even the rival himself yield second place?

Sed hanc habebis, hanc habebo, gratiam,
Cum carmine istorum excidas, vives meo.
Nam nec severus semper aut supercili
Tristis, nec inficetus aut expers salis,
Sed comis, indulgensque vel nostro ioco
Eras, solutis iam scholar compagibus.
Te nec vetustas arbores securibus
Ferire turpis ardor impulit lueri
Ut triobolarium istumat aufer in crucem.

But this favor you will have, this I will have,
when you fall out of those men’s song, you will live by mine.
For you were not always severe or grim in the brow,
nor unfacetious or devoid of salt,
but affable, and indulgent even to our joke,
you were, with the school-fastenings now loosened.
Nor did a shameful ardor for lucre impel you to strike
ancient trees with axes,
“away with that three‑obol fellow to the cross.”

Ulmos amatas videos, quarum murmure
Obrepsit olim dulcis ignavo quies;
Video revulsa brachia, nudum verticem!
Nec novit aut curavit iste furcifer
Sub iisdem ut olim iacuit, heu flendum diu
Palmaque vinciendum, Abercrombis caput.
Nunc segregate ab infimo mortalium,
Solute curis et solute coniuge,
Felicitatis atque gloriae satur,
Vale, Jamesi!

You see the beloved elms, at whose murmur
once a sweet repose crept upon the idle one;
I see the torn-off branches, the bare crown!
Nor did that gallows-bird know or care
that beneath these same, as once there lay—alas, to be wept for long and to be bound with the palm—
the head of the Abercrombies.
Now, separated from the lowest of mortals,
released from cares and released from spouse,
sated with felicity and glory,
farewell, James!

tuque, Rugbiensium
Fortis priorum contubernalis, vale.

and you too, of the Rugbeians
Brave comrade of the foremost, farewell.

Ipslia! cuius amat condi philomela rubetis,
Inferiusque videt perrepere purpureum ver,
Et zephyri placido canescere gramina pulsu;
Quae nitidis aestate sedes circumdata rivis,
Cui studet usque placere novis tinnitibus Arro
Dum veteres rapidis ambagibus alluit alnos;
Ipslia, quid me cara vocas? ah mitte vocare,
Neu digito patrios porrecto ostende penates.

Ipslia! whose nightingale loves to nest in the brambles,
and lower down sees the purple spring creep along,
and the grasses to whiten at the gentle pulse of the Zephyr;
a summer seat surrounded by shining rills,
to which Arro ever strives to give pleasure with new tinkles,
while with rapid meanderings he bathes the ancient alders;
Ipslia, why do you call me, dear? ah, cease to call,
nor with outstretched finger point out the ancestral Penates.

Si mihi sunt Thermae, si musa quiesque, voluptas,
Haud loca sola placent, aut dura fronte puellae,
Aut quaecunque velit vincla iniecisse marito:
Aeternam invigilans haud spero* pascere flammam,
Sed vacuum volucri declino pectus Amori.
Currite perpetui, vocat Ipslia, currite rivi.
Lumina quin aperi ridentia, purpureum ver!

If I have the Baths, the Muse and repose, pleasure,
Not the places alone please me, nor girls with a hard brow,
Nor whatever bonds she may wish to have cast upon a husband:
Keeping vigil, I do not hope* to feed an eternal flame,
But I incline a vacant breast to winged Love.
Run, perpetual, Ipslia calls, run, streams.
Why not open your laughing eyes, O purple spring!

Nec vocet incassum per pascua, mille susurris,
Mille repercutiens ripas tinnitibus Arro.
Tu quoque nocturno mulcens modulamine sylvas,
Funde melos solitum; solito potiare rubeto,
Ni, zephyri placido dum canent gramina pulsu,
Desuper aerio tremefies imbre rosarum:
Me, philomela precor! precor Ipslia, mitte vocare.

Nor let Arro call in vain across the pastures with a thousand susurrations,
Arro a thousand times repercussing the banks with tinklings.
You too, soothing the woods with nocturnal modulation,
pour forth the accustomed melos; possess the accustomed bramble-thicket,
unless, while the grasses sing to the placid pulse of the zephyrs,
from above you will tremble with an aerial shower of roses:
Me, nightingale, I pray! I pray, Ipslia, cease to call.

VIDE PAUSANIAM IN LIB. LACONIC. III.

SEE PAUSANIAS IN THE LACONIAN BOOK 3.

CAP. XX.

CHAPTER 20.

Ut Lacedaemonia decesserit hospes ab urbe,
Qua vada prima viam rumpunt canentibus undis,
Ad ripam Eurotae quondam stetit ara Pudori.
Huc Helena, Aegida raptam, mitissima Lede
Duxit, inauditamque aliis est orsa querelam,
Ut mea nata domum, ut poteras liquisse parentem,
Ut geminos, forma superantes sidera, fratres!
Qualibus alloquiis tetigit tua pectora Theseus?

When the guest had departed from the Lacedaemonian city,
where the first shallows break a way with singing waves,
by the bank of the Eurotas once stood an altar to Modesty.
Hither most gentle Leda led Helen, snatched by the Aegid,
and she began a complaint unheard by others,
How, my daughter, how could you have left your home,
how your parent, how your twin brothers, surpassing the stars in beauty!
With what speeches did Theseus touch your breast?

Nam certe neque blandus erat neque castus amator,
Aut iuvenis: memini, cum me decepit adulter,
Mistus olorina quam suevi pascere turba,
Risit atrox animi, pueroque procacia* crevit
Aspiceret quoties demisso lumine vultum.
Quem quando increpui, simulanti voce dolorem
Mussaret, miseret perpessae tristia Ledae.
Ah pudet, et vidi luctantem saepe palaestra,
Sed procul; exsereret veluti rostrata labella,
Subitilemve cava sufflaret arundine questum,
Aut turpi rapidos agitaret corpore motus.

For certainly he was neither a coaxing nor a chaste lover,
Nor a youth: I remember, when the adulterer deceived me,
Mingled with the swan-like throng which I was wont to pasture,
He laughed, cruel of spirit, and his procacity* grew boyish
Whenever he looked upon the face with downcast light.
When I rebuked him, he, with a voice feigning pain,
Would mutter, pity Leda, who has endured sad things.
Ah, I am ashamed, and I often saw him wrestling in the palaestra,
But from afar; he would thrust out, as it were, his rostrate little lips,
Or would blow a subtle lament on a hollow reed,
Or with his shameful body would agitate rapid motions.

Quid loquor ille malus: sed quo feror? inscia restes.
Ede tuos, locus est aptissimus, ordine casus.

What am I saying—that wicked one? but whither am I borne? may you remain unknowing.
Bring forth your own misfortunes; the place is most apt, in order.

Tunc Helene, neque pauca tamen suspiria duxit,
Prima quidem puduit, doluit postrema referre.
Scis bene quam sit atrox qui possidet aequora Minos,
Et victor miseris quam legem indixit Athenis;
Hanc puer at fugeret, genetrix huc misit alendum.
At Iovis ipse ultro petit incunabula Creten,
Aggrediturque, regens filo vestigia, monstrum:
Filum Ariadna dedit; neqne perfidus ille Ariadnae,
Sed cupiit Helenamfieremque novissima cura
Iuravit, superos toties expertus amicos,
Utque virum qui tot, qui tantas sprevit, haberem,
Marmoreasque domos et odori mellis Hymettum.

Then Helen, yet she drew not a few sighs,
At first indeed she was ashamed, at last she grieved to recount.
You know well how atrocious Minos is who possesses the waters,
And what law, as victor, he imposed upon miserable Athens;
That the boy might escape this, his genitrix sent him hither to be reared.
But he himself of his own accord sought Jove’s cradle, Crete,
And he attacks the monster, directing his steps by the thread:
Ariadne gave the thread; nor was he perfidious to Ariadne,
But he desired that I, Helen, should become his, and swore I would be his latest care,
Having so often found the celestials friendly,—
And that I should have a husband who has spurned so many, so great [dangers],
And marble houses and Hymettus of aromatic honey.

Ah mater, cur plura tibi iam dicere coner?
Omnia sat novit, quae proderet omnia, nutrix.
Nam superimposito cum poplite nuda iacerem
Brachiolo spondae, nec humum pes tangeret alter,
Ut monitu propiore rudes disponeret artus
Venit anus (fusos memini calcasse capillos)
Admovitque manus habiles oculosque sagaces,
Inclinata genu, versoque ter expuit ore.

Ah mother, why should I now try to tell you more?
The nurse knows enough—everything; she would reveal everything.
For when, a knee set upon me, I lay naked,
my little arm on the bed-rail, and my other foot not touching the ground,
so that by nearer monition he might arrange my untrained limbs,
the old woman came (I remember she had trodden my loosened hair),
and she brought up adept hands and sagacious eyes,
bent on her knee, and, turning her face, spat three times.

Tum se proripuit, mirantique ardua vultu
Clamavit, duplices tendens ad sidera palmas,
Jupiter! ipse tuam servasti crimine prolem.
Scilicet ille neci monstrum dedit, ille reliquit
Virgineam solae praedam** sub litore Diae;
Credo equidem: poteratne quid ultra?

Then she sprang forth, and to the astonished one, with lofty countenance,
she cried, stretching both palms toward the stars:
Jupiter! you yourself have saved your progeny by a crime.
Of course it was he who gave the monster to death; it was he who left
a virgin prey, alone, beneath the shore of Dia;
I for my part believe it: could he do anything further beyond this?

degener aetas,
Quae nihil Alciden et Thesea praeter honorat!
Ignara temnentis anus repetita puella
Talia gavisae mulcebant pectora Ledae,
Et dulces lacrymae, veluti gravidissima nubes
Fronte levaretur, tacitis ab utrisque cadebant.
Tum genetrix: Haec fausta tibi, iam cetera narres;
Nec poteris meliore loco: vix ipsa redibas
Cum sibi Penelopen casta face iunxit Ulysses:
At pater Icarius, licet ipse probasset amores,
Ipse suum generum peregrina sede vocasset,
Quamvis ante alios prudens Laertius heros,
Assuetusque foret bellique marisque periclis,
Sensit quam durum est dilecta prole relinqui.

degenerate age,
which honors nothing besides Alcides and Theseus!
Unaware of the scorner, the old woman, and the girl asked again,
such things were soothing the heart of rejoicing Leda,
and sweet tears, as if a most gravid cloud
were being relieved at the brow, were falling silently from both.
Then the mother: May these things be auspicious for you; now tell the rest;
nor could you be in a better place: you yourself had scarcely returned
when Ulysses joined Penelope to himself with the chaste torch:
but father Icarius, although he himself had approved the loves,
he himself would have summoned his son-in-law to a foreign seat,
although beyond others prudent, the Laertian hero,
and though he was accustomed to the perils of war and sea,
felt how hard it is to be left by a beloved offspring.

Aequaevis sociis quando conviva vacavit,
Praeteritaeque una noctem annexere iuventae,
Floribus atque hedera, quae fallax tendit Iacchus,
Tum bene erat, madidumque senem sopor aureus urguit.
Ast ubi mane videt fluidas marcere corollas,
Ad thalamos, ut equum tremefacta hinnitibus aula
Personat, ut currunt ultro citroque ministri,
Tunc stupet: huic caecus dolor et quasi ferreus obdit
Tempora, singultant aures et genua labascunt.
Ut miser Icarius fuit, ut crudelis Ulysses,
Mater ! ait Helene, cui Lede fronte severa,
Mente benigna fuit Crudelior una, maritum
Quae velit ignotum, ignaros fugitura parentes;
Et miseranda magis, cui talis filia, mater.

When, with coeval comrades, as a convive he found leisure,
and together they annexed the night to their bygone youth,
with flowers and with ivy, which deceitful Iacchus stretches,
then all was well, and golden sleep pressed the drenched old man.
But when in the morning he sees the fluid garlands drooping,
to the bridal chambers—how the hall, made to tremble by the whinnies of the horse,
resounds, how the ministers run to and fro—
then he is stunned: blind pain, as if iron, shuts in his temples,
his ears sob and his knees give way. How wretched Icarius was, how cruel Ulysses,
“Mother!” says Helene, to whom Lede, with a stern brow,
was with a kindly mind; more cruel in one respect—she who would wish an unknown husband,
being about to flee parents unknowing;
and more to be pitied, the mother to whom there is such a daughter.

Sic queritur, causasque fugae rogat: illa roganti
Vertere propositum cupit, atque ediscere fata
Penelopes; di dent genitori restet in urbe.
Ancipiti voto subridens candida Lede
Palpat utramque genam digito, mulcetque pudorem,
Educitque sinu, lapsanti pollice, mentum.
Mox Helene, tibi mater, ait, verissima dicam
Omnia; nam video te non insana rogare
Quae mulier: genitam nisi crederet esse leaena
Delirans toties rogitaverit anne momordi?

Thus she laments, and asks the causes of the flight: she, to the one asking,
desires to turn her plan, and to learn thoroughly the fates
of Penelope; may the gods grant that father remain in the city.
Smiling at the ambivalent prayer, fair Leda
pals each cheek with a finger, and soothes her modesty,
and draws out the chin from her bosom with her thumb as it slips.
Soon: “Helene, to you mother,” she says, “I will tell most truthful
all things; for I see you are not insane to ask
what a woman would ask: unless she believed her daughter to have been begotten by a lioness,
raving, would she so often have asked whether I had bitten?”

Anne remorsurae pudor irruit? attamen egi
Lentius, et verso dimisi protenus ore?
Plurima tum data signa oculis, data plurima nutu,
Sensus enim verbis et verba carentia sensu.

Or did the shame of one about to feel remorse rush upon me? nevertheless did I act more slowly, and, with my face turned, did I straightway let go?
Then many signals were given with the eyes, very many given with a nod,
for sense by words, and words lacking sense.

Ista Clytemnestrae vix obiicienda sorori!
Scis alios didicisse Helenam, dulcissima, mores
Et cum laesa forem; nec morsu aut ungue petisse,
Sed tantum tremuisse: velut, resonantia plectro,
Quando fila lyrae quatiunt simul omnia, lymphae.
Audiit, erubuitque premens in cespite malam
Leda novo, metuitque oculos resupina loquenti
Tollere, praefregitque tenax inconscia gramen.

Such things are scarcely to be objected to your sister Clytemnestra!
You know, sweetest, that others have learned Helen’s mores,
and that, even when I had been injured, I did not assail with bite or nail,
but only trembled: just as, resonant to the plectrum,
when the strings of the lyre shake, all at once, the waters.
Leda heard, and blushed, pressing her cheek upon the fresh turf,
and, lying back, she feared to raise her eyes to the one speaking,
and, clinging unconsciously, she broke off the grass before her.

Non igitur te laesit, ait. non laedere velle
Iuravit, penitusque suo me corpore texit.
Diique deaeque omnes!

Not, therefore, did he harm you, he said. he swore not to wish to harm,
and completely covered me with his own body.
Ye gods and goddesses all!

clamavit territa Lede,
Quid miseranda refers! at perge, extremaque matri
Pande mala, ingenti finem positura dolori.
Est nemus, haud procul urbe, sed hinc decernere, dixit,
Urbs ipsa exiguique vetant declivia collis;
Lympha via abscindit tantum brumalibus undis,
Nunc fragili ripa muscoque nigrante dehiscit.

terrified Leda cried out,
What are you reporting, poor wretch! but go on, and disclose to your mother the extreme ills,
about to set an end to immense grief.
There is a grove, not far from the city, but to make it out from here, she said,
the city itself and the declivities of a slight hill forbid;
the water cuts off the way only with brumal waves,
now it gapes with a fragile bank and with moss blackening.

Forte locos iunxit strato violentia venti
Robore, quo faciles ramis et cortice passus:
Vidit et exsiliit, duxitque e curribus, heros.
Quid facerent alii? posuit me in gramine, pectus
Saepe premens palmis ut nosceret anne paverem,
Saepe manu subter posita velamina, frigus
Ne nimium, aut humor (namque humida sylva) noceret,
Ne lapis aut longa ne stipes obesset in herba.

By chance the violence of the wind had joined the places with a laid-down trunk,
by which easy steps with branches and bark:
he saw and leapt forth, and the hero led me from the chariots.
What would others have done? he set me on the grass, my breast
often pressing with his palms, to learn whether I were afraid,
often, with his hand placed beneath the coverings, lest cold
too much, or moisture (for the forest was humid) might harm,
lest a stone or a long log might be in the way in the grass.

Mox veluti thyrso tetigit: retulisse puderet
Quali, quove loco: nequicquam lumina flexi,
Dumque nimis cupii, quo surgat et unde, videre,
Qui modo thyrsus erat devenerat ille corymbus,
Exsilit hinc furibundus, adhuc tam mitis, amator ;
Devovet infaustum caput, et primo omnia secum
Colloquitur; tunc me iubet ire, manere precatur,
Et melius fore iuratequos audimus eamus,
Clamat, et in currus rapit, orans cuncta tacere.
Ecce superveniunt fratres! ecce ora lupatis
Intorquentur equis, vibrantur spicula dextris.

Soon, as if with a thyrsus he touched me: I would be ashamed to have related of what sort, and in what place;
I bent my eyes in vain, and while I too eagerly desired to see whither it would rise and whence,
he who just now was a thyrsus had degenerated into a corymbus;
from here the lover—so mild but a moment ago—leaps up raging ;
he curses the ill-omened head, and at first talks everything over with himself;
then he bids me go, he begs me to stay,
and swears it will be better—let us go to those whom we hear,
he shouts, and he snatches me into the chariots, praying that all things be silent.
Behold, the brothers come up! behold, the mouths are wrenched by curb-bits for the horses,
javelins are brandished in right hands.

Siste: pii sceleratum, armati urgemus inermem,
Clamantiniiciuntque manus: sub nocte silenti
Sidera ut adversum tremule luctantur in aequor.
Ille manus manibus rapidas avertit apertis,
Infandumque premit, sic orsus, corde pudorem.
Quid facitis pueri?

Stop: we, the pious, press a criminal; we, armed, press an unarmed man,
they shout and lay on hands: beneath the silent night
how the stars tremulously struggle against the level sea.
He with open hands turns aside their rapid hands,
and, beginning thus, he suppresses in his heart unspeakable shame.
What are you doing, boys?

me spicula vestra timere
Creditis? aetatem vereor, venerorque parentes.
Bigis accipite, intactamque auferte, sororem:
Iam data monstrarunt invisos omina divos.

Do you believe that I fear your darts?
I revere age, and I venerate parents.
Take her into the two-horse chariot, and carry off the untouched sister:
Already the omens given have shown the gods unfavorable.

Theseus haec illis, atque abstinuere loquenti;
Dein, oculos volvens huc illuc, talia secum.
Desponsatam Helenam iuvenis Menelaus habebit?
Imberbes pueri vetularum semper amores,
Virginibus placuit teneris constantior aetas
Aegides Helenae: paribus Fortuna repugnat.

Theseus says these things to them, and they held back as he was speaking;
then, rolling his eyes here and there, he spoke such things with himself.
Will young Menelaus have betrothed Helen?
Beardless boys are always the loves of little old women,
a more constant age has pleased tender virgins—
the Aegid for Helen; Fortune resists equals.

Nempe Clytemnestram cur non abducat Atrides?
Pulcra rudi satis est et saevis dignior Argis.
Tum, repetens bigas haud sicco lumine, clamat,
Fer patienter aves et saxa cruenta, Prometheu!

Surely, why should the Atrides not carry off Clytemnestra?
She is fair enough for a rustic and more worthy of savage Argos.
Then, returning to his two-horse chariot, with no dry eye, he shouts,
Bear patiently the birds and the blood-stained rocks, O Prometheus!

Praestringunt oculos tibi fulgura, pennipotentes
Insatiabilibus rimantur viscera rostris
Ast alium thalamos haud scandere cernis amatae.
Verba memor retulit virgo gemitusque fidelis
Sed, metuens illos genetrix ne cauta notaret,
Oravit subito reditum narraret Ulyxei,
Candida subrisit Leda, his hortata puellam.
Siquos primus amor bene iunxerit, aurea lucet
Illis quaeque dies: hymenaeos hesperus illis
Quique refert: iuvenis iuveni ducare marito,
Et memor incesto castus quam praestet amori,
Altera Penelope sis tu, tuus alter Ulyxes,
Aegre sustinuit natam pater ire relicto
Et dixisse vale: primum ora madentia fletu
Avertit, turbatam acclinis in ostia frontem;
Accepitque sonum, cum deferretur, equorum,
Nunc imperfecte, nunc clarius: auribus aurae
Desierant adferre; viam non saxa tegebant
Longius: inde animi fractus ruit, impete visum
Debilior neque iam propiores vidit: Ulyxes
Tardius, ut sermone suae frueretur, abibat:
Icarius generum sic voce adpellat anhela.

Lightning dazzles your eyes, wing-potent
they probe the entrails with insatiable beaks;
but you see another not to scale the bridal-chambers of the beloved.
Remembering, the maiden reported the words and the faithful groans;
but, fearing lest the cautious mother should notice them,
she begged that she tell of the return of Ulysses at once;
fair Leda smiled, encouraging the girl with these words:
If first love shall well have joined any, golden shines
to them each day; Hesperus for them brings on the hymeneals
and brings them back; that a young woman be led to a young husband,
and mindful how much the chaste surpasses incestuous love,
be you another Penelope, and your man another Ulysses.
Hardly did the father endure that his daughter go, leaving him behind,
and to have said farewell: first he turned aside his face wet with weeping,
leaning toward the doorway, his brow disordered;
and he caught the sound, as it was being borne down, of the horses,
now imperfectly, now more clearly: the breezes had ceased
to bring it to his ears; the stones no longer covered the road farther on;
then, broken in spirit, he rushes, weaker in the rush of vision,
nor did he now see them closer: Ulysses
was going away more slowly, that he might enjoy talk with his wife;
thus Icarius addresses his son-in-law with panting voice.

Redde; dedi, fateor, sed redde, marite, parenti:
Quando dabam non orbus eram: tibi multa placere
Noverit, una meam poterit mulcere senectam.
Redde patri; vel uterque meas redeatis in aedes.
Audiit haec, et lora manu laxata repressit
Dulichius: recipit mitissima nympha gementem,
Dumque senis laevo complexa est colla lacerto,
Frigida rugosam lenibant oscula frontem.

Give her back; I gave her, I confess, but give her back, husband, to her parent:
when I gave, I was not bereft; let her learn to please you in many things—
she alone will be able to soothe my old age.
Give her back to her father; or let you both return into my house.
The Dulichian heard this, and with his hand checked the loosened reins:
the most gentle nymph receives the groaning one,
and while with her left arm she had entwined the old man’s neck,
cold kisses were soothing his wrinkled brow.

Hunc interpellat iuvenis: Me Sparta domusque
Penelopes retinere die natalis amantem
Et merito potuere ; sed est pater, est mihi tellus,
Est populus, neque neglecti sine crimine Divi.
Si pius es, pater inclamat, mihi cede volentem,
Elegat, ille refert: audito pallida vnltum
Penelope defigit humi, sed dextera vestem
Arcta viri tenet et singultu pectora surgunt.
Elige, ait genitor, carae reminiscere matris,
Et miseresce mei.

A youth interrupts him: Sparta and the house of Penelope could rightly have kept me, a lover, on the natal day; but there is a father, there is for me a land,
there is a people, nor are the Gods, if neglected, without guilt.
If you are pious, the father cries out, yield her to me willing,
Let her choose, he replies: upon hearing this, pale in countenance, Penelope fixes her gaze on the ground, but with her right hand she holds the man's garment tight, and her chest rises with sobbing.
Choose, says the sire, remember your dear mother,
and take pity on me.

Torquentur corda silenti
Dum iubet: ast ultro silet, aeternumque sileret.
Quin loqueris, mea Penelope! Vis?

Hearts are tormented in silence
while he bids; but she, unbidden, is silent, and would be silent forever.
Why don’t you speak, my Penelope! Do you will it?

inquit Ulyxes.
Avertens, liquit patris in cervice lacertum,
Obductoque tegens humentia lumina velo,
Debile cum gemitu collum inclinavit amanti.
Laetior inde redux intratque superbior aedes
Icarius; properant praebere solatia damni
Invidiaque patres studioque tuentur amico:
Inde, puellarum circum plaudente corona,
(Cur aberas, Helena!) stat cespitis ara Pudori.

says Ulysses.
Turning away, she released her arm from her father’s neck,
and, with a drawn veil covering her moist eyes,
she inclined her frail neck with a groan to her lover.
Happier then, returned, Icarius enters the house more proud;
the fathers hasten to offer consolations for the loss,
and they regard him with emulation and friendly zeal:
thence, with an applauding crown of maidens around,
(Why were you absent, Helen!) there stands on the turf an altar to Modesty.

** Veterum solae placuit, vetula loquente: stabat solo sub litore.

** It pleased the ancients alone, while the little old woman was speaking: she stood on the soil by the shore.

Ibis inaccessas ubi porrigit insula rupes,
Et fremit adversum nautis hyemalibus aequor;
Ibis, at haud solus, frater, comitante camaena:
Nec, mihi crede, potest adeo gens effera victum
Quaerere naufragiis; ea, quae tentoria regis
Visere vere solet, rogitantem audire loquelam,
Formosasque procul percurrere nomine natas.
Barbarus esse velit, vel hiarit vivere rapto,
Qui tales assuetus amet spectare puellas
Litore ludentes udo, dum largior unda
Volvitur; inde simul manibus prorumpere nexis
In fremitum fluctus, caecoque resurgere saltu,
Virgatasque comas quatere atque immittere collo!
Cervices amplexa reluctantesque lacertos
Lympha nitens irrorat, amabiliterque susurrat
Sub pede pallenti, sub respirante labello,
Argutoque petit superantia pectora planctu.

You will go where the island stretches inaccessible cliffs,
and the wintry sea roars adverse to sailors;
you will go, but not alone, brother, with the Camena accompanying:
nor, believe me, can a people so savage seek sustenance to such a degree
by shipwrecks; she who is wont in spring to visit the king’s tents,
to hear the speech of a petitioner, and to run through by name the beautiful daughters from afar.
Let him wish to be a barbarian, or gape to live by rapine,
who could, being accustomed, love to behold such maidens
playing on the wet shore, while the fuller wave
rolls; then at once, with hands entwined, to burst forth into the roar of the billow,
and to rise again with a blind leap,
and to shake their ribboned tresses and let them fall upon the neck!
The gleaming water, having embraced their necks and struggling arms,
bedews them, and lovingly it whispers
beneath the paling foot, beneath the breathing little lip,
and with a shrilling plash it reaches for the breasts that stand above.

Anne putas isti praecordia ferrea genti
Posse manere diu, aut laribus violenta parare?
Parva quidem Fortuna tulit tibi munera frater,
Attamen ampla satis sapientibus: hortus, agellus,
Obscuroque sedens stabuli gallina tigillo,
Non absunt, viridique librorum capsula velo.
Ergo intende animum studiisque assuesce severis,
Nec, quod uterque nimis cuperemus, inertibus horis
Indulge; non tempus adhuc: Labor otia ducat,
Inque toro quem stravit amet recubare Voluptas.

Do you think that iron hearts can remain long for that people,
or that they can prepare violence for their household gods (Lares)?
Fortune indeed has brought you small gifts, brother,
yet ample enough for the wise: a garden, a little field,
and a hen sitting on the dim little beam of the stable;
nor is a book-case with a green cover lacking.
Therefore bend your mind and grow accustomed to severe studies,
and do not—what we both would too much desire—indulge idle hours;
it is not time yet: let Labor lead Leisure,
and let Pleasure love to recline on the couch which he has strewn.

Ante dies istos veniet, modo venerit, hostis,
Seraque decernet vindex certamina Mavors.
Tunc erimus comites, altaque sedebimus umbra
Sub scopulis, raso nisi vertice rarior ulmus
Invitet, gelido contexens pascua musco,
Mollia tunc folium super amplum fraga rubescant,
Tunc festa teretes patera volvantur olivae,
Baetica secretis emergat testa cavernis,
Et cano vitreis hebetetur purpura rore.
Interea modicos foveasque colasque penates,
Nec cupias maiora; solent maiora nocere.

Before these days the foe will come—if only he would come—,
and as a tardy avenger Mars will decide the contests.
Then we shall be companions, and we shall sit in deep shade
beneath the crags, unless the scantier elm with shaven crown
invite, weaving the pastures with chilly moss;
then let soft strawberries blush upon the broad leaf,
then let festive, smooth olives roll in the patera,
let the Baetican earthen jar emerge from secret caverns,
and let the purple [wine] be dulled with hoary, glassy dew.
Meanwhile cherish and cultivate modest Penates,
and do not desire greater things; greater things are wont to harm.

Ipse quidem, fateor, licet aurea secula Thermis
Degimus, exarsi quondam, impellente iuventa,
Esse aliquid patriae et memorabile linguere nomen
Cumque senatores denos mihi campus avitus
Mitteret ad Romam, si res Romana maneret,
Haud nimis illud erat; nec spes inhonesta, nec audax.
Dum male demissa secederet aure senatus
Pars melior quondam, fremitu tremefacta popelli,
Caninius potuit mediis elapsus Hibernis
Dundasios penetrare sinus, atque intima Pitti
Consilia, atque avidi mensas superare Batavi:
Visus purpureos nudus eum divite nympha
Repere per thalamos, ruituraque linquere tecta,
Felis uti solers vel acute prospiciens mus.
Coniuge cum bella nunc bellus obambulat urbem,
Quinetiam biiugis vehitur; lotaeque sorores
Haud in quadriviis tunicam tibi vellere certant.

I myself indeed, I confess, although we pass golden ages at the Baths,
once blazed up, youth impelling me,
to be something for the fatherland and to leave a memorable name;
and since my ancestral field would send to Rome ten senators for me,
if the Roman commonwealth still remained,
that was not too much; nor an dishonorable hope, nor a bold one.
While the better part of the senate once withdrew with ear poorly lowered,
shaken by the rumble of the little-populace,
Caninius, having slipped out from the midst of the Hibernians,
could penetrate the Dundasian bays, and the inmost counsels of the Pict,
and surpass the tables of the greedy Batavian:
he seemed, naked with a rich nymph,
to creep through purple bridal-chambers, and to leave roofs about to collapse,
as a clever cat or a sharply-watching mouse.
Now, handsome, with a beautiful spouse, he strolls about the city,
nay even he is carried by a two-horse car; and the washed sisters
do not at the crossroads vie to pluck your tunic.

Sic placitum Pitto; quo non praestantior alter
Aere ciere viros obolisque accendere cantum:
Nam mediocris, amat mediocribus omnis amari.
Hunc habeat secum, versansque volubile ludi
Ingenium, capiatve manu lorisve flagellet
In strepitum, veluti buxum puer;* ille levare
Sopitum tereti palma catus, ille furentem
Dirigere, aut nutantem in murmura iussa ciere,
Scribat, at abstineat nobis, neque misceat istis
Qui laeti fuerint Patriai tempore iniquo,
Visceribusque ipsis atque ipso sanguine victum
Quaerebant, rabidoque voraces ore fremebant.
Scripsimus: et nostras captarunt grandia laudes
Facta, vel hostilis dextrae; non ista venenum,
Vergere norat adhuc sociis, aut caedere captos.

Thus it pleased the Pict; than whom no other was more excellent
to rouse men with bronze and to kindle song with obols:
for the mediocre—everyone loves to be loved by the mediocre.
Let him have this man with him, and, turning the whirling genius of play,
either catch it by hand or lash it with thongs into clatter,
as a boy a boxwood top;* he, skillful, to lift the sleeping one
with a rounded palm, he to steer the raging, or to summon the nodding
into murmurs at commands; let him write, but let him abstain from us,
nor mix with those who were glad in the Fatherland’s unjust time,
and were seeking sustenance from the very entrails and the blood itself,
and with rabid mouth were ravenously growling. We have written: and they have angled
for grand praises for our deeds, or for the hostile right hand; that poison did not yet
know to turn against allies, or to slaughter captives.

Hei mihi! mutandos potui praesciscere mores?
Scripsimus: idque suo, nam fabor, corde recondat;
Qualiacunque alii pepigerunt carmina vates,
Haec inter misera et nimis infelicia bella,
Seu famuli regum seu libertatis amici,
Vix aliud nostro mansurum est serius aevo.

Alas for me! Could I have foreknown that the customs must be changed?
We have written: and let him, for I shall speak, store this in his own heart;
Whatever songs other poets have composed,
these, amid wretched and all too ill-fated wars,
whether servants of kings or friends of liberty,
scarcely anything else will remain for our later age.

Scribat: at abstineat nobis, manibusque pusillis
Ah! modo Landoreum fugiat pervertere plectrum.
Maius opus moveo; tamen imperfecta relinquam
Caepta libens illi** pepulit qui lumine claro
Somnia Cartesi, vix intrans limina, quique
Explicuit pavidis Neutoni scrinia Musis.
Candida Luereti perstringere pectora nollem,
Nam genus humanum formidine solvere divum
Nisus inextincta est olea studioque fideli;
Cessit, honorato dignissima consule cura,
Hesperiisque plagis Epicuro stella refulsit.

Let him write: but let him abstain from us, and with puny hands
Ah! only let him avoid perverting the Landorean plectrum.
I set a greater work in motion; yet I will leave unfinished
the undertakings gladly to him** who with clear light drove away
the dreams of Cartesius, scarcely crossing the thresholds, and who
unfolded Newton’s archives to the timid Muses.
I would not wish to lash the candid Lucretian hearts,
for to free the human race from fear of the gods
was an effort with inextinct lamp-oil and faithful zeal;
the charge, most worthy of an honored consul, has fallen to him,
and in the Western regions a star shone resplendent for Epicurus.

Sed revocanda suis est palans Musa, parentis
Immemor; urget amor, atque imperfecta priorum
Verba monent: quoties aversi risimus ambo
(Ut gravia inveheret) titubantis carmina Galli!
Te neque magnanimis quidquam deterreat ausis.
Invidiam mereamur: habebimus; utpote callem
Secretum eligimus procul ambitione maligna,
Utpote contrahimus sub opaco litore vela.

But the wandering Muse, forgetful of her parent, must be called back to her own;
zeal presses, and the unfinished words of former things admonish:
how often, turned aside, we both have laughed
(as he would inveigh against weighty matters) at Gallus’s staggering songs!
Let nothing deter you from magnanimous ventures.
Let us merit envy: we shall have it; since indeed we select a secret
path, far from malignant ambition, since indeed we draw in our sails
beneath the shady shore.

Praeterea conducamus qui funera plorent
Hoc pretio; propriis cumuletur odoribus urna,
Quos neque postera lux, neque noctis sparserit imber.
Vicinique velint dare, seraque dona rubescant,
Et videant hostes intabuerintque videndo.
Hoc nostrum est; uni volvenda pepercerit aetas.

Moreover, let us hire those who lament funerals
at this price; let the urn be heaped with its own odors,
which neither the next day’s light nor the shower of night will have scattered.
Let the neighbors be willing to give, and let belated gifts blush,
and let the enemies see and waste away by seeing.
This is ours; Time, rolling on, will have spared one alone.

Omnia sub numero sunt interitura dierum,
Ut brevis iste lacus, modo qui pluvialibus austris
Natus erat, flectique infra non palluit herba,
Illicet autumni foliis operitur, obitque.
Sed manet ingenium: quid nobilium atque potentum
Sollicitemus opem? cedent aeterna caducis?

All things are destined to perish under the number of days,
as that shallow lake, which just now had been born from the rainy south winds,
and the grass beneath did not grow pale at being bent,
forthwith is covered with autumn’s leaves, and dies.
But ingenuity remains: why of the noble and the powerful
Should we solicit aid? will eternal things yield to the perishable?

Unica Musa potens, et nobilis unica Musa est.

The unique Muse is potent, and the unique Muse is noble.

** Coepta libens illi. Robertum inquam Smithium, poetarurn quotquot latine scripserunt, post Virgilii atque Horatii tempora praestantissimum; numerorum pondere Fracastorius, elegantia verborum Politianus aequavit: locorum delectu atque illustratione, floribus eorundem locuplete temperantia delibatis, incitatione, potentia, maiestate, nemo. Illos quidem bonos imitatores dixeris; hunc vero, Suis pollentem opibus, alienarum nihil indigum, magnum atque optimum poetam.

** I gladly dedicate these beginnings to him. Robert Smith, I say, of the poets, however many have written in Latin since the times of Virgil and Horace, is the most outstanding; in the weight of numbers Fracastorius he equalled, in the elegance of words Politian; but in the choice and illustration of passages, with opulent temperance, the same flowers merely tasted, in incitation, potency, majesty, no one. Those men indeed you would call good imitators; but him, strong in his own resources, needing nothing of others, a great and excellent poet.