Litura
Vergil · P. Vergilius Maro · Latin text with translation

Aeneid, Liber Quartus

Dido's tragedy: her confession to Anna, the hunt and the cave, Mercury's summons, Aeneas' departure, and the queen's curse and death.

705 lines. Every word carries its dictionary form, its parsing and what it is doing in the line, with literal, student and literary translations.

  1. 1At rēgīna gravī iamdūdum saucia cūrāBut the queen had long been wounded by a deep love,
  2. 2vulnus alit vēnīs et caecō carpitur ignī.she feeds the wound with her own blood and is eaten up by a hidden fire.
  3. 3Multa virī virtūs animō multusque recursatAgain and again she thinks of the man's courage, and of
  4. 4gentis honōs; haerent īnfīxī pectore vultūshis noble family; his face and his words stay fixed in her heart,
  5. 5verbaque, nec placidam membrīs dat cūra quiētem.and her worry will not let her body rest.
  6. 6Postera Phoebēā lūstrābat lampade terrāsThe next morning the Dawn was lighting up the earth with the sun's lamp
  7. 7ūmentemque Aurōra polō dīmōverat umbram,and had driven the damp darkness from the sky,
  8. 8cum sīc ūnanimam adloquitur male sāna sorōrem:when, hardly in her right mind, she spoke to her devoted sister:
  9. 9Anna soror, quae mē suspēnsam īnsomnia terrent!'Anna, my sister, what dreams frighten me and keep me in suspense!
  10. 10Quis novus hic nostrīs successit sēdibus hospes,Who is this stranger who has come to stay with us,
  11. 11quem sēsē ōre ferēns, quam fortī pectore et armīs!how noble he looks, how brave and strong in war!
  12. 12Crēdō equidem, nec vāna fidēs, genus esse deōrum.I really think, and not for nothing, that he is descended from the gods.
  13. 13Dēgenerēs animōs timor arguit. Heu, quibus illeCowardice shows a low birth. Oh, what fates have
  14. 14iactātus fātīs! Quae bella exhausta canēbat!tossed him about! What wars he has lived through and told us of!
  15. 15Sī mihi nōn animō fīxum immōtumque sedēretIf I had not firmly made up my mind
  16. 16nē cui mē vinclō vellem sociāre iugālī,never to marry anyone again,
  17. 17postquam prīmus amor dēceptam morte fefellit;after my first love let me down by dying;
  18. 18sī nōn pertaesum thalamī taedaeque fuisset,if I were not sick of marriage and weddings,
  19. 19huic ūnī forsan potuī succumbere culpae.he is the only one I might have given in to.
  20. 20Anna (fatēbor enim) miserī post fāta SychaeīAnna, I'll admit it: since my poor husband Sychaeus died

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