I have decided to start posting some of the best passages that we translate/read out loud in class. This one is from Book 6 of the Aeneid, and I just happened to think the wording of this particular section was gorgeous. It really is hard to convey some of the beauty of the Latin words when trying to put it into English, but I did the best that I could. If you have a copy of the Aeneid, you can try comparing my translation to yours (I haven’t done this yet, kinda scared to!).
Something to look forward to for tomorrow: I am currently translating Virgil’s Messianic Eclogue for homework (along with around 70 sentences!!AGHH!!). I will try to post it tomorrow once we have gone over it in class!
Virgil, Aeneid 6, 847-53
…excudent alii spirantia mollius aera
(credo equidem), vivos ducent de marmore vultus,
orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus
describent radio et surgentia sidera dicent:
tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento
(haec tibi erunt artes) pacisque imponere morem,
parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.
…others will hammer out breathing bronzes more softly
(at least, I believe) they will lead the living faces out of the marble, (LOVE THAT LINE!!!!)
they will plead causes better,
and will describe with a rod the meanderings of the sky and will sing the rising stars into verse:
You Roman, remember to rule peoples by empire
(these will be your arts), impose the habit of peace,
spare the subjected and beat down the proud.
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Christine says
Thank you. That was beautiful. Looking forward to more.