Book+6.450-476


 * Aeneid 6.450-476**

** Among these Phoenician women, Dido wandered, [(her)] wound still fresh, ** ** in the great forest; as soon as the Trojan hero ** ** stood near her and recognized her through the gloomy shadows, ** ** like someone who sees, or thinks he sees, ** ** the moon through the clauds, when it rises on the first of the month/beginning of the month, ** ** he lets tears drop, and he spoke to her with sweet affection: ** **"Infelix Dido, verus mihi nuntius ergo** **venerat exstinctam ferroque extrema secutam?**  **Funeris heu tibi causa fui? Per sidera iuro,**  **per superos et si qua fides tellure sub ima est,**  **invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi.** **460**
 * Inter quas Phoenissa recens a vulnere Dido** **450**
 * errabat silva in magna; quam Troius heros**
 * ut primum iuxta stetit agnouit que per umbras**
 * obscuram, qualem primo qui surgere mense**
 * aut videt aut vidisse putat per nubila lunam,**
 * demisit lacrimas dulcique adfatus amore est:** **455**

"Unhappy Dido, was the news that had come to me true, then, that you had extinguished yourself and death followed with a sword? Alas, was I the cause of your death? By the stars I swear, by the gods above, if any honesty is under the inmost earth, then unwillingly did I, my queen, leave your shores.


 * Sed me iussa deum, quae nunc has ire per umbras,**
 * per loca senta situ cogunt noctemque profundam,**
 * imperiis egere suis; nec credere quivi**
 * hunc tantum tibi me discessu ferre dolorem.**
 * Siste gradum teque aspectu ne subtrahe nostro.** **465**
 * Quem fugis? Extremum fato quod te adloquor hoc est.'**

But the commands of the gods, which force me now to go through these shadows, through places thorny from neglect and through the vast night, have driven me with their own powers; nor could I believe that I brought you such great sorrow as this with my departure. Desist your steps and don't take yourself away from my sight. Whom do you flee? This is the last word ([I have]) with you that fate allows."


 * Talibus Aeneas ardentem et torua tuentem**
 * lenibat dictis animum lacrimasque ciebat.**
 * Illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat**
 * nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur** **470**
 * quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes.**

With such words Aeneas would have soothed her fiery spirit and wild looks, and provoked her tears. Turned away, she holds her fixed eyes on the ground and is no more moved with respect to her countenance by this first entreaty than if she had been made of stone.


 * Tandem corripuit sese atque inimica refugit**
 * in nemus umbriferum, coniunx ubi pristinus illi**
 * respondet curis aequatque Sychaeus amorem.**
 * Nec minus Aeneas casu percussus iniquo** **475**
 * prosequitur lacrimis longe et miseratur euntem.**


 * Finally she snatched herself up and, hostile, fled **
 * into the shady forests, where her former husband **
 * Sychaeus sympathized with her worries and matches her love. **
 * Nor less did Aeneas, agitated by the unjust fate of Dido, **
 * follow her from afar with tears and pity her death as she went. **