§6.301sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus.
a dirty cloak hangs down from his shoulders with a knot.
§6.302Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat, §6.303et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba, §6.304iam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus.
He himself pushes the boat with a pole, and attends to the sails, and carries the bodies across in his iron-colored skiff, now an old man, but old age for a god is raw and green.
§6.305Huc omnis turba ad ripas effusa ruebat, §6.306matres atque viri, defunctaque corpora vita §6.307magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae, §6.308impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum: §6.309quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo §6.310lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto §6.311quam multae glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus §6.312trans pontum fugat, et terris immittit apricis.
Hither all the crowd was rushing, poured forth to the banks, mothers and men, and bodies of great-souled heroes deprived of life, boys and unwedded girls, and youths placed upon funeral pyres before the faces of their parents: as many as the leaves that slip and fall in the forests at the first chill of autumn, or as many as the birds that gather toward the land from the deep abyss, when the cold season drives them across the sea, and sends them into sunny lands.
They stood praying to cross the course first, and stretched out their hands with love for the further shore.
But the gloomy boatman accepts now these, now those, while others he keeps far away, removed from the sand.
Aeneas, indeed marveling and moved by the tumult, said: "Tell me, O virgin, what does this crowding to the river mean?
§6.319Quidve petunt animae, vel quo discrimine ripas §6.320hae linquunt, illae remis vada livida verrunt? §6.321Olli sic breviter fata est longaeva sacerdos: §6.322Anchisa generate, deum certissima proles, §6.323Cocyti stagna alta vides Stygiamque paludem, §6.324di cuius iurare timent et fallere numen.
Or what do the souls seek, or by what distinction do these leave the banks, while those sweep the bluish-gray shallows with oars?" To him the aged priestess spoke thus briefly: "Son of Anchises, most certain offspring of the gods, you see the deep pools of Cocytus and the Stygian marsh, whose divinity the gods fear to swear by and deceive.
§6.325Haec omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est; §6.326portitor ille Charon; hi, quos vehit unda, sepulti.
All this crowd, which you discern, is helpless and unburied; that boatman is Charon; these, whom the wave carries, are the buried.
§6.327Nec ripas datur horrendas et rauca fluenta §6.328transportare prius quam sedibus ossa quierunt.
Nor is it allowed to transport them across the dreadful shores and hoarse streams before their bones have rested in their dwellings.
§6.329Centum errant annos volitantque haec litora circum; §6.330tum demum admissi stagna exoptata revisunt. §6.331Constitit Anchisa satus et vestigia pressit, §6.332multa putans, sortemque animo miseratus iniquam.
They wander for a hundred years and flit around these shores; then at last admitted they revisit the longed-for pools." The offspring of Anchises stopped and stayed his steps, thinking many things, and pitying their unfair lot in his mind.
§6.333Cernit ibi maestos et mortis honore carentes §6.334Leucaspim et Lyciae ductorem classis Oronten, §6.335quos, simul ab Troia ventosa per aequora vectos, §6.336obruit Auster, aqua involvens navemque virosque.
He discerns there, sorrowful and lacking the honor of death, Leucaspis and Orontes, the leader of the Lycian fleet, whom, carried together from Troy through the windy seas, the South Wind overwhelmed, wrapping both ship and men in the water.
§6.337Ecce gubernator sese Palinurus agebat, §6.338qui Libyco nuper cursu, dum sidera servat, §6.339exciderat puppi mediis effusus in undis.
Behold, the helmsman Palinurus was making his way, who recently on the Libyan course, while he was watching the stars, had fallen from the stern, cast out in the midst of the waves.
§6.340Hunc ubi vix multa maestum cognovit in umbra, §6.341sic prior adloquitur:
Quis te, Palinure, deorum §6.342eripuit nobis, medioque sub aequore mersit?
When Aeneas scarcely recognized him, sad in the deep shadow, he addresses him first: "Which of the gods, Palinurus, snatched you from us, and drowned you in the midst of the sea?
§6.343Dic age.
Come, tell me.
Namque mihi, fallax haud ante repertus, §6.344hoc uno responso animum delusit Apollo, §6.345qui fore te ponto incolumem, finesque canebat §6.346venturum Ausonios.
For to me Apollo, never before found deceptive, deluded my mind with this single oracle, who sang that you would be safe on the sea, and would reach the Ausonian borders.
En haec promissa fides est? §6.347Ille autem:
Neque te Phoebi cortina fefellit, §6.348dux Anchisiade, nec me deus aequore mersit.
Lo, is this the promised faith?" But he replied: "Neither did the tripod of Phoebus deceive you, leader, son of Anchises, nor did a god drown me in the sea.
§6.349Namque gubernaclum multa vi forte revolsum, §6.350cui datus haerebam custos cursusque regebam, §6.351praecipitans traxi mecum.
For the rudder, torn away by chance with great force, to which I was clinging as appointed guardian and directing our course, I dragged down with me as I fell headlong.
Maria aspera iuro §6.352non ullum pro me tantum cepisse timorem, §6.353quam tua ne, spoliata armis, excussa magistro, §6.354deficeret tantis navis surgentibus undis.
I swear by the rough seas that I did not conceive any such great fear for myself, as that your ship, despoiled of its equipment and shaken from its master, might fail amidst such great rising waves.
§6.355Tris Notus hibernas immensa per aequora noctes §6.356vexit me violentus aqua; vix lumine quarto §6.357prospexi Italiam summa sublimis ab unda.
Three stormy winter nights the violent South Wind carried me through the immense waters; scarcely on the fourth day did I look out at Italy, high up from the top of a wave.
§6.358Paulatim adnabam terrae; iam tuta tenebam, §6.359ni gens crudelis madida cum veste gravatum §6.360prensantemque uncis manibus capita aspera montis §6.361ferro invasisset, praedamque ignara putasset.
Gradually I swam to the land; I was already holding safe places, if a cruel people had not attacked me with the sword, weighed down with wet garments and clutching with hooked hands the rough projections of the mountain, and in their ignorance deemed me a prize.
§6.362Nunc me fluctus habet, versantque in litore venti.
Now the wave holds me, and the winds roll me on the shore.
§6.363Quod te per caeli iucundum lumen et auras, §6.364per genitorem oro, per spes surgentis Iuli, §6.365eripe me his, invicte, malis: aut tu mihi terram §6.366inice, namque potes, portusque require Velinos; §6.367aut tu, si qua via est, si quam tibi diva creatrix §6.368ostendit—neque enim, credo, sine numine divom §6.369flumina tanta paras Stygiamque innare paludem— §6.370da dextram misero, et tecum me tolle per undas, §6.371sedibus ut saltem placidis in morte quiescam. §6.372Talia fatus erat, coepit cum talia vates: §6.373Unde haec, o Palinure, tibi tam dira cupido?
Therefore by the pleasant light of heaven and the breezes, by your father, by the hope of rising Iulus, I pray you, snatch me from these evils, unconquered one: either cast earth upon me, for you are able, and seek the harbors of Velia; or, if there is any way, if your divine mother shows you one—for indeed, I believe, not without the will of the gods do you prepare to swim across such great rivers and the Stygian marsh— give your right hand to the wretched one, and lift me with you through the waves, so that at least in death I may rest in peaceful dwellings." He had spoken such things, when the prophetess began thus: "Whence, O Palinurus, comes to you so dreadful a desire?