§14.67Haec ego; dumque queror, lacrimae sua verba sequuntur §14.68Deque meis oculis in tua membra cadunt.
These things I said; and while I lament, tears follow my words, and from my eyes they fall upon your limbs.
While you seek embraces and toss your sleep-laden arms, your hand was almost wounded by my weapon.
§14.71Iamque patrem famulosque patris lucemque timebam §14.72Expulerunt somnos haec mea dicta tuos: §14.73'Surge age, Belide, de tot modo fratribus unus!
And now I was fearing my father, his servants, and the light, when these words of mine banished your sleep: 'Arise, come, son of Belus, the only one left of so many brothers just now!
§14.74Nox tibi, ni properas, ista perennis erit!' §14.75Territus exsurgis; fugit omnis inertia somni; §14.76Adspicis in timida fortia tela manu.
This night will be eternal for you, unless you hasten!' Terrified you spring up; all the sluggishness of sleep flees; you look at the powerful weapon in my trembling hand.
§14.77Quaerenti causam 'dum nox sinit, effuge!' dixi. §14.78Dum nox atra sinit, tu fugis, ipsa moror.
To you asking the cause, I said: 'While night permits, flee!' While the dark night permits, you flee; I myself remain.
§14.79Mane erat, et Danaus generos ex caede iacentis
It was morning, and Danaus counts the sons-in-law lying dead from the slaughter.
§14.80Dinumerat.
He counts them up.
summae criminis unus abes.
You alone are missing from the sum of the crime.
He bears badly the loss of the kinsman's death in one, and complains that too little blood has been shed.
§14.83Abstrahor a patriis pedibus, raptamque capillis — §14.84Haec meruit pietas praemia! — carcer habet.
I am dragged away from my father's feet, and seized by my hair — such rewards has my devotion deserved! — a prison holds me.
Doubtless from that time Juno's anger persists, when from a human she became a cow, and from a cow a goddess.
But it is punishment enough for a tender girl to have lowed, and, though recently beautiful, no longer to be able to please Jupiter.
§14.89Adstitit in ripa liquidi nova vacca parentis, §14.90Cornuaque in patriis non sua vidit aquis, §14.91Conatoque queri mugitus edidit ore §14.92Territaque est forma, territa voce sua.
The new cow stood on the bank of her liquid parent, and in her father's waters saw horns that were not her own; and trying to complain, her mouth uttered lowings, and she was terrified by her own form, terrified by her own voice.
§14.93Quid furis, infelix? quid te miraris in umbra?
Why do you rave, unhappy one? Why do you wonder at yourself in the shadow?
§14.94Quid numeras factos ad nova membra pedes?
Why do you count the feet made for your new limbs?
§14.95Illa Iovis magni paelex metuenda sorori §14.96Fronde levas nimiam caespitibusque famem, §14.97Fonte bibis spectasque tuam stupefacta figuram §14.98Et, te ne feriant, quae geris, arma, times, §14.99Quaeque modo, ut posses etiam Iove digna videri, §14.100Dives eras, nuda nuda recumbis humo.
That mistress of great Jupiter, to be feared by his sister, you relieve your excessive hunger with leaves and turf; you drink from the spring and look astounded at your own figure, and you fear lest the weapons you bear should strike you; and you who just now, so that you could seem worthy even of Jupiter, were rich, now lie naked on the naked ground.
§14.101Per mare, per terras cognataque flumina curris; §14.102Dat mare, dant amnes, dat tibi terra viam.
Through sea, through lands, and through related rivers you run; the sea gives, the rivers give, the land gives a way to you.
§14.103Quae tibi causa fugae? quid tu freta longa pererras?
What is the cause of your flight? Why do you wander through long straits?
§14.104Non poteris vultus effugere ipsa tuos.
You will not be able to flee your own features.
§14.105Inachi, quo properas? eadem sequerisque fugisque; §14.106Tu tibi dux comiti, tu comes ipsa duci.
Daughter of Inachus, whither do you hasten? You follow and flee the same person; you are the leader to yourself, the companion; you, the companion to yourself, the leader.
The Nile, discharged into the sea through seven mouths, stripped the face of the mistress from the mad cow.
§14.109Ultima quid refero, quorum mihi cana senectus
Why do I relate ancient things, of which hoary old age is the authority to me?
§14.110Auctor? dant anni, quod querar, ecce, mei.
Behold, my own years give me what I may complain of.
§14.111Bella pater patruusque gerunt; regnoque domoque §14.112Pellimur; eiectos ultimus orbis habet.
My father and uncle wage war; and from kingdom and home we are driven; the edge of the world holds us, cast out.
§14.115De fratrum populo pars exiguissima restat.
Of the multitude of brothers, a very small part remains.
§14.116Quique dati leto, quaeque dedere, fleo; §14.117Nam mihi quot fratres, totidem periere sorores.
And those who were given to death, and those who gave them to death, I weep for; for to me, as many brothers, just as many sisters have perished.
§14.118Accipiat lacrimas utraque turba meas!
Let each crowd receive my tears!
Behold, I, because you live, am reserved to be tortured by punishment; what will happen to a guilty person, when I am prosecuted as a defendant for a praiseworthy deed?
And once the hundredth of a kindred crowd, shall I, unhappy, fall while only one brother remains?
§14.123At tu, siqua piae, Lynceu, tibi cura sororis, §14.124Quaeque tibi tribui munera, dignus habes, §14.125Vel fer opem, vel dede neci defunctaque vita §14.126Corpora furtivis insuper adde rogis, §14.127Et sepeli lacrimis perfusa fidelibus ossa, §14.128Sculptaque sint titulo nostra sepulcra brevi: §14.129'Exul Hypermestra, pretium pietatis iniquum, §14.130Quam mortem fratri depulit, ipsa tulit. ' §14.131Scribere plura libet, sed pondere lapsa catenae §14.132Est manus, et vires subtrahit ipse timor.
But you, if you have any care, Lynceus, for your devoted sister, and you worthily hold the gifts which I bestowed on you, either bring help, or surrender me to death, and when life is ended, add my body besides to stealthy funeral pyres, and bury my bones drenched with faithful tears, and let our tomb be engraved with a brief epitaph: 'The exiled Hypermestra, an unjust reward for her devotion, bore herself the death which she warded off from her brother.' I wish to write more, but my hand, slipped by the weight of the chain, has fallen, and fear itself withdraws my strength.