§272Profugere cogis? redde fugienti ratem
Do you force me to flee?
§273vel redde comitem— fugere cur solam iubes?
Return the ship to the fleeing one, or return the companion— why do you command me to flee alone?
§274non sola veni.
I did not come alone.
bella si metuis pati, §275utrumque regno pelle, cur sontes duos §276distinguis? illi Pelia, non nobis iacet; §277fugam, rapinas adice, desertum patrem §278lacerum que fratrem, quicquid etiam nunc novas §279docet maritus coniuges, non est meum:
If you fear to suffer wars, drive both of us from your kingdom. Why do you distinguish two guilty ones? His Pelias lies dead, not by my hand; add the flight, the spoils, the deserted father and the torn brother, and whatever even now the husband teaches to his new wives: it is not mine.
§280totiens nocens sum facta, sed numquam mihi.
So many times have I been made guilty, but never for myself.
§281Iam exisse decuit, quid seris fando moras?
You ought to have gone already; why do you weave delays by speaking?
Departing as a suppliant, I pray for this last thing, lest the mother's guilt drag down her innocent children.
§284Vade: hos paterno ut genitor excipiam sinu.
Go: I, as their father, will receive them in my fatherly bosom.
§285Per ego auspicatos regii thalami toros, §286per spes futuras perque regnorum status, §287Fortuna varia dubia quos agitat vice, §288precor, brevem largire fugienti moram, §289dum extrema natis mater infigo oscula, §290fortasse moriens.
By the auspicious couch of the royal chamber, by future hopes, and by the stability of kingdoms, which varied Fortune shakes with uncertain turns, I pray, grant a brief delay to the fleeing one, while I, as a mother, imprint the last kisses on my children, perhaps dying.
§290bFraudibus tempus petis.
You seek time for tricks.
§291Quae fraus timeri tempore exiguo potest?
What trick can be feared in so short a time?
§292Nullum ad nocendum tempus angustum est malis.
No time is too narrow for doing harm to the wicked.
§293Parumne miserae temporis lacrimis negas?
Do you deny a little time for the tears of a wretched woman?
Although fear fixed in my heart resists your prayers, one day shall be given for preparing for exile.
§296Nimis est, recidas aliquid ex isto licet:
It is too much; you may cut away something from that.
§297et ipsa propero.
Even I am in a hurry.
You shall pay the penalty with your head, before Phoebus brings up the bright day, unless you depart from the Isthmus.
sacra me thalami vocant, §300vocat precari festus Hymenaeo dies.
The sacred rites of the chamber call me, the festive day calls me to pray to Hymenaeus.
§301Audax nimium qui freta primus §302rate tam fragili perfida rupit §303terrasque suas posterga videns §304animam levibus credidit auris, §305dubioque secans aequora cursu §306potuit tenui fidere ligno §307inter vitae mortisque vias §308nimium gracili limite ducto.
Bold indeed was he who first broke the treacherous seas with so fragile a ship, and seeing his own lands behind his back, trusted his life to the light breezes, and cutting the seas with an uncertain course, was able to trust a slender wood, where a too narrow limit is drawn between the paths of life and death.
Our fathers saw a pure age, with deceit removed far away.
§331sua quisque piger litora tangens §332patrioque senex factus in arvo, §333parvo dives, nisi quas tulerat §334natale solum, non norat opes:
Each one lazily touching his own shores and growing old in his ancestral field, rich with a little, did not know other wealth than what his native soil had borne.
Not yet did anyone know the constellations, nor was there any use of the stars with which the ether is painted.
nondum pluvias §312Hyadas poterat vitare ratis.
Not yet could a ship avoid the rainy Hyades.
§313non Oleniae lumina caprae, §314nec quae sequitur flectitque senex §315Attica tardus plaustra Bootes, §316nondum Boreas, §317nondum Zephyrus nomen habebant.
Nor yet the lights of the Olenian goat, nor the slow Bootes, the old man who follows and turns the Attic plow, nor yet Boreas, nor yet Zephyrus had a name.
§318Ausus Tiphys pandere vasto §319carbasa ponto §320legesque novas scribere ventis: §321nunc lina sinu tendere toto, §322nunc prolato pede transversos §323captare notos, nunc antemnas §324medio tutas ponere malo, §325nunc in summo religare loco, §326cum iam totos avidus nimium §327navita flatus optat et alto §328rubicunda tremunt sipara velo.
Tiphys dared to spread the sails on the vast sea, and to write new laws for the winds: now to stretch the canvas with the whole bosom, now to catch the transverse south winds with the sheet extended, now to place the yards safe in the middle of the mast, now to bind them in the highest place, when the too eager sailor already wishes for all the winds, and on the deep the reddish topsails tremble on the sail.
§335b«ne dissaepti foedera mundi §336traxit in unum Thessala pinus §337iussitque pati verbera pontum, §338partemque metus fieri nostri §339mare sepositum.
The covenants of the well-divided world the Thessalian pine dragged into one, and commanded the sea to suffer blows, and the separated sea to become a part of our fear.
§340dedit illa graves improba poenas §341per tam longos ducta timores, §342cum duo montes, claustra profundi, §343hinc atque illinc subito impulsu §344velut aetherio gemerent sonitu, §345nubesque ipsas §345amare deprensum spargeret austris.
That wicked ship paid heavy penalties, drawn through such long terrors, when two mountains, the barriers of the deep, from here and from there with sudden clash roared as if with a heavenly sound, and the sea, caught between them, sprinkled the very clouds with the south winds.
Bold Tiphys grew pale, and let go all the reins from his slipping hand.
Orpheus fell silent with his lyre numbed, and Argo herself lost her voice.
§350quid cum Siculi virgo Pelori, §351rabidos utero succincta canes, §352omnis pariter solvit hiatus? '
What of when the virgin of Sicilian Pelorus, girt about her belly with rabid dogs, opened all her mouths together?
Who did not shudder in all his limbs, with one monster barking so many times?
§355quid cum Ausonium dirae pestes §356voce canora mare mulcerent. §357cum Pieria resonans cithara §358Thracius Orpheus §359solitam cantu retinere rates §360paene coegit Sirena sequi?
What of when the dreadful plagues of the Ausonian sea soothed the water with their melodious voice, when the Thracian Orpheus, resounding with his Pierian lyre, almost forced the Siren, accustomed to hold back ships with her song, to follow him?
§361quod fuit huius pretium cursus?
What was the reward of this voyage?
The golden fleece, and Medea, an evil greater than the sea, a reward worthy of the first ship.
§364Nunc iam cessit pontus et omnes §365patitur leges: non Palladia §366compacta manu regum referens §367inclita remos quaeritur Argo— §368quaelibet altum cumba pererrat;
Now indeed the sea has yielded and suffers all laws: no renowned Argo, built by the hand of Pallas, bringing back kings and pulling its oars, is sought— any little boat wanders over the deep.
§369terminus omnis motus et urbes §370muros terra posuere nova, §371nil qua fuerat sede reliquit §372pervius orbis: §373Indus gelidum potat Araxen, §374Albin Persae Rhenumque bibunt.
Every boundary is removed, and cities have placed their walls in new lands; the pervious world has left nothing in the place where it had been: the pervious world: the Indian drinks from the cold Araxes, the Persians drink from the Elbe and the Rhine.