It is a pleasure to pursue the startled beasts in full career, and to hurl stiff javelins with tender hand.
§112Quo tendis.
Whither do you hasten, my soul?
anime? quid furens saltus amas?
Why in madness do you love the glades?
I recognize the fatal ill of my wretched mother: our love knows how to sin in the woods.
§115genetrix, tui me miseret: infando malo §116correpta pecoris efferum saevi ducem §117audax amasti; torvus, impatiens iugi §118adulter ille, ductor indomiti gregis— §119sed amabat aliquid, quis meas miserae deus §120aut quis iuvare Daedalus flammas queat?
Mother, I pity you: seized by an unspeakable evil, you in your boldness loved the wild leader of the savage herd; grim, impatient of the yoke, that adulterer, leader of the untamed flock— yet he loved something. What god, or what Daedalus, could help my flames, wretched that I am?
§121non si ipse remeet, arte Mopsopia potens §122qui nostra caeca monstra conclusit domo, §123promittat ullam casibus nostris opem.
Not even if he himself should return, potent in Mopsopian art, who shut up our monster in the blind house, could promise any aid to our misfortunes.
§124stirpem perosa Solis invisi Venus §125per nos catenas vindicat Martis sui §126suasque, probris omne Phoebeum genus §127onerat nefandis: nulla Minois levi §128defuncta amore est, iungitur semper nefas.
Venus, hating the race of the detested Sun, through us avenges the chains of her Mars and her own, and loads the whole race of Phoebus with unspeakable infamy: no daughter of Minos has come off with a light love; crime is always joined with it.
§129Thesea coniunx, clara progenies Iovis, §130nefanda casto pectore exturba ocius, §131extingue flammas neve te dirae spei
Wife of Theseus, illustrious offspring of Jove, banish swiftly these unspeakable things from your chaste breast, extinguish the flames, and do not yield yourself obedient to a dreadful hope.
§132praebe obsequentem: quisquis in primo obstitit §133pepulitque amorem, tutus ac victor fuit; §134qui blandiendo dulce nutrivit malum, §135sero recusat ferre quod subiit iugum.
Whoever resisted at the first and repelled love, has been safe and victorious; he who by flattering has nourished the sweet evil, too late refuses to bear the yoke he has submitted to.
§136Nec me fugit, quam durus et veri insolens §137ad recta flecti regius nolit tumor, §138quemcumque dederit exitum casus feram: §139fortem facit vicina libertas senem.
Nor does it escape me, how harsh and unaccustomed to truth the royal pride is, unwilling to be bent to the right; whatever end fortune shall give, I will bear it: the proximity of freedom makes an old man brave.
First, it is honorable to wish for what is right, and not to slip from the path; the second honor is to know the limit of sinning.
§142quo, misera, pergis? quid domum infamem aggravas §143superasque matrem? maius est monstro nefas:
Whither, wretched woman, do you go? Why do you burden an already infamous house and surpass your mother?
§144nam monstra fato, moribus scelera imputes,
Your crime is greater than a monster: for you may impute monsters to fate, but crimes to character.
§145si, quod maritus supera non cernit loca, §146tutum esse facinus credis et vacuum metu, §147erras; teneri crede Lethaeo abditum §148Thesea profundo et ferre perpetuam Styga: §149quid ille, lato maria qui regno premit §150populisque reddit iura centeni», pater?
If, because your husband does not see the upper regions, you believe your crime is safe and free from fear, you err; believe that Theseus is held hidden in the Lethaean depth and bears the eternal Styx: but what of him, who presses the seas with his wide realm and gives laws to a hundred peoples—your father?
§151latere tantum facinus occultum sinet?
Will he allow so great a crime to remain hidden?
§152sagax parentum est cura.
Sage is the care of parents.
Yet let us suppose that we can cover so great a crime with craft and guile: what of him, who pours his light upon all things, your mother’s sire?
What of him who shakes the universe, brandishing the lightning of Etna with his glittering hand, the father of the gods?
Do you believe it can be brought about that you should remain hidden among ancestors who see all things?
§159sed ut secundus numinum abscondat favor §160coitus nefandos utque contingat stupro §161negata magnis sceleribus semper fides: §162quid poena praesens, conscius mentis pavor §163animusque culpa plenus et semet timens?
But suppose the favorable grace of the gods should hide your unspeakable unions, and suppose that there should befall your crime that secrecy which is ever denied to great misdeeds: what of the immediate punishment, the conscious terror of the mind, and the soul full of guilt and fearing itself?
§164scelus aliqua tutum, nulla securum tulit.
Crime has made some safe, but none secure.
§165compesce amoris impii flammas, precor, §166nefasque quod non ulla tellus barbara §167commisit umquam, non vagi campis Getae §168nec inhospitalis Taurus aut sparsus Scythes; §169expelle facinus mente castifica horridum §170memorque matris metue concubitus novos.
Quench, I pray, the flames of an impious love, and a crime which no barbarian land has ever committed, not the Getae wandering on the plains, nor inhospitable Taurus, nor the scattered Scythian; expel this horrid crime from your purified mind, and mindful of your mother, dread strange unions.
Do you prepare to mingle the marriage beds of father and son, and to conceive in your impious womb a confused offspring?
Go on, and subvert nature with your unspeakable fires— why do monsters cease? Why is your brother’s palace vacant?
§175prodigia totiens orbis insueta audiet, §176natura totiens legibus cedet suis, §177quotiens amabit Cressa?
Will the world so often hear of unaccustomed prodigies, will nature so often yield her laws, as often as a Cretan woman loves?
§177bQuae memoras scio §178vera esse, nutrix; sed furor cogit sequi §179peiora, vadit animus in praeceps sciens §180remeatque frustra sana consilia appetens.
I know that what you relate is true, nurse; but madness forces me to follow the worse path; my mind knowingly goes to the brink, and returns in vain, seeking healthy counsels.
§181sic cum gravatam navita adversa ratem §182propellit unda, cedit in vanum labor §183et victa prono puppis aufertur vado.
Just as when a sailor drives his heavy ship against the adverse wave, his labor yields in vain, and the defeated vessel is carried away by the rushing current.
What can reason do? Madness has conquered and reigns, and a powerful god dominates my entire mind.
§186hic volucer omni pollet interra impotens §187ipsumque flammis torret indomitis Iovem; §188Gradivus istas belliger sensit faces, §189opifex trisulci fulminis sensit deus, §190et qui furentis semper Aetnaeis iugis §191versat caminos igne tam parvo calet; §192ipsumque Phoebum, tela qui nervo regit, §193figit sagitta certior missa puer §194volitatque caelo pariter et terris gravis.
This winged, powerless god prevails in every land, and scorches Jove himself with untamed flames; Warlike Gradivus felt those torches, the god who fashions the three-pronged lightning felt them, and he who ever on the Etnaean ridges turns the raging furnaces is warmed by so small a fire; and Phoebus himself, who guides his weapons on the bowstring, the boy pierces with a more unerring arrow and flies through the sky, heavy alike to heaven and earth.