IV.60-89


 * //Aeneid// IV.60-89**



Dido herself, most beautiful, holding the cup with her right hand,
 * 60 ipsa tenens dextra pateram pulcherrima Dido **

pours between the middle horn of a shining cow,
 * candentis vaccae media inter cornua fundit, **

or walks before the faces of the gods to the rich altars,
 * aut ante ora deum pingues spatiatur ad aras,  **

and renews the day with gifts, and, with the chests of the animals
 * instauratque diem donis, pecudumque reclusis  **

having been opened, she, yawning, considers the quivering entrails.
 * pectoribus inhians spirantia consulit exta. **

Alas, the ignorant minds of prophets! How can vows,
 * 65 heu, vatum ignarae mentes! quid vota furentem, **

how can temples help one crazed (with love)? Meanwhile a flame eats her soft
 * quid delubra iuvant? est molles flamma medullas **

marrows and a silent wound lives under her chest.
 * interea et tacitum vivit sub pectore vulnus.  **

Unlucky Dido burns and, raging,
 * uritur infelix Dido totaque vagatur  **

**urbe furens, qualis coniecta cerva sagitta**, she wanders the whole city, like a deer with an arrow having been shot

which, unaware, a shepherd, driving with spears, has pierced from afar
 * 70 quam procul incautam nemora inter Cresia fixit **

**pastor agens telis liquitque volatile ferrum** within the Cretan groves and (the shepherd) has left behind the swift iron

unaware: she, in her flight, wanders the woods and the Dictaean
 * nescius: illa fuga silvas saltusque peragrat  **

**Dictaeos; haeret lateri letalis harundo.** glades; the lethal reed (metonymy[synecdoche?] for arrow) clings in/to its side.

**nunc media Aenean secum per moenia ducit** Now she leads Aeneas with her through the middle of the city walls

**75 Sidoniasque ostentat opes urbemque paratam,** and shows (him) the Sidonian resources and the prepared city,

**incipit effari mediaque in voce resistit;** she begins to speak out and stops in the middle (of) her voice;

**nunc eadem labente die convivia quaerit,** now she seeks the same banquets with the day slipping by,

and, mad, demands to hear the Trojan hardships again
 * Iliacosque iterum demens audire labores  **

and hangs from the mouth of the narrator again.
 * exposcit pendetque iterum narrantis ab ore. **

**80 post ubi digressi, lumenque obscura vicissim** Afterward, when they left, and the dark moon represses

its light in turn and the falling stars persuade dreams,
 * luna premit suadentque cadentia sidera somnos, **

**sola domo maeret vacua stratisque relictis** alone in her house, she mourns and lies on abandoned couches

Being absent, she both sees and hears him, absent,
 * incubat. illum absens absentem auditque videtque,  **

or she holds in her lap Ascanius, with the image of his father
 * aut gremio Ascanium genitoris imagine capta **

captured, if she were able to deceive unspeakable love.
 * 85 detinet, infandum si fallere possit amorem.**

The begun towers do not rise, the young men do not exercise
 * non coeptae adsurgunt turres, non arma iuventus **

weapons or prepare the harbors or the safe battlements
 * exercet portusve aut propugnacula bello**

**tuta parant: pendent opera interrupta minaeque** for war: the interrupted works and the huge threats of the walls

and the device having been equaled to the sky (a crane?) hang.
 * murorum ingentes aequataque machina caelo.****