Translation of "Troianos" in English

As my teacher says, you cannot please both Greeks and Trojans.

A greater yet and ghastlier sign remained / our heedless hearts to terrify anew.

By this I reached the roof-top, whence in vain / the luckless Teucrians hurled their unavailing rain.

- "Strike force to the winds, sink and overwhelm the ships; or drive them apart and scatter their bodies on the sea."
- "Go, set the storm-winds free, / and sink their ships or scatter them astray, / and strew their corpses forth, to weltering waves a prey."

Troy's gods commending to my comrades' care, / with old Anchises and my infant heir, / I hide them in a winding vale from view.

Straight rose a joyous uproar; each in turn / ask what the walls that Phoebus hath designed? / Which way to wander, whither to return?

"His kinsman, by a needy father sent, / with him in boyhood to the war I came."

E'en then – alas! to Trojan ears in vain – / Cassandra sang, and told in utterance plain / the coming doom.

"Yet there he built Patavium, yea, and named / the nation, and the Trojan arms laid down, / and now rests happy in the town he framed."

- Still deep in her heart rankled the judgment of Paris and the injustice of her scorned beauty, and the hated race, and the honors of kidnapped Ganymede.
- The choice of Paris, and her charms disdained, / the hateful race, the lawless honours ta'en / by ravished Ganymede – these wrongs remained.

He sees, how, fighting round the Trojan wall, / here fled the Greeks, the Trojan youth pursue, / here fled the Phrygians, and, with helmet tall, / Achilles in his chariot stormed and slew.

"Else, would ye settle in this realm, the town / I build is yours; draw up your ships to land. / Trojan and Tyrian will I treat as one."

Bared stands the inmost palace, and behold, / the stately chambers and the courts appear / of Priam and the Trojan Kings of old, / and warders at the door with shield an spear.

"Ah! who listened or obeyed? / Who dreamed that Teucrians should Hesperia gain? / Yield we to Phoebus now, nor wisdom's words disdain."

Distracted with amaze / she marked me, as the Trojan arms shone plain. / Heat leaves her frame; she stiffens with the gaze, / she swoons – and scarce at length these faltering words essays:

And now the heaven rolled round. From ocean rushed / the Night, and wrapt in shadow earth and air / and Myrmidonian wiles. In silence hushed, / the Trojans through the city here and there, / outstretched in sleep, their weary limbs repair.

... beholds Troy's navy scattered far and nigh, / and by the waves and ruining heaven oppressed / the Trojan crews. Nor failed he to espy / his sister's wiles and hatred.

Then, tired of toiling, from the ships they bear / the sea-spoiled corn, and Ceres' tools prepare, / and 'twixt the millstones grind the rescued grain / and roast the pounded morsels for their fare.

Far off there lies, with many a spacious plain, / the land of Mars, by Thracians tilled and sown, / where stern Lycurgus whilom held his reign; / a hospitable shore, to Troy well-known, / her home-gods leagued in union with our own, / while Fortune smiled.

There, torn from many a burning temple, lay / Troy's wealth; the tripods of the Gods were there, / piled in huge heaps, and raiment snatched away, / and golden bowls, and dames with streaming hair / and tender boys stand round, and tremble with despair.

Fame flies, Idomeneus has left the land, / expelled his kingdom; that the shore lies clear / of foes, and homes are ready to our hand.

- Enraged by these things as well, she kept the Trojans, all that were left of the Greeks and indomitable Achilles, far away from Latium, tossed by the wide ocean; they wandered for many years, driven by the Fates, all around the seas.
- So fired with rage, the Trojans' scanty train / by fierce Achilles and the Greeks unslain / she barred from Latium, and in evil strait / for many a year, on many a distant main / they wandered, homeless outcasts, tost by fate.

"My name / is good AEneas; from the flames and foe / I bear Troy's rescued deities. My fame / outsoars the stars of heaven; a Jove-born race, we claim / a home in fair Italia far away."

- Suddenly the clouds snatch away both sky and even daylight from the eyes of the Trojans: black night lies upon the sea; the poles thunder, and the upper air flashes with repeated fires, and all things threaten immediate death for the men.
- Clouds the darkened heavens have drowned, / and snatched the daylight from the Trojans' eyes. / Black night broods on the waters; all around / from pole to pole the rattling peals resound / and frequent flashes light the lurid air. / All nature, big with instant ruin, frowned / destruction.

Nor hath vengeance found / none save the Trojans; there the victors groan, / and valour fires the vanquished. All around / wailings, and wild affright and shapes of death abound.

Nor less kind welcome doth the rest await. / The monarch, mindful of his sire of old, / receives the Teucrians in his courts of state. / They in the hall, the viands piled on gold, / pledging the God of wine, their brimming cups uphold.

So saying, the son of Maia down he sent, / to open Carthage and the Libyan state, / lest Dido, weetless of the Fates' intent, / should drive the Trojan wanderers from her gate.

Sighing, he replies "'Tis here, / the final end of all the Dardan power, / the last, sad day has come, the inevitable hour. / Troy was, and we were Trojans, now, alas! / no more, for perished is the Dardan fame. / Fierce Jove to Argos biddeth all to pass, / and Danaans rule a city wrapt in flame."

There, ministering justice, she presides, / and deals the law, and from her throne of state, / as choice determines or as chance decides, / to each, in equal share, his separate task divides. / Sudden, behold a concourse. Looking down, / his late-lost friends AEneas sees again, / Segestus, brave Cloanthus of renown, / Antheus and others of the Trojan train, / whom the black squall had scattered o'er the main, / and driven afar upon an alien strand.

"O Thou, whose nod and awful bolts attest / o'er Gods and men thine everlasting reign, / wherein hath my AEneas so transgressed, / wherein his Trojans, thus to mourn their slain, / barred from the world, lest Italy they gain?"

Then Dido thus, with downcast look sedate: / "Take courage, Trojans, and dismiss your fear. / My kingdom's newness and the stress of Fate / force me to guard far off the frontiers of my state."

'Or Grecians in these timbers lurk confined, / or 'tis some engine of assault, designed / to breach the walls, and lay our houses bare, / and storm the town. Some mischief lies behind. / Trust not the horse, ye Teucrians. Whatso'er / this means, I fear the Greeks, for all the gifts they bear.'

"As, scared the Phrygian ranks to see, / confused, unarmed, amid the gazing throng, / he stood, 'Alas! what spot on earth or sea / is left,' he cried, 'to shield a wretch like me, / whom Dardans seek in punishment to kill, / and Greeks disown?'"

'Twas night; on earth all creatures were asleep, / when lo! the figures of our gods, the same / whom erst from falling Ilion o'er the deep / I brought, scarce rescued from the midmost flame, / before me, sleepless for my country's shame, / stood plain, in plenteousness of light confessed, / where streaming through the sunken lattice came / the moon's full splendour, and their speech addressed, / and I in heart took comfort, hearing their behest.

Then, audience granted, as the fane they filled, / thus calmly spake the eldest of the train, / Ilioneus: "O queen, whom Jove hath willed / to found this new-born city, here to reign, / and stubborn tribes with justice to refrain, / we, Troy's poor fugitives, implore thy grace, / storm-tost and wandering over every main: / forbid the flames our vessels to deface, / mark our afflicted plight, and spare a pious race."