“That said, he drags the old man
straight to the altar, quaking, slithering on through
slicks of his son’s blood, and twisting Priam’s hair
in his left hand, his right hand sweeping forth his sword—
a flash of steel—he buries it hilt-deep in the king’s flank.
“Such was the fate of Priam, his death, his lot on earth,
with Troy blazing before his eyes, her ramparts down,
the monarch who once had ruled in all his glory
the many lands of Asia, Asia’s many tribes.
A powerful trunk is lying on the shore.
The head wrenched from the shoulders.
A corpse without a name.
Priam之死,维吉尔写特洛伊沦陷这段确实惊心动魄。
Think: it’s not that beauty, Helen, you should hate,
not even Paris, the man that you should blame, no,
it’s the gods, the ruthless gods who are tearing down
the wealth of Troy, her toppling crown of towers.
没想到维纳斯直接对儿子说不要怨海伦也不要怨帕里斯,怨诸神吧。
我知道有点套路但是读起来还是心酸:要是Astyanax还活着,他该跟你一样大了
“Andromache grieves no less at our final parting.
She brings out robes shot through with gilded thread
and a Phrygian cloak for Ascanius. Not to be outdone
in kindness, weighing him down with woven gifts
she says: ‘Please take these as well, the work
of my hands, reminders of me to you, dear boy,
and tokens of my love . . .
the love of Hector’s Andromache that never dies.
Take them. The last gifts from your own people.
You are the only image of my Astyanax that’s left.
His eyes, his hands, his features, so like yours—
he would be growing up now, just your age.’
#TheAeneid #埃涅阿斯纪
原来罗马的习俗是Proserpina取走死人的一缕头发吗?
With that, she cut the lock with her hand and all at once
the warmth slipped away, the life dissolved in the winds.
【就莫名想起了Candle In the Wind
以及这段里对彩虹女神Iris的描写好美啊,她飞过的地方就会留下彩虹的痕迹
更正:昨天晚上读的时候没注意,珀耳塞福涅只是取走头发作为她的供品,这里Iris代她行使这个职责,因为Dido是自杀的。
#TheAeneid #埃涅阿斯纪
原来竞技赛上夺冠的标志是棕榈叶呀(居然不是桂冠什么的)!
但是棕榈叶要怎么颁奖,抱着?拖着?那么大一个叶子怎么举着都很诡异(别跟我说戴头上)。
更正:读到后面确实是戴桂冠。只有拳击比赛的胜利者才有棕榈叶。
#TheAeneid #埃涅阿斯纪
维吉尔笔下的冥府又不一样,榆树的每一片叶子下都有一个假的梦:
There in the midst, a giant shadowy elm tree spreads
her ancient branching arms, home, they say, to swarms
of false dreams, one clinging tight under each leaf.
诡异,在维吉尔笔下梦境的两扇门是冥府的出口:
There are twin Gates of Sleep.
One, they say, is called the Gate of Horn
and it offers easy passage to all true shades.
The other glistens with ivory, radiant, flawless,
but through it the dead send false dreams up toward the sky.
And here Anchises, his vision told in full, escorts
his son and Sibyl both and shows them out now
through the Ivory Gate.
【不过说来梦是死亡的弟弟...】
今天在别的地方读到这段quote,冥府里埃涅阿斯的父亲给他描绘远大未来时说的:
“Others, I have no doubt,
will forge the bronze to breathe with suppler lines,
draw from the block of marble features quick with life,
plead their cases better, chart with their rods the stars
that climb the sky and foretell the times they rise.
But you, Roman, remember, rule with all your power
the peoples of the earth—these will be your arts:
to put your stamp on the works and ways of peace,
to spare the defeated, break the proud in war.”
#TheAeneid #埃涅阿斯纪
又遇到了中英文大相径庭的翻译:
Robert Fagles:
Let them sing of such an alliance, such a wedding hymn,
the matchless son of Venus and that grand King Latinus!
杨周翰:
这就是维纳斯的好儿子和拉提努斯王两家结亲的庆典了。