Virgile citations

“Anna ma sœur, quelles visions nocturnes m'inquiètent et m'effraient! Quel est ce nouvel hôte entré dans nos demeures!”
Anna soror, quae me suspensam insomnia terrent! Quis novus hic nostris successit sedibus hospes!

“Quoi qu'il en soit, je crains les Danaens même quand ils portent des offrandes.”
Quicquid est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.

“Muses de Sicile, élevons un peu le sujet de nos chants.”
Sicelides Musae, paulo maiora canamus.

“La Fortune favorise les audacieux.”
Audentes fortuna juvat.

“Ils allaient obscurs sous la nuit solitaire parmi l'ombre, à travers les palais vides de Dis et son royaume d'apparences; ainsi par une lune incertaine, sous une clarté douteuse, on chemine dans les bois quand Jupiter a enfoui le ciel dans l'ombre et que la nuit noire a décoloré les choses.”

“Toi, Tityre, étendu sous le couvert d'un large hêtre, tu essaies un air silvestre sur un mince pipeau; nous autres, nous quittons notre pays et nos chères campagnes; loin du pays nous sommes exilés; toi, Tityre, nonchalant sous l'ombrage, tu apprends aux bois à redire le nom de la belle Amaryllis.”

“Je vais chanter la guerre et celui qui, exilé prédestiné (tout a commencé par lui), vint, des parages de Troie, en Italie, à Lavinium, sur le rivage. Lui qui, sur terre et sur mer, fut longtemps le jouet des puissances célestes, à cause de la rancune tenace de la cruelle Junon; qui eut tant à souffrir de la guerre, pour fonder à ce prix une ville et installer ses Pénates dans le Latium. D'où la nation latine, Albe et ses Anciens, et les murailles de la noble Rome. Muse, dis-m'en les raisons : quelque divinité offensée? Quelque grief de la reine des dieux, qui aura amené un homme à parcourir un pareil cycle de malheurs, à affronter autant d'épreuves? De pareilles rancunes en des âmes célestes?”

“Fortune favors the bold.”
Audentes fortuna iuvat.

“I have lived
and journeyed through the course assigned by fortune.
And now my Shade will pass, illustrious,
beneath the earth.”
Vixi, et, quem dederat cursum Fortuna, peregi; Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit Imago.

“Even here, merit will have its true reward…
even here, the world is a world of tears
and the burdens of mortality touch the heart.”
Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi, Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.

“Each of us bears his own Hell.”
Quisque suos patimur manis.

“Do the gods light this fire in our hearts
or does each man's mad desire become his god?”
Dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt, Euryale, an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido?

“Let my delight be the country, and the running streams amid the dells—may I love the waters and the woods, though I be unknown to fame.”
Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes, Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius.

“Fate withstands.”

“Who knows?
Better times may come to those in pain.”
Forsan miseros meliora sequentur.

“Toil conquered the world, unrelenting toil, and want that pinches when life is hard.”
Labor omnia vicit<!--uicit--> improbus et duris urgens in rebus egestas.

“Love conquers all. Let Love then smile at our defeat.”
Omnia vincit Amor; et nos cedamus Amori.

“If we may compare small things with great.”
Si parva licet componere magnis.

“Wars, horrid wars.”
Bella, horrida bella.

“Euryalus
In death went reeling down,
And blood streamed on his handsome length, his neck
Collapsing let his head fall on his shoulder—
As a bright flower cut by a passing plow
Will droop and wither slowly, or a poppy
Bow its head upon its tired stalk
When overborne by a passing rain.”
Volvitur Euryalus leto, pulchrosque per artus It cruor inque umeros cervix conlapsa recumbit: Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro Languescit moriens; lassove papavera collo Demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur.

“Unconscionable Love,
To what extremes will you not drive our hearts!”
Improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis!

“O farmers, pray that your summers be wet and your winters clear.”
Umida<!--Humida?--> solstitia atque hiemes orate serenas, agricolae.

“Every field, every tree is now budding; now the woods are green, now the year is at its loveliest.”
Nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbor; Nunc frondent sylvae, nunc formosissimus annus.

“Wrapping truth in darkness.”

“Following what is decreed by fate.”

“It is come—the last day and inevitable hour for Troy.”
Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus Dardaniae.

“I made these little verses, another took the honor.”
Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores.

“Every man's last day is fixed.
Lifetimes are brief and not to be regained,
For all mankind. But by their deeds to make
Their fame last: that is labor for the brave.”
Stat sua cuique dies, breve et inreparabile tempus Omnibus est vitae; sed famam extendere factis, Hoc virtutis opus.

“Obscure they went through dreary shades, that led
Along the waste dominions of the dead.”
Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram, Perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna.

“Trust the expert.”

“How lucky, if they know their happiness,
Are farmers, more than lucky, they for whom,
Far from the clash of arms, the earth herself,
Most fair in dealing, freely lavishes
An easy livelihood.”
O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint Agricolas, quibus ipsa, procul discordibus armis, Fundit humo facilem victum justissima tellus!

“By the aid of art.”

“I am the poet who once tuned his song
On a slender reed and then leaving the woods
Compelled the fields to obey the hungry farmer,
A pleasing work. But now War's grim and savage …”
Ille ego, qui quondam gracili modulatus avena Carmen, et egressus silvis vicina coegi Ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, Gratum opus agricolis, at nunc horrentia Martis<!-- Arma virumque cano--> ...

“Vice thrives and lives by concealment.”
Alitur vitium, vivitque tegendo.

“Many colors blend into one.”
Color est e pluribus unus.

“Can such resentment hold the minds of gods?”
Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?