Garcilaso de la Vega: Garcilaso de la Vega

With wife, children, brothers, and native soil left behind,
an exile, through frigid places,
an alumnus of the muses, of the barbarians
pride and insolences to bear

mores coactus, iam didici, invia
per saxa, voces ingeminantia
fletusque, sub rauco querelas
murmure Danubii levare.

coerced to the customs, now I have learned, through pathless
rocks, ingeminating voices and tears,
to alleviate complaints beneath the raucous
murmur of the Danube.

O nate tristem sollicitudine
lenire mentem et rebus atrociter
urgentibus fulcire amici
pectora docte manu, Thylesi,

O born to soothe a mind sad with solicitude
and, as things press atrociously,
to shore up a friend’s breast
with a skillful hand, Thylesi,

iam, iam sonantem Delius admovet,
dexter tacentem barbiton antea:
cantare Sebethi suadent
ad vaga flumina cursitantes

now, now the Delian deftly brings near,
with his right hand, the barbiton, silent before, now sounding:
those running about to the wandering streams
of the Sebethus urge me to sing

nymphae; iam amatis moenibus inclyte
non urbis, amnis quam Tagus aureo
nodare nexu gestit, ultra
me lacerat modum amor furentem;

nymphs; now, O illustrious one, with beloved walls
not of a city, of a river which the Tagus longs
to knot with a golden nexus, beyond
measure love lacerates me as I rage;

sirenum amoena iam patria iuvat
cultoque pulchra Parthenope solo,
iuxtaque manes considere
vel potius cineres, Maronis.

now the pleasant fatherland of the Sirens delights
and fair Parthenope with cultivated soil,
and to sit beside the shades,
or rather the ashes, of Maro.

Aegro deorum quis tulerit rogas
herbis repostis, auxilium potens
mentisque consternationem
cantibus et fidibus levarit:

Who would bring to the gods petitions for the ailing
with stored herbs, powerful in aid,
and lighten the mind’s consternation
with songs and with strings:

idem sonanti ciu vaga flumina
sistunt, silentes margine vortices
ventosque narratur frementes
per nermora ardua conquiesse.

the same, with a sounding lyre, the wandering rivers
they halt, the vortices silent at the margin,
and the roaring winds are said
to have come to rest through the lofty groves.

Hic nam revinxit me tibi vinculo
gratis Camoenae quod mihi nexibus
texere, praelargus; quid ultra
me miserum potuit iuvare?

For here he re-bound me to you with a bond
of the Camenae’s favor, what they wove for me with interlacings,
most lavish; what further
could have aided me, wretched?

Imbrem beatis nubibus aureum
vivaque talum compede candidum
nexam puellam coniungemque
languidulis oculis querentem,

a golden rain from blessed clouds
and the living ankle, snow-white, with a fetter,
the bound maiden and bride,
complaining with languid little eyes,

carmen canentis sic animum rapit
mentemque ut omnes subiaceant graves
curae et labores evolenque
aliger his super elevatus.

thus the song of the singer snatches the spirit
and the mind, so that all grave cares
and labors lie beneath, and, flying out,
the winged one is elevated above these things.

Te, mi Thylesi, te comite obtulit
sese parentis quem veneror loco,
cui dulce pignus nostri amoris
non animum pigeat patere:

You, my Thylesis, with you as companion he offered himself,
him whom I venerate in the place of a parent,
to whom may it not irk that his spirit
be open to the sweet pledge of our love:

arcana divum dum reserat, novus
huic pectus alte sollicitat furor,
curare seu mortalium res
coelicolas grave sive monstrat

while he unseals the arcana of the gods, a new
fury deeply stirs his breast,
whether he shows that to care for the affairs of mortals
is grave to the heaven-dwellers

natos parentum crimina ob impia
vexari, ut, auras carpere dum licet,
nec luxui ipsi indulgeant, nec
poena parentibus ulla desit.

children to be vexed for the impious crimes of their parents,
so that, while it is permitted to breathe the air,
they neither indulge luxury itself, nor
is any punishment lacking to the parents.

Haec aure cuncti praecipue imbibunt
alte silentes et Marius meus
rerumque multarum refertus
atque memor Placitus bonarum.

These things all will especially imbibe with the ear,
deeply silent; and my Marius,
replete with many matters,
and Placitus, mindful of good things.

Honesta cunctos hinc domus accipit
liberque sermo nascitur, haud tamen
impune, nam si tortuosis
nexibus implicitum quid audes

From here an honorable house receives all,
and free discourse is born, not, however,
with impunity, for if, in tortuous nexuses,
you dare anything implicated

suadere, sperans ingeniosius
quam verius nos pertrahere ad tuum
sensum statim aggressa est cohors te,
ut ciconum irruit in canentem.

to persuade, hoping more ingeniously
than truly to drag us over to your
sense, at once your cohort attacked you,
as that of the Cicones rushed upon the singer.

Num tu fluentem divitiis Tagum,
num prata gyris uvida roscidis
mutare me insanum putabas,
dulcibus immemoremque amicis?

Did you think me insane to trade the Tagus flowing with riches,
or meadows moist with dewy rings,
and to become forgetful
of sweet friends?

II. AD GENESIUM SEPULVEDAM.

2. TO GENESIUS SEPULVEDA.

Arcum quando adeo relligionis et
saevae militiae ducere longius,
ut curvata coire
inter se capita haud negent,

When to draw the bow of religion and
of savage militia so much farther,
that the bent
heads do not refuse to come together among themselves,

uni musa tibi, docte Sepulveda,
concessit: pariter dicere et Africam
incumbit pavitantem
sub rege intrepido et pio,

to you alone has the Muse conceded, learned Sepulveda:
it is equally incumbent upon you to speak, and to tell of Africa
trembling beneath a king intrepid and pious,

qui insigni maculis vectus equo citos
pravertit rapidus densa per agmina
ventos, fervidus hastam
laetalem quatiens manu;

who, borne on a horse emblazoned with spots,
rapid, outstrips the swift winds through dense ranks,
fervid, brandishing the lethal spear
with his hand;

dat cui non aliter turba locum leves
quam flammis stipulae per nemus aridum
aut coelum per apertum
ventis dant nebulae vagis.

to whom the crowd gives place no otherwise
than stubble to flames through an arid grove,
or through the open sky
light clouds give to vagrant winds.

Pugnas perpetuo dum trepidos agit
giro, saevus uti Massylias leo
per silvas, Nomadasve
imbelles agitat feras,

While he, in a perpetual gyre, drives the terrified to battles,
savage as a Massylian lion
through the forests, or the unwarlike Nomads
he chases like wild beasts,

suspirant timido pectore turribus
ex altis aciem lata per aequora
campi tendere suetae,
sponsae nuper amoribus

they sigh with a timid breast, from lofty towers
accustomed to stretch their keen gaze across the broad levels
of the field, brides,
lately in their amours

orbatae: Heu!, iuvenes, Caesaris, inquiunt,
vitate imparibus viribus armaque
congressusque nefandos.
Quando nomina posteris

bereft: Alas!, youths, Caesar’s, they say,
avoid with unequal forces both arms and nefarious
encounters. When will names to posterity

mater caesa dedit, dum puerum student
languentem eruere e visceribus, genus
hinc est caesarum, hinc est
gaudens caede nova. Putas

a mother, cut, delivered him, while they strive
to tear the languishing boy out from her entrails, from this
is the lineage of the Caesars, from this is
one rejoicing in new slaughter. Do you suppose

saevum funere limine qui pedem
ad vitam imposuit, non ferat indidem
ingeneretque furorem
et caedis calidae sitim?

he, savage at the funereal threshold, who set his foot
upon life—would he not carry from that same place
and engender fury
and a thirst for hot slaughter?

III.

Sedes ad cyprias Venus,
cui centum redolent usque calentia
thure altaria sacro,
sertis vincta comas, nuda agitans choros
gaudebat, cum puer appulit,
depromptis iaculis e pharetra aureis,
depromptis quoque plumbeis,
queis terras violens subdit et aequora,
queis coeleste sibi genus.
Tum mater, miserans terrigenum simul
divorumque vicem, prior
demulcens leviter caesariem auream
melliti pueri, incipit:
Heu!, nate, usque adeo flagitiis eris
istis insatiabilis,
non tantum ut miserum perditum eas genus
humanum, excrucians modis
indignis homines, verum etiam in deos
ausis stringere spicula?
Impulsu altitonans saepe tuo induit
quam turpem deo imaginem!

Venus sits at the Cyprian shrines,
to whom a hundred altars, ever warm, are fragrant with sacred incense,
her hair bound with garlands, nude, leading dances,
she rejoiced, when the boy drew near,
with golden javelins drawn from his quiver,
with leaden ones also drawn,
with which, violent, he subjects the lands and the seas,
with which the celestial race to himself.
Then the mother, pitying at once the plight of the earthborn
and of the gods, first,
gently stroking the golden hair
of the honey-sweet boy, begins:
Alas!, son, will you be to such a degree insatiable
of those flagitious deeds,
not only so that you go to ruin the wretched human race,
tormenting men by unworthy modes,
but even to draw your little darts against the gods
in audacity?
At your impulse the High-Thundering one has often assumed
what shameful image for a god!

Nunc taurus nivea conspicuus nota
frontem, caetera candidus,
imber nunc liquido virgineum aureus
fluxu per gremium micat.
Lunam per tacitum saepe silentium
saxis sub Iove latmiis
sopiti rapidis ignibus exscitam
coeli culmine devocas.
Cessare ad Clymemem crinigerum facis
Phoebum, qui quasi negligens
terris officium solvere debitum,
auriga est habitus piger.

Now a bull, conspicuous with a snowy mark
on the forehead, the rest pure-white;
now a golden shower with liquid
flow glitters through a virginal bosom.
Through tacit silence oft the Moon
among the Latmian rocks beneath Jove,
awakened by the swift fires of the sleeping one,
from heaven’s pinnacle you call down.
You make shaggy-maned Phoebus linger by Clymene,
who, as if negligent,
to the lands to discharge the due office,
is held a slothful charioteer.

In me si sceleris quid meditabere
matrem, ut mos tibi, perfide, est,
non aegre aut graviter perpetiar modo
figas nequitiae modum.
Sed quid, cum dominam figere Dindymi
laetaris tibi vis, puer?
Longeva atque parens pene deum omnium
cum sit, nec iodo idonea,
illam caecus eo perpulit at furor.

If against me you will be meditating any crime,
your mother— as is your custom, perfidious one—,
I will not bear it with difficulty or heaviness, provided
you fix a measure to your iniquity.
But why, when to pierce the Mistress of Dindymus
you rejoice, do you wish this for yourself, boy?
Although she is long‑lived and the parent of almost all the gods,
and not suitable for a joke,
yet blind fury has driven you to this.

Attyn perdite ut arserit.
Cumque ignes penitus viscera permeent,
iunctis vecta leonibus
Idae per nemorum saxa virentium
fertur; quam volitans cohors
recta consequitur parsque micantibus
palmis tympana verberat
ingentique sonat voce nemus virens
cunctorumque simul fera
insanum rabies pectus agit. Proin
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
mater cuncta timens (omen inane sit!)
tristi discrucior metu,
ne forte Cybele, si resipiscat aut
haec pergat potius suo
insanire modo, saeva leonibus
te natum tenerum imperet
se coram ut lacerent namque erit aut sui
vindex aut animi impotens.

Attis, how desperately he has blazed.
And when the fires thoroughly permeate his innards,
borne by yoked lions,
she is carried through the rocks of the green groves of Ida;
whom a flitting cohort follows straight,
and part with flashing palms beats the tympana,
and the green grove resounds with a huge voice,
and the savage frenzy of all together drives the frenzied breast. Therefore
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
as a mother fearing everything (let it be an empty omen!)
I am racked with dreary fear,
lest perhaps Cybele, whether she come back to her senses or
rather go on to be mad in her own manner,
order her lions, savage, that you, her tender-born son,
be torn before her face; for she will be either the vindicator of herself
or impotent of her spirit.

Praesenti esto animo, mater, ait puer,
nec te sollicitet metus,
mitescunt adeo namque mihi feri
isti, quos metuis, juba ut
prensa ritu equitis non trepide insidens
tergis hos agitem vagus,
caudis incipiunt, auribus et mihi
adblandirier interim,
dumque ori digitos, dumque manum insero,
reddunt innocuam mihi.
Postremo quid ego pecco tibi, aut aliis
cum res sedulus offero
pulcras ante oculos monstrosque lucidis
pictas usque coloribus?
Vos iam desinite aut appetere omnia haec
aut sic obicere id mihi.

“Be of a present mind, mother,” says the boy,
“and let not fear solicit you;
for to such a degree even the feral ones
those, whom you fear, grow mild, that, with the mane
grasped, in the rite of a horseman, sitting without trepidation
upon their backs, I, roving, drive them—
with their tails they begin, and with their ears, meanwhile,
to fawn upon me;
and while into the mouth I insert my fingers, and even my hand,
they render it harmless to me.
Finally, how do I sin against you, or against others,
when I, sedulous, offer things fair
before the eyes and demonstrate things painted through and through with lucid colors?
Do you now cease either to crave all these things,
or thus to object this to me.”

Num vis, mater, uti, Mars tuus haud te amet
posthac? nec redames eum?
Natus sum atque potens; impera et obsequar.

Do you wish, mother, that your Mars not love you hereafter?
nor that you love him back?
I am born and potent; command, and I will obey.

Nulla ut non superans, pues,
in re es, quim celebri bile etiam tumes,
nostro haud subtrahe te, puer,
amplexu; peto nil praeter id amplius.

Surpassing all things, well then,
you are in the right, since you even swell with notorious bile;
do not withdraw yourself, boy, from my embrace;
I seek nothing beyond that further.

IV. AD FERDINANDUM DE ACUÑA, EPIGRAMMA.

4. TO FERDINAND DE ACUÑA, EPIGRAM.

Dum Reges, Fernande, canis, dum Caesaris altam
progeniem nostri, claraque facta ducum,
dum Hispana memoras fractas sub cuspide gentes,
obstupuere homines, obstupuere Dei:
extollensque caput sacri de vertice Pindi
Calliope blandis vocibus haec retulit;
Macte, puer, gemina praecinctus tempora lauro,
qui nova nunc Martis gloria solus eras;
hec tibi dat Bacchusque pater, dat Phoebus Apollo,
Nympharumque leves Castalidumque chori,
ut quos divino celebrasti carmine Reges,
teque simul curva qui canis arma lyra,
saepe legant, laudent, celebrent post fata Nepotes:
nullaque perpetuo nox fuget atra dies.

While you sing, Fernando, of Kings, while of Caesar’s lofty
progeny of ours, and the illustrious deeds of leaders,
while you recall the nations broken beneath the Spanish spear,
men stood agape, the Gods stood agape:
and lifting her head from the sacred summit of Pindus
Calliope with soothing voices spoke these words:
Well done, youth, your temples girt with twin laurel,
you who now alone are a new glory of Mars;
this Father Bacchus grants you—Phoebus Apollo grants it too—
and the light choirs of the Nymphs and of the Castalids,
that the Kings whom you have celebrated with divine song,
and you as well, who with the curved lyre sing of arms,
posterity may often read, praise, and celebrate after your fate;
and let no black night ever banish your day.