Thursday, November 12, 2009





Lucan V. 219-224:

Dumque a luce sacra, qua vidit fata, refertur
Ad volgare iubar, mediae venere tenebrae.
Inmisit Stygiam Paean in viscera Lethen,
Quae raperet secreta deum. Tum pectore verum
Fugit, et ad Phoebi tripodas rediere futura,
Vixque refecta cadit.

A 1983 translation by me:

...and as she was carried back to the common day
out of the sacred radiance she saw destiny in,
a darkness came between. The Healer threw
Stygian Lethe in her guts
so he could grab his secrets. Then the truth
left her breast, and the futures returned to the tripods.
--She fell, to be barely revived.

Rowe (1718):

Now by degrees the fire aetherial fail'd,
And the dull human sense again prevail'd;
While Phoebus, sudden, in a marky shade,
Hid the past vision from the mortal maid.
Thick clouds of dark oblivion rose between,
And snatch away at once the wondrous scene;
Stretch'd on the ground the fainting princess lies,
While to the Tripod, back, th' informing spirit flies.

Widdows (1988):

And while she was slowly returning,
After the heavenly vision in which she had learned of the future,
Back to the common daylight, a darkness fell on her senses
While Apollo dispelled her secret knowledge by pouring
Into her spirit the water of Lethe. The truth of the future
Vanished from her mind and returned to the tripod of Phoebus.

Braund (1992):

And while she is returned to common daylight from the sacred light
by which she saw the Fates, darkness intervened.
Paean admitted Stygian Lethe into her guts
to snatch away the secrets of the gods. Then truth flies
from her breast and the future returns to Phoebus' tripods...

Joyce (1993):

While she returned to common light from the holy brilliance
which bathed her visions, a spell of darkness overcame her.
Paean infused her marrow with fluid from Stygian Lethê,
to flush out the Gods' secrets. At length, the truth fled
from her heart, and the future returned to the tripod of Phoebus...


'Will' and 'shall'.

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