Kitap 1
' Throughout the ages wander at their will;
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' Or, if the fates control them, ruin huge
' Hangs o'er this city and o'er all mankind.
' Shall Earth yawn open and engulph the towns?
' Shall scorching heat usurp the temperate air
' And fields refuse their timely fruit? The streams
' Flow mixed with poison? In what plague, ye gods,
'In what destruction shall ye wreak your ire?
'Whate'er the truth, the days in which we live
' Shall find a doom for many. Had the star
' Of baleful Saturn, frigid in the height,
' Kindled his lurid fires, the sky had poured
'Its torrents forth as in Deucalion's time,
' And whelmed the world in waters. Or if thou,
' Phoebus, beside the Nemean lion fierce
' Wert driving now thy chariot, flames should seize
'The universe and set the air ablaze.
' These are at peace; but, Mars, why art thou bent
' On kindling thus the Scorpion, his tail
' Portending evil and his claws aflame?
' Deep sunk is kindly Jupiter, and dull
' Sweet Venus' star, and rapid Mercury
' Stays on his course: Mars only holds the sky.
'Why does Orion's sword too brightly shine?
' Why planets leave their paths and through the void
'Thus journey on obscure? Tis war that comes,
' Fierce rabid war: the sword shall bear the rule
' Confounding justice; hateful crime usurp
' The name of virtue; and the havoc spread
' Through many a year. But why entreat the gods?
' The end Rome longs for and the final peace
'Comes with a despot. Draw thou out thy chain
'Of lengthening slaughter, and (for such thy fate)
' Make good thy liberty through civil war.'
The frightened people heard, and as they heard
His words prophetic made them fear the more.
But worse remained; for as on Pindus' slopes
Possessed with fury from the Theban god
Speeds some Bacchante, thus in Roman streets
Behold a matron run, who, in her trance,
