Kitap 4
To pass that sea by Zephyr's bounds contained,
1
And by the furthest beltSee Mr. Heitland's introduction, upon the meaning of the word 'cardo.' The word 'belt' seems fairly to answer to the two great circles or four meridians which he describes. The word occurs again at line 762; Book V., 80; Book VII., 453, where it is used as meaning a stage of life. of heaven, they pause,
In masses huge convolved; the widest breadth
Of murky air scarce holds them, which divides
Earth from the heavens; till pressed by weight of sky
In densest volume to the earth they pour
Their cataracts; no lightning could endure
Such storm unquenched: though oft athwart the gloom
Gleamed its pale fire. Meanwhile a watery arch
Scarce touched with colour, in imperfect shape
Embraced the sky and drank the ocean waves,
So rendering to the clouds their flood outpoured.
And now the snows which Titan never yet
Could melt were thawed: the Pyrenaean rocks
Are wet with flowing ice; accustomed springs
Find not discharge; and from the very banks
Each stream receives a torrent. Caesar's arms
Are shipwrecked on the field, his tottering camp
Swims on the rising flood; the trench is filled
With whirling waters; and the plain no more
Yields corn or kine; for those who forage seek,
Err from the hidden furrow. Famine knocks
(First herald of o'erwhelming ills to come)
Fierce at the door; and while no foe blockades
The soldier hungers; fortunes buy not now
The meanest measure; yet, alas! is found
The fasting peasant, who, in gain of gold,
Will sell his little all! And now the hills
Are seen no more; rivers in one vast sea
Of whirlpools overwhelmed; beasts borne away
And sucked beneath the stream; their rocky dens
Sweep onwards; and the torrent's raging force
Bears back the inflowing ocean. Nor does night
Acknowledge Phoebus' rise, for all the sky
Feels her dominion and obscures its face,
And darkness joins with darkness. Thus doth lie
The lowest earth beneath the snowy zone
And never-ending winters, where the sky
Is starless ever, and no growth of herb
Sprouts from the frozen earth; but standing ice
