Kitap 7
When thou art present.This appears to be the only possible meaning of the text. But in truth, although Cornelia was not by her husband's side at his murder, she was present at the scene.
1
Though fearing not the weapons at his back,
Pompeius fled, his mighty soul prepared
To meet his final doom. He saw thy field,
Pharsalia, tearless and without a groan;
For solemn grief and majesty of mien
Were in his face, as for the woes of Rome.
No pride in him the day of victory found,
Nor rout shall find despair; alike in days
When fickle Fortune triple triumph gave
And when she fled, her lord.
Of thine impending fate, thou partest free
To muse upon the happy days of yore.
Hope now has fled; but in the fleeting past
How wast thou great! Seek thou the wars no more,
And call the gods to witness that for thee
Henceforth no man shall die. The fights to come
On Afric's mournful shore, by Pharos' stream
And fateful Munda, and the final scene
Of dire Pharsalia's battle are not thine.
Thy name no more shall stir the world to war,
But those great rivals biding with us yet,
Caesar and Liberty; and not for thee
When thou hadst fled the field, but for itself
The dying Senate still upheld the fight.
Find'st thou not solace thus to quit the field
Nor witness all the horrors of its close?
Look back upon the crimsoned ranks of war,
The rivers turbid with ensanguined stream;
Then pity thou thy kinsman. How shall he
Enter the city, who on such a field
Finds happiness? Whate'er in lands unknown
Thine exiled lot, whate'er the Pharian king
May place upon thee, trust thou in the gods;
Trust the long story of the favouring fates:
'Twere worse to conquer. Then forbid the tear,
The nation's grief, the weeping of mankind,
And let the world adore thee in defeat
