Pharsalia Book 1: Lines 1-7

Posted: April 22, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Pharsalia | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Since I’ve finished The Apology of the Augsburg Confession: A Latin Reader, I’m moving on to my next long range project: a translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia! As I finish sections of translating, I’ll post them as manageable bites for readers to enjoy.

Book I Lines 1-7 

Bella per Emathios plus quam ciuilia campos

iusque datum[1] sceleri canimus[2], populumque potentem

in sua uictrici conuersum[3] uiscera dextra

cognatasque acies, et rupto foedere[4] regni

certatum totis concussi[5] uiribus orbis                 

in commune nefas, infestisque obuia signis signa, pares aquilas et pila minantia[6] pilis.

[1] A perfect passive participle

[2] The main verb, which although plural is used singularly, here is deferred, undoubtedly as a nod to the epic tradition and Vergil, and it governs this entire passage by taking the following direct objects: bella, ius, populum, acies, certatum, signa, aquilas and pila

[3] A perfect passive participle

[4] Rupto foedere: an ablative absolute

[5] A perfect passive participle

[6] A present active participle

I sing of wars more than civil through the Emathian plains and of the permission given to the wicked, and of a powerful people turned into its own vitals by its own conquering right hand and of its armies of kin and of the struggle of a kingdom, once a pact had been broken, shaken by all the powers of the world in a mutual violation of the divine law, and of battle standards hostile to hostile standards, and of rival eagles and javelins making threats to javelins.

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