LIBER PRIMUS
Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divumque voluptas,
alma Venus, caeli subter labentia signa
quae mare navigerum, quae terras frugiferentis
concelebras, per te quoniam genus omne animantum
concipitur visitque exortum lumina solis:
te, dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila caeli
adventumque tuum, tibi suavis daedala tellus
summittit flores, tibi rident aequora ponti
placatumque nitet diffuso lumine caelum.
nam simul ac species patefactast verna diei
et reserata viget genitabilis aura favoni,
aeriae primum volucres te, diva, tuumque
significant initum perculsae corda tua vi.
inde ferae pecudes persultant pabula laeta
et rapidos tranant amnis: ita capta lepore
te sequitur cupide quo quamque inducere pergis.
denique per maria ac montis fluviosque rapaces
frondiferasque domos avium camposque virentis
omnibus incutiens blandum per pectora amorem
efficis ut cupide generatim saecla propagent.
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Book I
Mother of Aeneas, delight of gods and men,
fruitful Venus, you who celebrate under heaven's
gliding signs the ship-bearing seas & fruitful shores,
since through you every kind of living being
is conceived & coming forth visits the land
of light:—
you, goddess, from whom the winds flee,
(even clouds of heaven shun your arrival),
& for whom the cunning earth lets sweet buds grow,
& the sea's smooth surfaces laugh and happy skies
shine in celestial light.
For as soon as the spring-like face
of day appears,with its strong & life-giving west-wind,
birds are first, goddess, to make your presence known,
all their resistance beaten down.
Then the wild beasts
scour the joyous fields and pass through rapids: so en-
thralling is your charm that all living things ardently go
wherever you hasten to take them.
And in the midst of seas, mountains and violent floods, the birds' leafy nests and verdant plains, you entice them with an alluring love, the kind that keeps the species going.