| ANTIQUITEZ DE ROME - XXXI |
THE RUINS THAT WERE ROME - XXXI |
| Joachim Du Bellay | tr. Michael Haldane |
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| De ce qu'on void plus qu'une vague campagne, |
For what one sees now as a desolated swathe, |
| Où tout l'orgueil du monde on a veu quelquefois, |
In which one saw the world’s presumption formerly, |
| Tu n'en n'es pas coupable, ô quiconques tu sois |
You do not bear the guilt, whoever you may be, |
| Que le Tygre, et le Nil, Gange, et Euphrate baigne: |
Whom Nile or Tigris, Ganges or Euphrates bathe; |
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| Coupables n'en sont pas l'Afrique ny l'Espaigne, |
And culpable is neither Africa nor Spain, |
| Ny ce peuple qui tient les rivages Anglois, |
Nor is that race which holds the English waterline, |
| Ny ce brave soldat qui boit le Rhin Gaulois, |
Nor is that soldier brave who laps the Gaulish Rhine, |
| Ny cet autre guerrier, nourrisson d'Alemaigne. |
Nor is that warrior, the nursling of Almaine. |
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| Tu en es seule cause, ô civile fureur, |
You are the only cause, O dreadful civil rage, |
| Qui semant par les champs l'Emathienne horreur, |
Which seeded the Emathian severity, |
| Armas le propre gendre encontre son beaupere: |
The son-in-law against his consort’s father arming: |
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| Afin qu'estant venue à son degré plus hault, |
So that having proceeded to its highest stage, |
| La Romaine grandeur trop longuement prospere, |
The Roman grandeur, in too long prosperity, |
| Se vist ruer à bas d'un plus horrible sault. |
Was seen to fall with ruin all the more alarming. |