| Cover design Anna Cole |
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Divins Esprits, dont la poudreuse cendre ... |
Spirits divine, whose powder-ash remains ... |
Le Babylonien ses haults murs vantera ... |
The Babylonian will praise his walls that haunt ... |
Nouveau venu qui cherches Rome en Rome ... |
New visitant, come seeking Rome in Rome ... |
Celle qui de son chef les estoilles passoit ... |
She who, her head passing above the astral beams ... |
Qui voudra voir tout ce qu'ont peu nature ... |
Who wants to see the potency of nature ... |
Telle que dans son char la Berecynthienne ... |
As in her chariot the Berecynthian ... |
Sacrez costaux, et vous sainctes ruines ... |
You sacred ruins, and you blessed inclines ... |
Par armes et vaisseaux Rome donta le monde ... |
Through arms and vessels Rome subjected all the earth ... |
Astres cruelz, et vous Dieux inhumains ... |
Inhuman gods, and stars severe and cold ... |
Plus qu'aux bords Aeteans le brave filz d'Aeson ... |
Just as Aeson’s brave heir, by the Aetean banks ... |
Mars vergongneux d'avoir donné tant d'heur ... |
Mars, red at having given his first race ... |
Telz que lon vid jadis les enfans de la Terre ... |
As formerly the children of the earth were seen ... |
Ny la fureur de la flamme enragee ... |
Neither the flames in fury unabated ... |
Comme on passe en aesté le torrent sans danger ... |
As men in summer safely pass the mountain stream ... |
Palles Esprits, et vous Umbres pouldreuses ... |
You pallid spirits and you ashen shades ... |
Comme l’on void de loing sur la mer courroucee ... |
As one sees from afar the sea in mad convulsion ... |
Tant que l'oyseau de Juppiter vola ... |
As long as Jove’s keen bird his wide wings beat ... |
Ces grands monceaux pierreux, ces vieux murs ... |
These massive heaps of stone, these ancient walls you see ... |
Tout le parfait dont le ciel nous honnore ... |
All perfectness with which Heaven illumes us ... |
Non autrement qu'on void la pluvieuse nüe ... |
Not otherwise than one may see clouds big with rain ... |
Celle que Pyrrhe et le Mars de Libye ... |
She, whom both Pyrrhus and the Libyan Mars ... |
Quand ce brave sejour, honneur du nom Latin ... |
When this grand city, honour of the Latin name ... |
O que celuy estoit cautement sage ... |
Oh, how that man was circumspectly sage ... |
Si l'aveugle fureur, qui cause les batailles ... |
If that blind fury, the original of wars ... |
Que n'ay-je encore la harpe Thracienne ... |
Oh, if I had the poet’s harp of Thrace ... |
Qui voudroit figurer la Romaine grandeur ... |
He who desires to figurate the Roman might ... |
Toy qui de Rome emerveillé contemples ... |
You, whose astonished eye at Rome remarks ... |
Qui a veu quelquefois un grand chesne asseiché ... |
Who has a mighty oak one time seen exsiccated ... |
Tout ce qu'Egypte en poincte façonna ... |
All pillars Egypt tapered to the sky ... |
Comme le champ semé en verdure foisonne ... |
Just as the seeded field teems with viridity ... |
De ce qu'on void plus qu'une vague campagne ... |
For what one sees now as a desolated swathe ... |
Esperez vous que la posterité ... |
And do you harbour hopes posterity ... |