ProZ.com translation contests »
Inspired by poetry: "Ploughing mountainsides" » English to Latin » Entry by Claudio Napoli


Source text in English

Translation by Claudio Napoli (#29657)

The Beginning

All in a moment, years ago,
The boy I was became a man:
Suddenly my life began!
I saw the world before me— So
That ploughman by his horses stands
Sweating on the first hill's brow,
Having left the riverlands
Furrowed in the vale below,
And sees a mountainside to plough,
Barren rock to blunt his share,
Thunder hanging in the air,
And the black peak above him, bare,
Waiting now.
—Let him plough it if he dare!
Exordium

Repente, annos abhinc multos,
tum puer, nunc vir factus sum:
Adulta statim aetas mea incohavit!
Ob oculos versatus est orbis –eodem
arator modo stat iuxta equos,
in labro primi clivi cum laboret,
relictis amnibus imbutis agris,
in valle exaratis inferiore,
ac vidit locum colendum praeruptum,
vomerem retusurum saxum sterile,
in aere quidem fulmen pendens
sub atro nudoque cacumine,
ilico expectante pugnam.
–Si audeat, aret!


Discuss this entry