Читать книгу Latin for Beginners - BENJAMIN L. D’OOGE - Страница 18

The shades of night were falling fast,

As through an Alpine village passed

A youth, who bore, ’mid snow and ice,

A banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

Cadēbant noctis umbrae, dum

Ibat per vīcum Alpicum

Gelū nivequ(e) adolēscēns,

Vēxillum cum signō ferēns,

Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,

Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,

And like a silver clarion rung

The accents of that unknown tongue,

Excelsior!

Frōns trīstis, micat oculus

Velut ē vāgīnā gladius;

Sonantque similēs tubae

Accentūs lingu(ae) incognitae,

Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light

Of household fires gleam warm and bright;

Above, the spectral glaciers shone,

And from his lips escaped a groan,

Excelsior!

In domibus videt clārās

Focōrum lūcēs calidās;

Relucet glaciēs ācris,

Et rumpit gemitūs labrīs,

Excelsior!

“Try not the Pass!” the old man said;

“Dark lowers the tempest overhead,

The roaring torrent is deep and wide!”

And loud that clarion voice replied,

Excelsior!

Dīcit senex, “Nē trānseās!

Suprā nigrēscit tempestās;

Lātus et altus est torrēns.”

Clāra vēnit vōx respondēns,

Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward

The pious monks of Saint Bernard

Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,

A voice cried through the startled air,

Excelsior!

Iam lūcēscēbat, et frātrēs

Sānctī Bernardī vigilēs

Ōrābant precēs solitās,

Cum vōx clāmāvit per aurās,

Excelsior!

A traveler, by the faithful hound,

Half-buried in the snow was found,

Still grasping in his hand of ice

That banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

Sēmi-sepultus viātor

Can(e) ā fīdō reperītur,

Comprēndēns pugnō gelidō

Illud vēxillum cum signō,

Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,

Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,

And from the sky, serene and far,

A voice fell, like a falling star,

Excelsior!

Iacet corpus exanimum

Sed lūce frīgidā pulchrum;

Et caelō procul exiēns

Cadit vōx, ut Stella cadēns,

Excelsior!

[Footnote 6: Translation by C. W. Goodchild in Praeco Latinus, October, 1898.]