Virgil, Aeneid I.150
Melphi speaks
furor arma ministrat;
The priest translates
«Fury supplies the weapons.»
And interprets
Melphi warns you: when you are angry, everything looks like a weapon. A sentence blurted out, a message written at night, a slammed door, an email with everyone in copy. If lately you feel anger rising, at home or at work, the verse tells you something simple: fury always finds something to throw, but it rarely hits the right target. This is not the moment to decide in the heat of it. Watch what you are holding while you are upset, and put it down. Tomorrow you will have the same reasons, but better words.
The historical translations
Annibal Caro (1581)
Quando l’aste e le faci e i sassi volano
E l’impeto e ’l furor l’arme ministrano,
Quando l’aste e le faci e i sassi volano
E l’impeto e ’l furor l’arme ministrano,
Theodore C. Williams (1910)
till rocks and blazing torches fill the air
(rage never lacks for arms)—if haply then
till rocks and blazing torches fill the air
(rage never lacks for arms)—if haply then
Source
Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneis, ed. J. B. Greenough (1900)
Virgil, Aeneid I.150