Virgil, Aeneid II.274-275
Melphi speaks
Ei mihi, qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo
Hectore,
The priest translates
«Ah me, what a sight he was, how changed from that Hector,»
And interprets
This line speaks of the pain of seeing someone or something you loved changed. Perhaps a person dear to you is no longer who they were, through illness, exhaustion or disappointment; perhaps it is you who look in the mirror and fail to recognise the energy of a few years ago. Melphi welcomes this sadness and does not brush it aside. But it points something out: in the poem, that very changed Hector brings a decisive message. Whoever has lost their shine has not lost their worth. Stop measuring the present against the best image of the past, and listen to what this person, or this part of you, still has to tell you today.
The historical translations
Annibal Caro (1581)
Lasso me! quale e quanto era mutato
Da quell’Ettòr che ritornò vestito
Lasso me! quale e quanto era mutato
Da quell’Ettòr che ritornò vestito
Theodore C. Williams (1910)
pierced with a cruel thong. Ah me! what change
from glorious Hector when he homeward bore
pierced with a cruel thong. Ah me! what change
from glorious Hector when he homeward bore
Source
Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneis, ed. J. B. Greenough (1900)
Virgil, Aeneid II.274-275