Virgil, Aeneid III.495
Melphi speaks
Vobis parta quies; nullum maris aequor arandum,
The priest translates
«Your rest is won; you have no stretch of sea left to plough,»
And interprets
It is no accident that this line came to you: perhaps you are looking at someone who seems to have already arrived, with a settled home, a steady job, a calm relationship, while you still feel out at sea. A touch of envy or weariness is only natural. Melphi invites you to see it differently: other people’s peace is real and deserves a sincere blessing, but your voyage is not a delay, it is a different road. Do not compare your middle chapter with someone else’s final one. Say a warm goodbye to those who have stopped, and head back out to sea at your own pace.
The historical translations
Annibal Caro (1581)
Vivete lieti voi, cui già la sorte
Vostra è compita: noi di fato in fato,
Di mare in mar tapini andrem cercando
Quel che voi possedete. A noi l’Italia
Tanto ognor se ne va più lunge, quanto
Più la seguiamo; e voi già la sembianza
Vivete lieti voi, cui già la sorte
Vostra è compita: noi di fato in fato,
Di mare in mar tapini andrem cercando
Quel che voi possedete. A noi l’Italia
Tanto ognor se ne va più lunge, quanto
Più la seguiamo; e voi già la sembianza
Theodore C. Williams (1910)
but ye have won repose. No leagues of sea
await your cleaving keel. Not yours the quest
of fading Italy's delusive shore.
but ye have won repose. No leagues of sea
await your cleaving keel. Not yours the quest
of fading Italy's delusive shore.
Source
Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneis, ed. J. B. Greenough (1900)
Virgil, Aeneid III.495