Virgil, Aeneid VIII.560
Melphi speaks
O mihi praeteritos referat si Iuppiter annos,
The priest translates
«Oh, if Jupiter would bring back to me the years gone by,»
And interprets
This line tastes of a sigh, and perhaps you know it well: the wish to have again the energy, the age, the chances you once had. If lately you catch yourself looking back with longing, thinking you could once have done more, know that it is a human and worthy feeling. But the line invites you not to stop there. The years do not come back, and no god returns them; what you can do is put your experience at the service of those setting out now. This is not the time for regret; it is the right time to support, advise and bless those who have the road ahead of them.
The historical translations
Annibal Caro (1581)
Di lagrimar gli dice: O se da Giove
Mi fosse, figlio, di tornar concesso
Ora in quegli anni e ’n quelle forze, ond’io
Di lagrimar gli dice: O se da Giove
Mi fosse, figlio, di tornar concesso
Ora in quegli anni e ’n quelle forze, ond’io
Theodore C. Williams (1910)
“O, that great Jove would give me once again
my vanished years! O, if such man I were,
“O, that great Jove would give me once again
my vanished years! O, if such man I were,
Source
Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneis, ed. J. B. Greenough (1900)
Virgil, Aeneid VIII.560