Virgil, Aeneid VIII.596
Melphi speaks
quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.
The priest translates
«With a galloping thunder the hoof shakes the crumbling plain.»
And interprets
You hear this line before you understand it: it has the rhythm of a gallop. And that is exactly what it brings you, a movement already under way. If you have long been waiting for something to get unstuck, at work, in a project, in a negotiation, know that things are speeding up. The ground shakes a little, and that is normal: every advance makes noise and raises dust. This is not the time to brake for fear of the noise. It is the right time to keep pace, stay in the saddle and hold your course. Just take care not to be carried off by speed: a good rider knows where they are going.
The historical translations
Annibal Caro (1581)
Al calpitar de la ferrata torma,
Fa ’l campo risonar tremante e trito.
Al calpitar de la ferrata torma,
Fa ’l campo risonar tremante e trito.
Theodore C. Williams (1910)
the pounding hoof-beats shake the crumbling ground.
the pounding hoof-beats shake the crumbling ground.
Source
Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneis, ed. J. B. Greenough (1900)
Virgil, Aeneid VIII.596