Earth was clothed o'er with undulating wood,
With verdant herbs and flowering trees around,
Producing various pastures, yielding food
For all the animals that there abound:
And there the brilliant form, all sculptured, stood
Of Water, intermingled with the ground,
Creating fish of every sort and kind,
Which sustenance within the liquid find.
Sculptures in other parts the warfare show,
Wherein the Gods the giants overcame,
Typhon the lofty mountain lies below
Cf Etna, throwing forth the crackling flame;
A Neptune, sculptured, strikes on earth his blow
Wherefrom to people barbarous there came
The horse; and also sculptured doth he see
Minerva's first pacific olive-tree.
But little doth enraged Lyæus care
To loiter o'er these sights, but enters straight
To Neptune's palaces, who, all aware
Of his approach, his presence doth await
Before his portals; and the nymphs are there
In company, with wonderment elate,
To see thus entered, by this course divine,
The water's kingdom by the king of wine.
'O Neptune!' he exclaimed, 'thou need'st not fear Bacchus to greet within thy realms below,
For equally with great and rich 'tis clear,
Fortune unjust her hostile powers can show ;
Command the sea Gods to be summoned here,
Ere I say more, if more from me thou'dst know;
Grievous misfortunes they shall see impend :
The ill which touches all let all attend.'
Julgando já Neptuno, que seria
Estranho caso aquelle, logo manda
Tritão, que chame os deoses da agua fria,
Que o mar habitam d'huma e d'outra banda :
Tritão, que de ser filho se gloria
Do Rei, e de Salacia veneranda,
Era mancebo grande, negro e feio,
Trombeta de seu pai, e seu correio.
Os cabellos da barba, e os que decem
Da cabeça nos hombros, todos eram
Huns limos prenhes d'agua, e bem parecem,
Que nunca brando pentem conheceram :
Nas pontas pendurados não fallecem
Os negros misilhões, que alli se geram :
Na cabeça por gorra tinha posta
Huma mui grande casca de lagosta.
O corpo nu, e os membros genitais,
Por não ter ao nadar impedimento;
Mas porêm de pequenos animais
Do mar todos cobertos cento e cento:
Camarões, e cangrejos, e outros mais
Que recebem de Phebe crescimento:
Ostras, e breguigões do musgo sujos,
A's costas com a casca os caramujos.
Na mão a grande concha retorcida,
Que trazia, com força já tocava :
A voz grande canora foi ouvida
Por todo o mar, que longe retumbava.
Já toda a companhia apercebida
Dos deoses para os paços caminhava
Do deos, que fez os muros de Dardania,
Destruidos despois da Grega insania.
Neptune, now judging that the case must be
Most strange indeed, doth forthwith Triton send
The Deities to summon from the sea,
Who in cold water dwell from end to end.
Triton, who prides himself as progeny
Of King and of Salacia reverend,
Was a large grown, and dark, and ugly youth,
His father's trumpeter and courier both.
What should have been the hair that formed his beard,
What from the head was o'er the shoulders thrown,
Was sea-weed filled with water, and appeared
The comb's soft passage never to have known;
Dangling upon the points were many bleared
And blacken'd muscle shells, which there had grown ;
Upon his head, for cap, he wore, as well,
A very large imposing lobster-shell.
The body naked was from head throughout,
That he in swimming might not cumbered be,
But hundreds, hundreds, hung his loins about
Of every little animal o' the sea :
Shrimps, crabs, and many others more, that sprout
When they from Phoebus gain vitality;
Oysters and sea-snails, all befouled with moss,
Shell-fish of every kind, his back emboss.
And now the large and many winding shell,
Which in his hand he brought, with power he blew ;
The loud harmonious voice on hearing fell
O'er all the sea, that echoed through and through ;
Straightway the Deities who therein dwell,
Thus summoned, forthwith to the palace drew
Of that great God, who built the walls of Troy,
Which Grecian madness, after, did destroy.
Vinha o padre Oceano acompanhado
Dos filhos, e das filhas, que gerara :
Vem Nereo, que com Doris foi casado,
Que todo o mar de nymphas povoara :
O propheta Protêo, deixando o gado
Maritimo pascer pela agua amara,
Alli veio tambem; mas já sabia
O, que o padre Lyeo no mar queria.
Vinha por outra parte a linda esposa
De Neptuno, de Cælo e Vesta filha,
Grave, e leda no gesto, e tão formosa,
Que se amansava o mar de maravilha :
Vestida huma camisa preciosa
Trazia de delgada beatilha,
Que o corpo crystallino deixa ver-se ;
Que tanto bem não he para esconder-se:
Amphitrite, formosa como as flores,
Neste caso não quiz que fallecesse,
O Delphim traz comsigo, que aos amores
Do Rei lhe aconselhou que obedecesse:
Co'os olhos, que de tudo são senhores,
Qualquer parecerá que o Sol vencesse :
Ambas vem pela mão, igual partido ;
Pois ambas são esposas d'hum marido.
Aquella, que das furias de Athamante
Fugindo, veio a ter divino estado,
Comsigo traz o filho, bello infante
No numero dos deoses relatado :
Pela praia brincando vem diante
Com as lindas conchinhas, que o salgado
Mar sempre cria, e ás vezes pela area
No collo o toma a bella Panopea.
The father Ocean came accompanied
By all the sons and daughters he begat ;
Comes Nereus too, who was with Doris wed,
And all the sea with nymphs did populate ;
The prophet Proteus, leaving to be fed
His cattle through the bitter waters, straight
Came likewise there but very well knew he
What Father Bacchus wanted in the sea.
From other parts came Neptune's consort fair,
The daughter whom to Coelus Vesta gave,
Of sweet collected mien, and form so rare,
That with mere wonder she becalmed the wave ;
A very precious vesture did she bear,
A thinly woven veil, her form to save,
But which her brilliant body half-revealed,
For such great good must not be quite concealed.
And Amphitrite, lovely as the flowers,
Willed not in this affair to be away;
She brings with her the Dolphin, who the amours
Of Neptune counselled her she must obey ;
And with those eyes whose vision all devours,
Whate'er of Sol may seem to be the sway;
The two come hand in hand, an equal pair,
For of one husband both are consorts fair.
She who from Athamas' wild fury fled,
And came at last divine estate to hold,
Her son, a lovely infant, with her led,
Among the number of the Gods enrolled :
Delighted o'er the open beech he sped
With the bright shells which Ocean as of old,
Brings forth, and now and then, upon the sands,
Fair Panopea lifts him in her hands.
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