Poem 4D: Echo & Narcissus

• sole tepente solent, sic attenuatus amore

  in the warming sun, so he, made thin by love
• liquitur et tecto paulatim carpitur igni

  is wasting away and weakened gradually by the hidden fire
• et neque iam color est mixto candore rubori

  and no longer is there a glow of redness mixed with radiance
• nec vigor et vires et quae modo visa placebant

  nor vigour and strength and those things which recently seen were pleasing
• nec corpus remanet quondam quod amaverat echo

  nor does the body remain, which echo had once loved
• quae tamen ut vidit, quamvis irata memorque

  when she saw this, although angry and remembering
• indoluit, quotiensque puer miserabilis “eheu”

  she was grieved and as often as the poor boy said “alas”
• dixerat, haec resonis iterabat vocibus “eheu”

  she with her echoing voice said again “alas”
• cumque suos manibus percusserat ille lacertos

  and when he struck his arms with his hands
• haec quoque reddebat sonitum plangoris eundem

  she also gave back the same sound of grief
• ultima vox solitam fuit haec spectantis in undam:

  The last voice of the boy looking into the familiar waters was this:
• ‘heu frustra dilecte puer!’ totidemque remisit

  ‘alas, boy loved in vain?’ And the same number of words
• verba locus, dictoque vale ‘vale’ inquit et Echo

  the place sent back, and when he said goodbye, ‘goodbye’ Echo said as well
• ille caput viridi fessum submisit in herba,

  he lay down his weary head in the green grass,
• lumina mors clausit domini mirantia fornam

  death closed his eyes as they were admiring their owners beauty
• tum quoque se, postquam est inferna sede receptus,

  then also, after he was welcomed into the infernal abode,
• in Stygia spectabat aqua. planxere sorores

  was he looking at himself in the river of the Styx. His sisters wailed,
• Naides et sectos fratri posuere capillos

  the Naiads, and they offered up their cut hair to their brother,
• planxerunt Dryades; plangentibus assonat Echo.

  The Dryads wailed; Echo resounds with their wailing
• iamque rogum quassasque faces feretrumque parabant:

  and now they were preparing the pyre and the quavering torches and the bier:
• nusquam corpus erat; croceum pro corpore florem

  nowhere was there a body; in place of his body they found a yellow flower
• inveniunt foliis medium cingentibus albis.

  with white pearls surrounding the middle
• ”sole … solent”

  Repetition
• “liquitur”

  enjambment
• “tecto … igni”

  hidden fire imagery
• “color … mixto candore rubori”

  Chiasmus
• “nec vigor et vires et quae”

  polysyndeton
• “quod amaverat Echo”

  Emphatic placement
• “puer miserabilis”

  highlights his youth
• “indoluit“

  enjambment
• “eheu … anaphora”

  anaphora & emphatic positioning
• ”ultima vox”

  foreshadowing & emphatic positioning
• “remisit … submisit”

  word choice with mitto verbs
• “dictoque vale, vale inquit”

  Chiasmus
• “lumina mors”

  juxtaposition & emphatic placement
• “Stygia spectabat aqua”

  enclosing word order
• “sectos … capillos”

  choice of vocab
• “planxerunt … plangentibus”

  polyptoton
• “nusquam corpus erat”

  Short sentence/clause
• “inveniunt”

  verb promotion