Poem 4B: Echo & Narcissus

• ”me fugis?” et totidem, quot dixit, verba recepit

  do you flee from me?” and as many words as he spoke, he received
• perstat et alternae deceptus imagine vocis

  he persists and deceived by the illusion of a second voice,
• “huc coeamus!” ait nullique libentis umquam

  says “let us come together” and echo who would never reply more glady
• responsura sono “coeamus“ rettulit echo

  to any sound repeated “let us come together”
• et verbis favet ipsa suis egressaque silva

  and she herself emphasises her own words and having left the wood
• Ibat, ut iniceret sperato bracchia collo

  she goes in order to throw her arms around the neck she hoped for;
• ille fugit fugiensque “manus complexibus aufer;

  he fled and fleeing said “remove your hands from these embraces;
• ante” ait “emoriar, quam sit tibi copia nostri”

  may i die before you might have enjoyment of me
• rettulit illa nihil nisi, “sit tibi copia nostri”

  she replied nothing except “you might have enjoyment of me”
• spreta latet silvis pudibundaque frondibus ora

  she, rejected, hides in the wood and with leaves her ashamed face
• protegit et solis ex illo vivit in antris

  She covers and from then on she lives in the lonely caves
• sed tamen haeret amor crescitque dolore repulsae

  but nevertheless love persists and grows with the pain of rejection
• attenuant vigiles corpus miserabile curae

  wakeful cares weaken her wretched body
• adducitque cutem macies, et in aera sucus 


  and thinness shrivels her skin and all moisture goes away into the air
• corporis omnis abit; vox tantum atque ossa supersunt

  from her body; only her voice and bones survive
• vox manet: ossa ferunt lapidis traxisse figuram 


  then only her voice remains; people say that her bones took on the appearance of stone
• inde latet silvis nulloque in monte videtur

  from then on she hides in the woods and is not seen in the mountain by anyone
• omnibus auditur: sonus est, qui vivit in illa

  (but) is heard by everyone: she is the sound which lives in that place
• hic puer, et studio venandi lassus et aestu

  here the boy, tired both by his enthusiasm for hunting and by the heat
• procubuit faciemque loci fontemque secutus;

  fell down attracted by both the appearance of the place and by the spring
• “perstat”

  Verb promotion
• “alternae deceptus imagine vocis

  alternative word order
• “rettulit”

  prepostion
• “verbis favet ipsa suis”

  enclosing word order
• “iniceret”

  verb
• “fugit fugiens”

  polyptoton
• “emoriar”

  extreme verb
• “spreta … ora”

  ashamed face
• “silvis pudibundaque frondibus”

  enclosing word order
• “solis ex illo vivit in antris”

  enclosing word order
• “sed tamen … crescitque … adducitque … et”

  polysyndeton
• “haeret … attenuant …adducitque”

  emotive verb promotion
• “vigiles corpus miserabile curae”

  chiasmus
• “hic puer”

  shift in focus
• “procubuit”

  verb promotion
• “faciemque”

  foreshadowing
• “vox manet .. sonus est”

  short clause
• “videtur … auditur”

  passive verbs
• “vox … ossa … supersunt”

  sibilance
• “tantum atque … supersunt”

  alliteration