VIGRIL VI LINES 295-316

• hinc via Tartarei quae fert Acherontis ad undas.


  From here is the road which leads to the waters of Tatarean Acheron.
• turbidus hic caeno vastaque voragine gurges

  Here, thick with mud and with a vast abyss, the whirlpool
• aestuat atque omnem Cocyto eructat harenam.


  Seethes and belches forth all its silt into Cocytus.
• portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat


  A dreadful ferryman guards these waters and rivers,
• terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento

  Charon of terrible squalor, whose abundant grey beard
• canities inculta iacet, stant lumina flamma,


  Lies untrimmed on his chin; his eyes are set in a blazing stare;
• sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus.


  A dirty garment hangs down from his shoulders by a knot
• ipse ratem contō subigit vēlīsque ministrat

  By himself, he pushes along the boat with a pole and attends to the sails
• et ferruginea subvectat corpora cumba,


  And carries the dead in his rust-coloured craft,
• iam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus.


  Now older, but old age for a god is fresh and green.
• huc omnis turba ad ripas effusa ruebat,


  To this place the whole crowd was rushing, streaming out towards the banks
• matres atque viri defuntaque corpora vita

  Mothers and men, and bodies of great-souled heroes
• magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,

  Finished with life, boys and unmarried girls
• impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum:

  And young men placed on funeral pyres before the faces of their parents:
• quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo

  As many as the leaves which glide and fall in the woods
• lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto


  At the first chill of Autumn, or as many as the birds flock together
• quam multae glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus

  Towards the land from the deep ocean, when the cold season
• trans pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis.


  Puts them to flight across the sea and sends them into sunny lands.
• stabant orantes primi transmittere cursum

  They were standing, begging to make the crossing first
• tendebantque manus ripae ulterioris amore.

  And were stretching out their hands in longing for the far bank.
• navita sed tristis nunc hos nunc accipit illos,

  But the gloomy boatman accepts now these, now those,
• ast alios longe summotos arcet harena.

  Yet keeps others away, pushed back far from the sand.