Grows level, and the ether's gloom dissolves;
The waves on this side, and the blasts on that,
135 Are to their friendly mood restored; and, where
The placid keel marks out a path secure,
White traces in the emerald furrow bloom.
The sailor then does to the reverend Lord
Of death make grateful offering of his fear; [1211]
140 Then enters friendly ports.
Jonah the seer
The while is voyaging, in other craft
Embarked, and cleaving 'neath the lowest waves
A wave: his sails the intestines of the fish,
Inspired with breath ferine; himself, shut in;
145 By waters, yet untouched; in the sea's heart
And yet beyond its reach; 'mid wrecks of fleets
Half-eaten, and men's carcasses dissolved
In putrid disintegrity: in life
Learning the process of his death; but still--
150 To be a sign hereafter of the Lord [1212] --
A witness was he (in his very self), [1213]
Not of destruction, but of death's repulse.
------------------------
[1198] [Elucidation.]
[1199] These two lines, if this be their true sense, seem to refer to Lot's wife. But the grammar and meaning of this introduction are alike obscure.
[1200] "Metus;" used, as in other places, of godly fear.
[1201] Lit. "from," i.e., which, urged by a heart which is that of a saint, even though on this occasion it failed, the prophet dared.
[1202] Libratur.
[1203] "Tarshish," Eng. ver.; perhaps Tartessus in Spain. For this question, and the "trustiness" of Joppa (now Jaffa) as a port, see Pusey on Jonah i. 3.
[1204] Ejusdem per signa Dei.
[1205] i.e., the cloud.
[1206] Genitus (Oehler); geminus (Migne) ="twin clamour," which is not inapt.
[1207] Mandare (Oehler). If this be the true reading, the rendering in the text seems to represent the meaning; for "mandare" with an accusative, in the sense of "to bid the tardy coils tighten the girth's noose," seems almost too gross a solecism for even so lax a Latinist as our present writer. Migne, however, reads mundare--to "clear" the tardy coils, i.e., probably from the wash and weed with which the gale was cloying them.
[1208] Tunc Domini vates ingesta Spiritus infit. Of course it is a gross offence against quantity to make a genitive in "us" short, as the rendering in the text does. But a writer who makes the first syllable in "clamor" and the last syllable of gerunds in do short, would scarcely be likely to hesitate about taking similar liberties with a genitive of the so-called fourth declension. It is possible, it is true, to take "vates" and "Spiritus" as in apposition, and render, "Then the seer-Spirit of the Lord begins to utter words inspired," or "Then the seer-Spirit begins to utter the promptings of the Lord." But these renderings seem to accord less well with the ensuing words.
[1209] Mundi.
[1210] i.e., apparently with shells which had gathered about him as he lay in the deep.
[1211] This seems to be the sense of Oehler's "Nauta at tum Domino leti venerando timorem Sacrificat grates"--"grates" being in apposition with "timorem." But Migne reads: "Nautæ tum Domino læti venerando timorem Sacrificant grates:"-- "The sailors then do to the reverend Lord Gladly make grateful sacrifice of fear:" and I do not see that Oehler's reading is much better.
[1212] Comp. Matt. xii. 38-41; Luke xi. 29, 30.
[1213] These words are not in the original, but are inserted (I confess) to fill up the line, and avoid ending with an incomplete verse. If, however, any one is curious enough to compare the translation, with all its defects, with the Latin, he may be somewhat surprised to find how very little alteration or adaptation is necessary in turning verse into verse.
2. A Strain of Sodom.
(Author Uncertain.)
Already had Almighty God wiped off
By vengeful flood (with waters all conjoined
Which heaven discharged on earth and the sea's plain [1214]
Outspued) the times of the primeval age:
5 Had pledged Himself, while nether air should bring
The winters in their course, ne'er to decree,
By liquid ruin, retribution's due;
And had assigned, to curb the rains, the bow
Of many hues, sealing the clouds with band
10 Of purple and of green, Iris its name,
The rain-clouds' proper baldric. [1215]
But alike
With mankind's second race impiety
Revives, and a new age of ill once more
Shoots forth; allotted now no more to showers
15 For ruin, but to fires: thus did the land
Of Sodom earn to be by glowing dews
Upburnt, and typically thus portend
The future end. [1216] There wild voluptuousness
(Modesty's foe) stood in the room of law;
20 Which prescient guest would shun, and sooner choose
At Scythian or Busirian altar's foot
'Mid sacred rites to die, and, slaughtered, pour
His blood to Bebryx, or to satiate
Libyan palæstras, or assume new forms;
25 By virtue of Circæan cups, than lose
His outraged sex in Sodom. At heaven's gate
There knocked for vengeance marriages commit
With equal incest common 'mong a race
By nature rebels 'gainst themselves; [1217] and hurts
30 Done to man's name and person equally.
But God, forewatching all things, at fix'd time
Doth judge the unjust; with patience tarrying
The hour when crime's ripe age--not any force
Of wrath impetuous--shall have circumscribed
35 The space for waiting. [1218]
Now at length the day
Of vengeance was at hand. Sent from the host
Angelical, two, youths in form, who both
Were ministering spirits, [1219] carrying
The Lord's divine commissions, come beneath
40 The walls of Sodom. There was dwelling Lot
A transplantation from a pious stock;
Wise, and a practicer of righteousness,
He was the only one to think on God:
As oft a fruitful tree is wont to lurk,
45 Guest-like, in forests wild. He, sitting then
Before the gate (for the celestials scarce
Had reached the ramparts), though he knew not them
Divine, [1220] accosts them unsolicited,
Invites, and with ancestral honour greets;
50 And offers them, preparing to abide
Abroad, a hospice. By repeated prayers
He wins them; and then ranges studiously
The sacred pledges [1221] on his board, [1222] and quits [1223]
His friends with courteous offices. The night
55 Had brought repose: alternate [1224] dawn had chased
The night, and Sodom with her shameful law
Makes uproar at the doors. Lot, suppliant wise,
Withstands: "Young men, let not your new fed lust
Enkindle you to violate this youth! [1225]
60 Whither is passion's seed inviting you?
To what vain end your lust? For such an end
No creatures wed: not such as haunt the fens;
Not stall-fed cattle; not the gaping brood
Subaqueous; nor they which, modulant
65 On pinions, hang suspended near the clouds;
Nor they which with forth-stretched body creep
Over earth's face. To conjugal delight
Each kind its kind doth owe: but female still
To all is wife; nor is there one that has
70 A mother save a female one. Yet now,
If youthful vigour holds it right [1226] to waste
The flower of modesty, I have within
Two daughters of a nuptial age, in whom
Virginity is swelling in its bloom,
75 Already ripe for harvest--a desire
Worthy of men--which let your pleasure reap!
Myself their sire, I yield them; and will pay
For my guests' sake, the forfeit of my grief!"
Answered the mob insane: "And who art thou?
80 And what? and whence? to lord it over us,
And to expound us laws? Shall foreigner
Rule Sodom, and hurl threats? Now, then, thyself
For daughters and for guests shalt sate our greed!
One shall suffice for all!" So said, so done:
85 The frantic mob delays not. As, whene'er
A turbid torrent rolls with wintry tide,
And rushes at one speed through countless streams
Of rivers, if, just where it forks, some tree
Meets the swift waves (not long to stand, save while
90 By her root's force she shall avail to oppose
Her tufty obstacles), when gradually
Her hold upon the undermined soil
Is failing, with her bared stem she hangs,
And, with uncertain heavings to and fro,
95 Defers her certain fall; not otherwise
Lot in the mid-whirl of the dizzy mob
Kept nodding, now almost o'ercome. But power
Divine brings succour: the angelic youths,
Snatching him from the threshold, to his roof
100 Restore him; but upon the spot they mulct
Of sight the mob insane in open day,--
Fit augury of coming penalties!
Then they unlock the just decrees of God:
That penalty condign from heaven will fall
105 On Sodom; that himself had merited
Safety upon the count of righteousness.
"Gird thee, then, up to hasten hence thy flight,
And with thee to lead out what family
Thou hast: already we are bringing on
110 Destruction o'er the city." Lot with speed
Speaks to his sons-in-law; but their hard heart
Scorned to believe the warning, and at fear
Laughed. At what time the light attempts to climb
The darkness, and heaven's face wears double hue
115 From night and day, the youthful visitants
Were instant to outlead from Sodoma
The race Chaldæan, [1227] and the righteous house
Consign to safety: "Ho! come, Lot! arise,
And take thy yokefellow and daughters twain,
120 And hence, beyond the boundaries be gone,
Preventing [1228] Sodom's penalties!" And eke
With friendly hands they lead them trembling forth,
And then their final mandates give: "Save, Lot,
Thy life, lest thou perchance should will to turn
125 Thy retroverted gaze behind, or stay
The step once taken: to the mountain speed!"
Lot feared to creep the heights with tardy step,
Lest the celestial wrath-fires should o'ertake
And whelm him: therefore he essays to crave
130 Some other ports; a city small, to wit,
Which opposite he had espied. "Hereto,"
He said, "I speed my flight: scarce with its walls
'Tis visible; nor is it far, nor great."
They, favouring his prayer, safety assured
135 To him and to the city; whence the spot
Is known in speech barbaric by the name
Segor. [1229] Lot enters Segor while the sun
Is rising, [1230] the last sun, which glowing bears
To Sodom conflagration; for his rays
140 He had armed all with fire: beneath him spreads
An emulous gloom, which seeks to intercept
The light; and clouds combine to interweave
Their smoky globes with the confused sky:
Down pours a novel shower: the ether seethes
145 With sulphur mixt with blazing flames: [1231] the air
Crackles with liquid heats exust. From hence
The fable has an echo of the truth
Amid its false, that the sun's progeny
Would drive his father's team; but nought availed
150 The giddy boy to curb the haughty steeds
Of fire: so blazed our orb: then lightning reft
The lawless charioteer, and bitter plaint
Transformed his sisters. Let Eridanus
See to it, if one poplar on his banks
155 Whitens, or any bird dons plumage there
Whose note old age makes mellow! [1232]
Here they mourn
O'er miracles of metamorphosis
Of other sort. For, partner of Lot's flight,
His wife (ah me, for woman! even then [1233]
160 Intolerant of law!) alone turned back
At the unearthly murmurs of the sky)
Her daring eyes, but bootlessly: not doomed
To utter what she saw! and then and there
Changed into brittle salt, herself her tomb
165 She stood, herself an image of herself,
Keeping an incorporeal form: and still
In her unsheltered station 'neath the heaven
Dures she, by rains unmelted, by decay
And winds unwasted; nay, if some strange hand
170 Deface her form, forthwith from her own store
Her wounds she doth repair. Still is she said
To live, and, 'mid her corporal change, discharge
With wonted blood her sex's monthly dues.
Gone are the men of Sodom; gone the glare
175 Of their unhallowed ramparts; all the house
Inhospitable, with its lords, is gone:
The champaign is one pyre; here embers rough
And black, here ash-heaps with hoar mould, mark out
The conflagration's course: evanished
180 Is all that old fertility [1234] which Lot,
Seeing outspread before him,...
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
No ploughman spends his fruitless toil on glebes
Pitchy with soot: or if some acres there,
But half consumed, still strive to emulate
185 Autumn's glad wealth, pears, peaches, and all fruits
Promise themselves full easely [1235] to the eye
In fairest bloom, until the plucker's hand
Is on them: then forthwith the seeming fruit
Crumbles to dust 'neath the bewraying touch,
190 And turns to embers vain.
Thus, therefore (sky
And earth entombed alike), not e'en the sea
Lives there: the quiet of that quiet sea
Is death! [1236] --a sea which no wave animates
Through its anhealant volumes; which beneath
195 Its native Auster sighs not anywhere;
Which cannot from its depths one scaly race,
Or with smooth skin or cork-like fence encased,
Produce, or curled shell in single valve
Or double fold enclosed. Bitumen there
200 (The sooty reek of sea exust) alone,
With its own crop, a spurious harvest yields;
Which 'neath the stagnant surface vivid heat
From seething mass of sulphur and of brine
Maturing tempers, making earth cohere
205 Into a pitch marine. [1237] At season due