Since in thy exit to a happier state,
A very host of warriors disappears.
But if what’s commonly called Death, thee slain,
Deprive our forces of terrestrial aid,
Thou canst for us celestial aid obtain,
Since one of God’s elected angels made.
LXX.
E come, a nostro pro, veduto abbiamo
Ch’usavi, uom già mortal, l’arme mortali;
Così vederti oprare anco speriamo,
556 Spirto divin, l’arme del Ciel fatali.
Impara i voti omai, ch’a te porgiamo,
Raccorre, e dar soccorso ai nostri mali:
Indi vittoria annunzio: a te devoti
560 Solverem trionfando, al tempio, i voti.
LXX
“For if our God the Lord Armipotent
Those armed angels in our aid down send
That were at Dothan to his prophet sent,
Thou wilt come down with them, and well defend
Our host, and with thy sacred weapons bent
Gainst Sion’s fort, these gates and bulwarks rend,
That so by hand may win this hold, and we
May in these temples praise our Christ for thee.”
LXX.
‘And as we have seen that mortal arm of thine
In our behalf wield mortal weapons, even
So let us hope to see thee, shade divine,
Employ for us the immortal arms of heaven.
Hear and receive then the requests that we
Now make, and grant us thy all-powerful aid.
Procure our triumph, and our vows to thee,
We victors, at the Temple shall be paid.’
LXXI.
Così diss’ egli: e già la notte oscura
Avea tutti del giorno i raggj spenti;
E con l’oblío d’ogni nojosa cura
564 Ponea tregua alle lagrime, ai lamenti.
Ma il Capitan ch’espugnar mai le mura
Non crede senza i bellici stromenti,
Pensa ond’abbia le travi, ed in quai forme
568 Le machine componga, e poco dorme.
LXXI
Thus he complained; but now the sable shade
Ycleped night, had thick enveloped
The sun in veil of double darkness made;
Sleep, eased care; rest, brought complaint to bed:
All night the wary duke devising laid
How that high wall should best be battered,
How his strong engines he might aptly frame,
And whence get timber fit to build the same.
LXXI.
Thus spake; already the last sunbeams were
By night’s Cimmerian shadows overspread;
And by oblivion of all carking care,
Were tears and lamentations respited.
But the anxious chief, who deemed he ne’er could storm
Without some battering-rams the frowning keep,
Thinks where to find the beams, and in what form
Make the machines, and gets but little sleep;
LXXII.
Sorse a pari col Sole, ed egli stesso
Seguir la pompa funeral poi volle.
A Dudon d’odorifero cipresso
572 Composto hanno il sepolcro appiè d’un colle,
Non lunge agli steccati; e sovra ad esso
Un’altissima palma i rami estolle.
Or quì fu posto; e i sacerdoti intanto
576 Quiete all’alma gli pregar col canto.
LXXII
Up with the lark the sorrowful duke arose,
A mourner chief at Dudon’s burial,
Of cypress sad a pile his friends compose
Under a hill o’ergrown with cedars tall,
Beside the hearse a fruitful palm-tree grows,
Ennobled since by this great funeral,
Where Dudon’s corpse they softly laid in ground,
The priest sung hymns, the soldiers wept around.
LXXII.
And with the sun rose up, since he proposed
Following the corse to its last resting-place.
Of cypress was Dudoné’s tomb composed,
Near the stockades and at a mountain’s base,
And overshadowing it a lofty palm,
Its spreading boughs, the type of honour, flung.
Here laid he was, and here with many a psalm,
The priests a requiem to his spirit sung.
LXXIII.
Quinci e quindi fra i rami erano appese
Insegne, e prigioniere arme diverse,
Già da lui tolte in più felici imprese
580 Alle genti di Siria, ed alle Perse.
Della corazza sua, dell’altro arnese
In mezzo il grosso tronco si coperse.
Quì (vi fu scritto poi) giace Dudone:
584 Onorate l’altissimo campione.
LXXIII
Among the boughs, they here and there bestow
Ensigns and arms, as witness of his praise,
Which he from Pagan lords, that did them owe,
Had won in prosperous fights and happy frays:
His shield they fixed on the hole below,
And there this distich under-writ, which says,
“This palm with stretched arms, doth overspread
The champion Dudon’s glorious carcase dead.”
LXXIII.
And here and there among its branches were
The various arms, his captive spoil, displayed,
In happier battles won by him — whilère
In Persian wars and Palestine crusade.
The trunk they covered in most martial guise
With his great corslet, and to note their loss
Beneath was written, ‘Here Dudoné lies:
Honour the noblest champion of the Cross,’
LXXIV.
Ma il pietoso Buglion, poi che da questa
Opra si tolse dolorosa e pia;
Tutti i fabbri del campo alla foresta
588 Con buona scorta di soldati invia.
Ella è tra valli ascosa, e manifesta
L’avea fatta a i Francesi uom di Soria.
Qui per troncar le machine n’andaro,
592 A cui non abbia la Città riparo.
LXXIV
This work performed with advisement good,
Godfrey his carpenters, and men of skill
In all the camp, sent to an aged wood,
With convoy meet to guard them safe from ill.
Within a valley deep this forest stood,
To Christian eyes unseen, unknown, until
A Syrian told the duke, who thither sent
Those chosen workmen that for timber went.
LXXIV.
But when the prince had left the ceremony,
So sad and sacred, for the imperial tent,
All the camp’s workmen to the forest he
With a strong escort of picked soldiers sent.
It to the Franks a Syrian herd did show:
It lies concealed ‘mid valleys deep and dense;
Thither to hew the great machines they go,
‘Gainst which the town can make but poor defence.
LXXV.
L’un l’altro esorta, che le piante atterri,
E faccia al bosco inusitati oltraggj.
Caggion recise da’ taglienti ferri
596 Le sacre palme, e i frassini selvaggj:
I funebri cipressi, e i pini, e i cerri,
L’elci frondose, e gli alti abeti, e i faggj:
Gli olmi mariti, a cui talor s’appoggia
600 La vite, e con piè torto al ciel sen poggia.
LXXV
And now the axe raged in the forest wild,
The echo sighed in the groves unseen,
The weeping nymphs fled from their bowers exiled,
Down fell the shady tops of shaking treen,
Down came the sacred palms, the ashes wild,
The funeral cypress, holly ever green,
The weeping fir, thick beech, and sailing pine,
The married elm fell with his fruitful vine.
LXXV.
With cheering cries they on each other call
To fell the trees, nor spare the wood’s repose.
The mountain ash and sacred palm tree fall
Beneath the fury of their trenchant blows;
Funereal cypress, the green-oak and pine,
The umbrageous holm-oak, lofty fir and beech,
The married elm, to which the fragile vine
Clings for support and fain the heavens would reach.
LXXVI.
Altri i tassi, e le quercie altri percote,
Che mille volte rinnovar le chiome;
E mille volte ad ogni incontro immote
604 L’ire de’ venti han rintuzzate e dome:
Ed altri impone alle stridenti rote
D’orni e di cedri l’odorate some.
Lascian al suon dell’arme, al vario grido,
608 E le fere e gli augei la tana e ‘l nido.
LXXVI
The shooter grew, the broad-leaved sycamore,
The barren plantain, and the walnut sound,
The myrrh, that her foul sin doth still deplore,
The alder owner of all waterish ground,
Sweet juniper, whose shadow hurteth sore,
Proud cedar, oak, the king of forests crowned;
Thus fell the trees, with noise the deserts roar;
The beasts, their caves, the birds, their nests forlore.
LXXVI.
Some strike the yews, others the lordly oaks
That have a thousand times their leaves renewed,
And noiseless stood against the thousand shocks
Of winter’s blast, repelled them and subdued.
Of odorous ash and cedar some prepared
On creaking wheels the perfumed load to rest,
By crash of axe and other noises scared,
Beasts leave their den, and frightened birds their nest.
Canto quarto
FOURTH BOOK
ARGOMENTO.
Tutti i numi d’Inferno à se raccoglie
L’imperador del tenebroso regno;
E per dare a’ Cristiani acerbe doglie
Vuol, ch’ usi ognun di lor suo iniquo ingegno.
Per lor opra Idraote a crude voglie
Si volge, e vuol ch’ Armida al suo disegno
Spiani la via, parlando in dolci modi:
E sue machine son bellezze, e frodi.
THE ARGUMENT.
And sends them forth to work the Christians woe,
False Hidraort their aid from hell doth call,
And sends Armida to entrap his foe:
She tells her birth, her fortune, and her fall,
Asks aid, allures and wins the worthies so
That they consent her enterprise to prove;
She wins them with deceit, craft, beauty, love.
I.
Me n t r e son questi alle bell’opre intenti,
Perchè debbano tosto in uso porse;
Il gran nemico dell’umane genti
4 Contra i Cristiani i lividi occhj torse,
E scorgendogli omai lieti, e contenti,
Ambo le labbra per furor si morse,
E qual tauro ferito, il suo dolore
8 Versò, mugghiando e sospirando, fuore.
I
While thus their work went on with lucky speed,
And reared rams their horned fronts advance,
The Ancient Foe to man, and mortal seed,
His wannish eyes upon them bent askance;
And when he saw their labors well succeed,
He wept for rage, and threatened dire mischance.
He choked his curses, to himself he spake,
Such noise wild bulls that softly bellow make.
I.
WHILE thus the Franks their warlike engines made,
To have them ready for their high emprise,
Man’s mighty foe from Acheron’s gloomy shade,
Against the Christians turned his livid eyes;
And seeing them on their pious work intent,
Bit both his lips, with rankling fury stung;
While like a wounded bull his rage found vent
In bellowing roars that through Gehenna rung.
II.
Quinci avendo per tutto il pensier volto
A recar ne’ Cristiani ultima doglia,
Che sia, comanda, il popol suo raccolto
12 (Concilio orrendo!) entro la regia soglia:
Come sia pur leggiera impresa (ahi stolto!)
Il repugnare alla divina voglia;
Stolto, ch’al Ciel s’agguaglia, e in oblio pone,
16 Come di Dio la destra irata tuone.
II
At last resolving in his damned thought
To find some let to stop their warlike feat,
He gave command his princes should be brought
Before the throne of his infernal seat.
O fool! as if it were a thing of naught
God to resist, or change his purpose great,
Who on his foes doth thunder in his ire,
Whose arrows hailstones he and coals of fire.
II.
Then having turned his every thought to bring
Upon the Christians ruin most complete,
His legions are commanded by their king
(Terrific council!) round his throne to meet,
As though a light emprise — insensate!— ‘twere
The Heavenly Will’s fixed purpose to withstand.
Fool! that would try to equal God, or dare
Forget the thunders of his angered hand!
III.
Chiama gli abitator dell’ombre eterne
Il rauco suon della tartarea tromba:
Treman le spaziose atre caverne,
20 E l’aer cieco a quel romor rimbomba.
Nè sì stridendo mai dalle superne
Regioni del Cielo il folgor piomba,
Nè sì scossa giammai tréma la terra,
24 Quando i vapori in sen gravida serra.
III
The dreary trumpet blew a dreadful blast,
And rumbled through the lands and kingdoms under,
Through wasteness wide it roared, and hollows vast,
And filled the deep with horror, fear and wonder,
Not half so dreadful noise the tempests cast,
That fall from skies with storms of hail and thunder,
Not half so loud the whistling winds do sing,
Broke from the earthen prisons of their King.
III.
The Stygian trump’s discordant jangling blast
Through hell’s eteme obscurity resounded;
Shook the black caverns of the dreary vast,
And from its din the lightless air rebounded.
Such crashing peals Heaven never thundered forth,
When mortals threatening with its fiery doom;
With greater violence ne’er quaked the earth,
Compressing vapours in her pregnant womb.
IV.
Tosto gli Dei d’abisso in varie torme
Concorron d’ogn’intorno all’alte porte,
Oh come strane, o come orribil forme,
28 Quant’è negli occhj lor terrore, e morte!
Stampano alcuni il suol di ferine orme,
E ‘n fronte umana han chiome d’angui attorte,
E lor s’aggira dietro immensa coda,
32 Che quasi sferza si ripiega, e snoda.
IV
The peers of Pluto’s realm assembled been
Amid the palace of their angry King,
In hideous forms and shapes, tofore unseen,
That fear, death, terror and amazement bring,
With ugly paws some trample on the green,
Some gnaw the snakes that on their shoulders hing,
And some their forked tails stretch forth on high,
And tear the twinkling stars from trembling sky.
IV.
Straightway the gods of hell in several swarms
Rushed to the lofty gates from all around.
Oh, what strange shapes they had — what horrid forms!
What dread — what death in their gaunt eyeballs frowned!
With cloven foot some print the burning soil,
Whose human heads contorted snakes entwined;
And like a scourge in many a sinuous coil,
Voluminous tails the hybrids drag behind.
V.
Quì mille immonde Arpie vedresti, e mille
Centauri, e Sfingi, e pallide Gorgoni,
Molte e molte latrar voraci Scille,
36 E fischiar Idre, e sibilar Pitoni,
E vomitar Chimere atre faville,
E Polifemi orrendi, e Gerioni,
E in nuovi mostri, e non più intesi o visti,
40 Diversi aspetti in un confusi, e misti.
V
There were Silenus’ foul and loathsome route,
There Sphinxes, Centaurs, there were Gorgons fell,
There howling Scillas, yawling round about,
There serpents hiss, there seven-mouthed Hydras yell,
Chimera there spues fire and brimstone out,
And Polyphemus blind supporteth hell,
Besides ten thousand monsters therein dwells
Misshaped, unlike themselves, and like naught else.
V.
Here countless filthy Harpies you might mark;
Centaurs by thousands; Sphinxes, Gorgons pale;
Voracious Scyllas without number bark;
Huge Pythons hiss, and hideous Hydras wail.
Dark lurid flames misshaped Chimæras pour;
Here Polyphemus stalks, there Geryon;
And monsters strange ne’er seen or known before,
With looks diverse, confused, and blent in one.
VI.
D’essi parte a sinistra, e parte a destra
A seder vanno al crudo Re davante.
Siede Pluton nel mezzo, e con la destra
44 Sostien lo scetro ruvido e pesante:
Nè tanto scoglio in mar, nè rupe alpestra,
Nè pur Calpe s’innalza, o ‘l magno Atlante,
Ch’anzi lui non paresse un picciol colle;
48 Sì la gran fronte, e le gran corna estolle.
VI
About their princes each took his wonted seat
Jerusalem Delivered Page 174
