Latin translation from a Voltaire play needed.

November 19, 2008 5:17 AM

Can you help me with a translate some Latin, from the first page of an 1736 edition of Voltaire's Hérode et Mariamne (think Salome)?

There might be a few transcription errors because of the font and contemporary standards (long S, etc.) used:

.....Aestuat ingens
Imo* in corde pudor, mixtoque insania lu[c]tu**
Et furiis agitatus amor, &c.

*with an accent grave on the o
**the 'c' is some old letter I don't know, that is like an upper-case E

Thanks for any help you can provide!

posted by flibbertigibbet to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

Best answer: Huge/unnatural shame boiled/seethed in [his/her?] deepest heart, having been mixed also with insane grief; and love having been shaken by the Furies, and the rest.

It doesn't entirely make sense, but that should be the gist of it. I'd expect another verb to go with "love," but it could also be translated as "And I, having been shaken/driven by the Furies, am loved, etc."
posted by stopgap at 6:12 AM on November 19, 2008

Best answer: Googling "aestuat ingens" suggests that the line comes from the Aeneid. Maybe look up the Loeb translation?
posted by Orinda at 6:15 AM on November 19, 2008

Best answer: Okay, a Google search reveals that it's a quote from Virgil:

Aestuat ingens
uno in corde pudor mixtoque insania luctu
et furiis agitatus amor et conscia virtus.

This is talking about Turnus in the Aeneid. I don't have time for a better translation right now, but someone else should be able to finish this...
posted by stopgap at 6:21 AM on November 19, 2008

I have to say I like "imo" better than "uno" on the second line. I wonder how accurate the full-text copies of the Aeneid available online are.
posted by stopgap at 6:26 AM on November 19, 2008

Best answer: As Orinda points out, it's from Book 10 of the Aeneid. The S.J. Harrison translation is:

Seething in the same heart was a mighty sense of shame, and mad anger mixed with grief

The original latin is: aestuat ingens uno [sometimes: imo] in corde pudor mixtoque insania luctu.

The second part "et furiis, agitatus amor, et conscia virtus"doesn't appear in all versions (as it is likely transposed from another part of the aeneid). If added the translation becomes approximately :

"Seething in the same heart was a mighty sense of shame, and mad anger mixed with grief and love stirred up with rage and with self-conscious courage"
posted by Mattat at 6:38 AM on November 19, 2008

Best answer: It is from the Aeniad. The English translation on Perseus is

in his pent bosom stirred
shame, frenzy, sorrow, a despairing love
goaded to fury, and a warrior's pride
of valor proven.

posted by fidelity at 6:40 AM on November 19, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks guys! Because of the context of the page, with no attribution and the price right below it, I had assumed it wasn't a quote and couldn't be googled. I was wrong.

Thanks again!
posted by flibbertigibbet at 9:19 AM on November 19, 2008