Fortune has taken you ...
Feb. 27th, 2006 10:18 amMultas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
Avdenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias
Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
Et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.
Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum,
Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,
Nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum
Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.
Through many lands and many seas,
I have come, my brother, to this sad grave,
In order to render you Death's final duties,
And strive to converse with your ashes, though dumb.
Fortune has taken you, so undeservedly,
Alas my poor brother, stolen from me.
For now, as I furnish a dead man's last rite,
The funeral libation our fathers knew well,
Accept these fraternal tears at your gravesite.
My brother, Hail and Farewell.
(I lightly edited the translation from: Here. Too emotional to do it myself just now.)
Avdenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias
Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
Et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.
Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum,
Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,
Nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum
Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.
Through many lands and many seas,
I have come, my brother, to this sad grave,
In order to render you Death's final duties,
And strive to converse with your ashes, though dumb.
Fortune has taken you, so undeservedly,
Alas my poor brother, stolen from me.
For now, as I furnish a dead man's last rite,
The funeral libation our fathers knew well,
Accept these fraternal tears at your gravesite.
My brother, Hail and Farewell.
(I lightly edited the translation from: Here. Too emotional to do it myself just now.)