GAVIN Douglas was one of Scotland's great Renaissance Makars.
His 1513 translation of Virgil's Aeneid is widely regarded as one of the finest ever made. Tomorrow a series of events in Edinburgh, including an afternoon conference and an evening concert in St Giles', will celebrate the poet and his Eneados. Below, is a taste of the epic: Aeneas, fleeing from Troy, faces the shipwreck that will bring him to Dido, Queen of Carthage.
from THE ENEADOS
Ane blasterend bub, out fra the nartht braying,
Gan ouer the foirschip in the bak sail dyng,
And to the sternys up the fluide can cast,
The ayris, hatchis, and the takillis brast,
The schippis stewyn frawart hir went can writhe
And turnit her braid side to the wallis swythe,
Heich as ane hill the jaw of watter brak,
And in ane heip come on thame with ane swak.
TRANSLATION (by Alan Riach)
A blustering storm brays out from the north in a gale -
Hurls itself over the prow and slams the back sail -
And the flood swell beneath
casts the ship's stern up to
the stars
And all bursts into bits, the
oars and hatches and tackle
and spars
And the prow and then the
whole vessel writhes and twists and slides
And turns her broad flank on
to the ocean's leaning walls, their sides,
As high as a hill, a jaw of water breaks open and crack!
And a mountainside of water falls down upon them, whack!
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