04.06.2007, 09:20
Juvenal
Even as a noble river, flushed with rain,
Hurls all its red artillery from the height,
And roaing deep in raucous fierce delight,
Confounds the venomed cesspools of the plain:
So, rich with sanguine silt of wrath and pain,
Did thy fell torrent of sonorous might
Beat on thy City’s sin, and from her bright
Republican nature purge the Imperial stain.
No heart hadst thou to harbour with the tame
And facile bards that fawned at Virro’s board:
Scorn nerved the arm that hurled thy lightning home:
Hate was thy guide, where Love’s bright self were shame –
Hate stern and holy for the Greekling horde
That whelmed in flouts the haughty heart of Rome.
Even as a noble river, flushed with rain,
Hurls all its red artillery from the height,
And roaing deep in raucous fierce delight,
Confounds the venomed cesspools of the plain:
So, rich with sanguine silt of wrath and pain,
Did thy fell torrent of sonorous might
Beat on thy City’s sin, and from her bright
Republican nature purge the Imperial stain.
No heart hadst thou to harbour with the tame
And facile bards that fawned at Virro’s board:
Scorn nerved the arm that hurled thy lightning home:
Hate was thy guide, where Love’s bright self were shame –
Hate stern and holy for the Greekling horde
That whelmed in flouts the haughty heart of Rome.