Echo and Narcissus: Verse Set Texts

Question 1

Translate:

aspicit hunc trepidos agitantem in retia cervos vocalis nymphe, quae nec reticere loquenti nec prius ipsa loqui didicit, resonabilis Echo.

Answer 1

As this man Narcissus was chasing the frightened deer into his nets, a talkative nymph noticed him - the answering Echo, who has not learnt to keep quiet when someone is talking and who cannot talk until someone has spoken first.

Question 2

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Corpus adhuc Echo, non vox erat; et tamen usum garrula non alium, quam nunc habet, oris habebat, reddere de multis ut verba novissima posset.

Answer 2

Up till now Echo still had a body and was not just a voice; and although a chatterbox, she enjoyed no more power of speech than she does now, namely that she could only repeat the last words of the many she heard.

Question 3

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ergo ubi Narcissum per devia rura vagantem vidit et incaluit, sequitur vestigia furtim, quoque magis sequitur, flamma propiore calescit, non aliter quam cum summis circumlita taedis admotas rapiunt vivacia sulphura flammas.

Answer 3

Therefore when she saw Narcissus wandering through the lonely countryside and she fell in love with him, she followed his footsteps secretly, and the more she followed, the more the flame of passion burned within her, just as when quick-to-ignite suflur, smeared around on the top of torches, catches fire from flame brought close.

Question 4

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o quotiens voluit blandis accedere dictis et molles adhibere preces.

Answer 4

Oh, how often did she want to approach him with sweet words and to use gentle entreaties!

Question 5

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natura repugnat nec sinit incipiat; sed, quod sinit, illa parata est exspectare sonos, ad quos sua verba remittat.

Answer 5

But her condition prevents it and it doesn’t allow her even to begin; but she is ready to do what her condition does allow - namely to wait for sounds to which she may talk back with her own words.

Question 6

Translate:

forte puer, comitum seductus ab agmine fido dixerat ‘ecquis adest?’ et ‘adest!’ responderat Echo.

Answer 6

By change the boy, separated from his trusty group of companions, had said, ‘Is anyone here?’ and Echo had replied, ‘Here’.

Question 7

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hic stupet, utque aciem partes dimittit in omnes, voce ‘veni!’ magna clamat; vocat illa vocantem.

Answer 7

He is amazed as he gazes around in all directions; in a loud voice he shouts, ‘Come’; as he calls, she calls back.

Question 8

Translate:

respicit et rursus nullo veniente, ‘quid,’ inquit ‘me fugis?’ et totidem, quot dixit, verba recepit.

Answer 8

He looks around and, as no one is coming, he says again, ‘Why do you flee from me?’ and he hears back as many words as he has spoken.

Question 9

Translate:

perstat et alternae deceptus imagine vocis ‘huc coeamus!’ ait nullique libentius umquam responsura sono ‘coeamus’ rettulit Echo et verbis favet ipsa suis egressaque silva ibat, ut iniceret sperato bracchia collo.

Answer 9

He persists and, being deceived by the illusion of an answering voice, says, ‘Here let’s meet’ and Echo, who would never make a more willing reply to any sound, replied, ‘Let’s meet’; and she is as good as her words, and having come out of the forest she made her way in order to throw her arms around the neck she hopes to hold.

Question 10

Translate:

ille fugit fugiensque, ‘manus conplexibus aufer! ante,’ ait, ‘emoriar, quam sit tibi copia nostri.’ rettulit illa nihil nisi, ‘sit tibi copia nostri.’

Answer 10

But he runs away and, as he flees, says, ‘Take your hands away from embracing me; may I die before you have any enjoyment of me’ She made no reply, except, ‘You have any enjoyment of me.’

Question 11

Translate:

spreta latet silvis pudibundaque frondibus ora protegit et solis ex illo vivit in antris;

Answer 11

Having been rejected, she hides in the forest and, embarassed, she covers her face with foliage and from that time on lives in caves all alone;

Question 12

Translate:

sed tamen haeret amor crescitque dolore repulsae: attenuant vigiles corpus miserabile curae, adducitque cutem macies et in aera sucus corporis omnis abit;

Answer 12

but still her love persists and grows with the pain of rejection; her sleepless anxiety makes her pitiable body thin, and her thinness, shrinks her skin, and all the moisture of the body goes off into thin air;

Question 13

vox tantum atque ossa supersunt: vox manet; ossa ferunt lapidis traxisse figuram.

Answer 13

only her voice and her bones remain. Then only her voice remains; people say that her bones took on the apperance of stone.

Question 14

Translate:

inde latet silvis nulloque in monte videtur. omnibus auditur: sonus est, qui vivit in illa.

Answer 14

From then on, she hides away in the forest and is not seen on any mountainside. But she is heard by everyone; for her voice is all that remains of her.

Question 15

Translate:

hic puer, et sudio venandi lassus et aestu, procubuit faciemque loci fontemque secutus; dumque sitim sedare cupit, sitis altera crevit, dumque bibit, visae correptus imagine formae, spem sine corpore amat, corpus putat esse, quod umbra est.

Answer 15

Here the boy, weary both from his enthusiasm for the hunt and from the heat, lay down, attracted both by the appearance of the place and by the spring; and while he longs to quench his thirst, another thirst grows; and while he drinks he is captivated by the beautiful reflection he saw; he is in love with a hope that is without form and he thinks that because there is a reflection there is a form.

Question 16

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astupet ipse sibi vultuque immotus eodem haeret, ut e Pario formatum marmore signum.

Answer 16

He is astonished at himself and stays stock still with the same expression, like a statue carved from marble from Paros.

Question 17

Translate:

spectat humi positus geminum, sua munina, sidus et dignos Baccho, dignos et Apolline crines inpubesque genas et ebrunea colla decusque oris et in niveo mixtum candore ruborem, cunctaque miratur, quibus est mirabilis ipse.

Answer 17

Lying on the ground he gazes at his own eyes, twin stars and worthy of Bacchus, and at his hair worthy of Apollo, and at his youthful cheeks, his ivory-coloured neck, the beauty of his face and its blush mixed with a snow-white radiance; he admires every aspect for which he is himself admired.

Question 18

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se cupit imprudens et, qui probat, ipse probatur, dumque petit, petitur, pariterque accendit et ardet.

Answer 18

He desires himself unknowingly and he who fancies is fancied himself, and while he seeks, he is sought, and equally he fires loves and burns with love.

Question 19

Translate:

irrita fallaci quotiens dedit oscula fonti! in mediis quotiens visum captantia collum bracchia mersit aquis nec se deprendit in illis!

Answer 19

How often did he give vain kisses to the deceitful spring! How often did he plunge his arms into the midst of the water, trying to clasp the neck that he saw, but he could not catch himself in them!

Question 20

Translate:

quid videat nescit, sed quod videt uritur illo atque oculos idem qui decipit incitat error.

Answer 20

He doesn’t know what he sees, but what he sees burns in him and the same illusion, which deceives his eyes, urges his eyes on.

Question 21

Translate:

quae simul aspexit liquefacta rursus in unda, non tulit ulterius sed, ut intabescere flavae igne levi cerae matutinaeque pruinae sole tepente solent sic attenuatus amore liquitur et tecto paulatim carpitur igni; et neque iam color est mixto candore rubori nec vigor et vires et quae modo visa placebant, nec corpus remanet, quondam quod amaverat Echo.

Answer 21

As soon as he sees this, in the water that had cleared again, he can bear it no longer, but just as yellow wax usually melts with a gentle flame and as the morning frosts do likewise in the warm sun, so he fades away, weakened by love, and he is gradually consumed by a hidden fire; and his rosy-white complexion now has no glow, and he has no vigour and strength - those things which up till recently he had seen and found pleasing; and his body, which once Echo had loved, did not last.

Question 22

Translate:

quae tamen ut vidit quamvis irata memorque indoluit quotiensque puer miserabilis ‘eheu’ dixerat haec resonis iterabat vocibus ‘eheu’.

Answer 22

However, when she saw this, although still angry and mindful, she felt sorry for him, and whenever the wretched boy had cried ‘Alas!’, she would repeat the ‘Alas!’ with her echoing voice.

Question 23

Translate:

cumque suos manibus percusserat ille lacertos haec quoque reddebat sonitum plangoris eundem.

Answer 23

And when he had been striking his own arms with his fists, Echo would give back the same sounds of grief as well.

Question 24

Translate:

ultima vox solitam fuit haec spectantis in undam ‘heu frustra dilecte puer!’ totidemque remisit verba locus, dictoque vale, ‘vale’ inquit et Echo.

Answer 24

The final words of Narciussus, as he gazed into the familiar water, were these: ‘Alas, dear boy, loved in vain!’ And the place sent back the same words, and when he had said ‘Farewell’, Echo said ‘Farewell’ too.

Question 25

Translate:

ille caput viridi fessum summisit in herba lumina mors clausit domini mirantia formam.

Answer 25

He laid his weary head down on the green grass and death closed the eyes that were marvelling at the form of their master.

Question 26

Translate:

tum quoque se, postquam est inferna sede receptus, in Stygia spectabat aqua.

Answer 26

After he had been received into the abode of the underworld, even then he would look at himself in the waters of the River Styx.

Question 27

Translate:

planxere sorores Naides et sectos fratri posuere capillos planxerunt Dryades plangentibus assonat Echo.

Answer 27

The Naiads (water nymphs), his sisters, wailed and offered their cut hair to their brother; the Dryads (wood nymphs) lamented too; and Echo returned the sound of their laments.

Question 28

Translate:

iamque rogum quassasque faces feretrumque parabant nusquam corpus erat croceum pro corpore florem inveniunt foliis medium cingentibus albis.

Answer 28

And now they were preparing his funeral pyre, the torches that are brandished [at funerals] and the bier itself; but his body was nowhere to be found; in place of his body they found a yellow flower, with white petals surrounding the middle of the flower.