The bloody bush (Aeneid, III, 1-72)

an Experience of Decasyllabic Translation

Abstract

This paper presents a decasyllabic translation of the beginning of Aeneid’s Book III along with notes and comments. In this book, the hero gives an account of his travels across the Mediterranean, and the selected passage refers to the episode traditionally known as “The Bloody Bush” or “The grave of Polydorus”, a plot of horror, betrayal and violence, which is revealed to Aeneas when he and his companions land on the coast of Thrace, after leaving the beaches of Troy. The translation follows a parameter of metric proportionality adopted for the transposition of hexameters into decasyllables, and the viability of applying this criterion is verified based on the results measured in each paragraph.