Not one drop of blood
is left inside my veins that does not throb:
I recognize signs of the ancient flame.[Men che dramma
di sangue m’è rimaso, che non tremi;
conosco i segni de l’antica fiamma.]Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 2 “Purgatorio,” Canto 30, l. 46ff (3.46-68) (1314) [tr. Musa (1981)]
(Source)
Dante, on seeing his long-lost love, Beatrice, repeating to Virgil the lines he had given Dido (Aeneid, 4.23) about how she felt the stirring of long-dead passion upon seeing Aeneas: "Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae" ("I know the traces of the ancient flame" [tr. Kline (2002)]).
(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:
There is no dram of blood,
That doth not quiver in me. The old flame
Throws out clear tokens of reviving fire.
[tr. Cary (1814)]
There is not one drop
Of blood within me trembling but became:
I know the tokens of the ancient fame.
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]
Not a drachm
Of blood remains in me, that does not tremble;
I know the traces of the ancient flame.
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]
Less than a dram of blood remains to me which trembles not; I recognise the signs of the ancient flame.
[tr. Butler (1885)]
Rests within my frame
No dram of blood that does not tremble now;
I know the symptoms of the olden flame.
[tr. Minchin (1885)]
Less than a drachm of blood remains in me that doth not tremble; I recognize the signals of the ancient flame.
[tr. Norton (1892)]
Less than a drachm of blood
is left in me that trembleth not; I recognise
the tokens of the ancient flame.
[tr. Okey (1901)]
Not a drop of blood is left in me that does not tremble; I know the marks of the ancient flame.
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]
Scarce one drop remains
Of blood in me that trembles not: by this
I recognize the old flame within my veins.
[tr. Binyon (1943)]
There is scarce a dram
That does not hammer and throb in all my blood;
I know the embers of the ancient flame.
[tr. Sayers (1955)]
There is not within me
one drop of blood unstirred. I recognize
the tokens of the ancient flame.
[tr. Ciardi (1961)]
Less than a drop of blood
Is left in me, that is not trembling:
I know the signs of the ancient flame.
[tr. Sisson (1981)]
I am left with less
than one drop of blood that does not tremble:
I recognize the signs of the old flame.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1982)]
There is a barely a drop of blood in me that does not tremble: I know the tokens of the ancient flame.
[tr. Kline (2002)]
Less than a dram of blood is left me that is not trembling: I recognize the signs of the ancient flame!
[tr. Durling (2003)]
There is not one gram
of blood in me that does not tremble now.
I recognize the signs of ancient flame.
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2007)]
Not a single drop of blood
remains in me that does not tremble --
I know the signs of the ancient flame.[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]
There isn't a single drop of whatever blood
Still flows in my veins that isn't shaking from fear:
I recognize the signs of that ancient fire.
[tr. Raffel (2010)]
Quotations about:
trembling
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry. What have I gained, that I no longer immolate a bull to Jove or to Neptune, or a mouse to Hecate; that I do not tremble before the Eumenides, or the Catholic Purgatory, or the Calvinistic Judgment-day, — if I quake at opinion, the public opinion as we call it; or at the threat of assault, or contumely, or bad neighbors, or poverty, or mutilation, or at the rumor of revolution, or of murder? If I quake, what matters it what I quake at?
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Character,” Essays: Second Series (1844)
(Source)
I shudder as I tell the tale.
[Horresco réferens]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 2, l. 204 (2.204) [Aeneas] (29-19 BC) [tr. Fairclough (1916)]
(Source)
Telling Dido of the terrible deaths of the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
I shake to mention.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]
I shudder at the relation.
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]
I quail,
E'en now, at telling of the tale
[tr. Conington (1866)]
I shudder as I tell.
[tr. Cranch (1872)]
I shudder as I recall.
[tr. Mackail (1885)]
I tremble in the tale.
[tr. Morris (1900)]
The tale I shudder to pursue
[tr. Taylor
(1907)]I shudder as I tell.
[tr. Williams (1910)]
I shudder even now,
Recalling it.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]
Telling it makes me shudder.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1952)]
I shudder
to tell what happened.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971)]
I shiver to recall it.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981)]
I shudder at the memory of it.
[tr. West (1990)]
I shudder to tell it.
[tr. Kline (2002)]
I shudder to recall them.
[tr. Lombardo (2005)]
I cringe to recall it now.
[tr. Fagles (2006)]
I shudder at the telling.
[tr. Bartsch (2021)]