1Meanwhile Aeneas, resolute, was already holding his fleet on its course in mid-sea, and was cutting through the dark waves before the North Wind, looking back at the walls which now glow with the flames of unhappy Elissa. 4What cause kindled so great a fire lies hidden; 5but the bitter pain when a great love is defiled, and the knowledge of what a woman in frenzy can do, lead the Trojans' hearts through grim foreboding. 8When the ships held the open sea and no land any longer met the eye, sea on every side and on every side sky, then a dark-blue storm-cloud stood over his head, bringing night and tempest, and the wave bristled in the darkness.
12The helmsman Palinurus himself, from the high stern: 'Alas! 13why have such great clouds encircled the sky? 14Or what are you preparing, father Neptune?' 14Having spoken thus, he then orders them to gather in the tackle and bend to the sturdy oars, sets the sails slantwise to the wind, and speaks thus: 'Great-hearted Aeneas, not even if Jupiter himself pledged it as my guarantor would I hope to reach Italy under this sky. 19The winds have shifted and roar across our course, rising from the dark west, and the air is massed into cloud. 21Nor have we the strength to struggle against it, or even to make headway. 22Since Fortune is the stronger, let us follow, and turn our course where she calls.
23Nor, I think, are the faithful shores of your brother Eryx far off, and the Sicilian harbours, if only I remember rightly and retrace the stars I watched before.' 26Then dutiful Aeneas: 'Indeed I have seen for some time that the winds demand this, and that you strain against them in vain: change course under sail. 28Could any land be more welcome to me, or where would I rather bring my weary ships to rest, than the land that keeps Dardanian Acestes for me and holds in its bosom the bones of my father Anchises?' 32When this was said, they make for the harbour, and following Zephyrs fill their sails; 33the fleet is borne swiftly over the flood, and at last, glad, they turn towards the familiar sand.