The Aeneid

Virgil's word choice for the introduction to this book has always interested me very much, and this particular translation caught my eye because it keeps the flow, though in a different meter, of the original, and has a rhyme scheme, which helps the english version maintain energy. Here is the introduction in verse english (translated by Dryden), and in the original latin:

Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.
Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,
And in the doubtful war, before he won
The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;
His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,
And settled sure succession in his line,
From whence the race of Alban fathers come,
And the long glories of majestic Rome.

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit
litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram;
multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem,
inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum,
Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.

Reading through the Formalism lens i noticed how Virgil chooses the word 'altae' to describe Rome, which normally is accepted to mean 'high', which is a word often used to describe the Christian heaven. I also noticed the translator's word choice in this passage, and i am thoroughly impressed by the fact that he was able to create a translation that sounded like poetry without losing most of the meaning of the passage. I also find it interesting how Virgil describes Aeneas' eventual location as a "Lavinian shore" (referencing the woman Aeneas meets there, named Lavinia) and though this may seem crucial Dryden chooses to leave this out.