Extant Works

The impulse, and the flanks widely extended*
Are sufficient for such great spurs: it has advanced from the empty earth,
The hoof covers the hair of the captive Rhine river.
Even Arion a mythological horse would have shuddered at the sight of this one,
And Cyllarus another mythological horse fears looking from the nearby temple,
From here he will never change the reins of his master:
He will serve the eternal reins, and one star alone.
The ground hardly suffices, and pressed by such weight
He gasps beneath: nor does he labour in iron, or bronze,
60 But he holds what the eternal stone base provides:
Which would carry the peaks of the piled-up mountain,
And would have hardened the worn knee of Atlas titan who holds up the sky the sky-bearer.
Nor did long delays draw it out, the work itself rejoices,
The present form of a God, and the youth intent on the work
Marvel that the hands can do more. The high machine
Rattles with the beat: a continuous roar goes through the seven
Mountain peaks, and shapes the wandering murmurs of great Rome the city.
The guardian of the place himself, whose sacred Vorago abyss/chasm,
And the lake which preserves a memorable name,
70 As he sensed the countless sounds of bronze and with a crude beating
The forum bellowing, he moves his horrible
Mouth in the sacred site, and his venerable head with a deserved oak.
And first he dreaded the huge appearance and the flashing light
Of the greater horse, and thrice he plunged his high
Neck into the lake trembling, soon joyful seeing the ruler:
Hail, offspring of the great, and father of the gods,
A divinity heard from afar by me: now my lake is happy,
Now it is venerable, since to know you nearby, and to watch your
Immortal light from a nearby seat.