Aeneid: Beginning of Book I, with a very direct translation

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.

Arms and the man I sing, who as the first from the shores of Troy to

Italy came, driven by fate, and to the Lavinian

shore. He was much buffeted on land and on sea

by violence from above, because of the unforgiving anger of savage Juno.

Also much in war he suffered, until he should build a city,

and bring his gods to Latium, whence came the Latin people,

the lords of Alba, and the high walls of Rome.