This is one of my favorite Modern Latin short poems of all time, from a cycle of 10 poems titled 'Terrarum Mirabilissima Decem' (the title cannot be properly translated without being absurdly long-winded: 'Ten Things Most Wonderful From Around The World'.)
Machu Picchu
By Florindo di Monaco
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Clouds are wreathed in rays as they blank the stars out,
Shining. Here all time for all time is silent.
Grasping for gods lie the uprisen boulders
Muted in prayer.
Whither the statecraft of the elder kingdom?
Whither the vanished power of a people?
Mystery harrows the fleeting ages' coward
Hearts now and ever.
The Original:
Cacumina Andina “Alturas de Machu Picchu” dicta
Nūbium candēns prohibet corōna
astra mīrārī. Silet omne tempus.
Caelitēs mūtīs precibus sequuntur
ēdita saxa.
Quō facultātēs soliī suprēmī,
magna quō fūgit populī potestās?
Īnstat arcānum pavidīs fugācis
cordibus aevī.
Machu Picchu
By Florindo di Monaco
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Clouds are wreathed in rays as they blank the stars out,
Shining. Here all time for all time is silent.
Grasping for gods lie the uprisen boulders
Muted in prayer.
Whither the statecraft of the elder kingdom?
Whither the vanished power of a people?
Mystery harrows the fleeting ages' coward
Hearts now and ever.
The Original:
Cacumina Andina “Alturas de Machu Picchu” dicta
Nūbium candēns prohibet corōna
astra mīrārī. Silet omne tempus.
Caelitēs mūtīs precibus sequuntur
ēdita saxa.
Quō facultātēs soliī suprēmī,
magna quō fūgit populī potestās?
Īnstat arcānum pavidīs fugācis
cordibus aevī.
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