BOOK I.

13

We possess the spirit, the sinew, the anger, and the strength,
Now trained to endure hard labor.
We know how to beat the Sun, shaking off sleep:
Before daybreak we are moving toward the East.
Often at night we watch our Goddess in the sky
Drawing down the stars with a different face. The "Goddess" is Diana, goddess of the moon and the hunt. Her "different face" refers to the changing phases of the moon that hunters observe during night watches.
If military camps made their watches equal to those of the forest-dwellers
In the middle of the field of Mars: Mars was the Roman god of war; his "field" refers to the battlefield.
Or where watchmen stand confident at the walls, ordered
To defend the besieged ramparts:
The enemy, more fortunate through neglect, would never launch himself
Into the City with such an easy leap.
Nor would you, GERMANIA, be torn by so many wounds,
Your breast cut open by your own loss. Balde refers to the devastation of Germany during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). He suggests that if soldiers were as vigilant as hunters, the country would not have suffered such ruin.
Furthermore, hard hunger trains us, and savage thirst
Burns us, accompanied by our Molossian hounds. Molossians were a famous ancient breed of large, powerful dogs used for hunting and guarding.
We know how to compete even with the arrows of Apollo,
Which fear to miss their mark.
Not only shall DELLUS knock the apple from the boy's head,
We too shall strike it. Dellus is a Latinized reference to William Tell, the legendary Swiss marksman forced to shoot an apple off his son's head.
Perhaps I would have brought the royal head of GUSTAVUS
On a platter to you, Greatest CAESAR: Gustavus refers to Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden and a major opponent of the Holy Roman Empire. The "Greatest Caesar" is the Emperor Ferdinand II or III. The "head on a platter" is an allusion to the biblical execution of John the Baptist.
If you had once commanded me, as I followed your standards,
To pierce that Vandal neck. The poet uses "Vandal" as a classical-style insult for the Swedes, who were often associated with the ancient Goths and Vandals who invaded Rome.

ANTITHESIS

But not for that reason is everyone considered a HUNTER
Also called a strenuous WARRIOR.
You might find many who are brave in the battles of peace,
Promising the heroic deeds of Hercules.
You would hope they were born from the loins of Mars,
Ready to put the god of war himself to flight by their look alone.
One of these, hungry in the early morning,
Lashes the countryside with a fierce sigh.
Even though grim winter binds the lands with frost,
And the thick air bellows:
He hastily mounts the horse brought to him, and presses
Through caves, thickets, and broken ground.