Voyage Home
[After studying at Uraniborg for several years, Duracotus returns to Iceland and his mother, who thought him dead]
Etenim exactis annis aliquot in hac insula tandem me cupiditas incessit revisendae patriae; rebar enim non grave mihi futurum ob acquisitam scientiam, emergere ad aliquam in mea gente rudi dignitatem.
After many years on the island of Hven, at last I longed to see my homeland again. I reasoned that it would not be hard for me, with the science that I had acquired, to rise to some importance among my ignorant people.
Salutato igitur patrono et venia discessus impetrata veni Hafniam; nactusque socios itineris, qui me ob linguae et regionis cognitionem libenter in suum patrocinium susceperunt, redii in patriam, quinto postquam excesseram anno.
After receiving his blessing to depart, I said farewell to Brahe and came to Copenhagen. There I found travelling companions who willingly undertook to protect me, for the sake of my knowledge of the language and the region. And so I returned to my native land, five years after I had left.
Prima mei reditus felicitas erat, quod matrem inveni adhuc spirantem et eadem quae olim factitantem, finemque ei poenitudinis diuturnae, ob amissum temeritate filium, vivus et ornatus attuli.
My first joy on my return was to find my mother still alive and practicing the same trade as before. I put an end to her long-lasting sorrow, for the sake of the son she had lost through recklessness, now brought home alive and distinguished.
Vergebat tunc annus in autumnum ^29, succedebantque deinceps noctes illae nostrae longae, quippe Natalitio Christi mense Sol in meridie vix parum emergens e vestigio rursum conditur ^30.
At that time the year was turning to Autumn, and those long nights of ours were drawing near. For the month of Christmas, the Sun barely rises a little at midday, then turns back on its traces out of sight.
Ita mater per hanc vacationem a suis operis mihi adhaerere, a me non discedere, quocunque me cum commendatitiis literis recepissem, percontari iam de terris, quas adiissem, iam de coelo, quam scientiam me didicisse vehementissime gaudebat, comparare quae ipsa habebat comperta cum meis narratis ^31, exclamare, iam se prointam esse ad moriendurn, ut quae scientiae suae, quam solam possideret, filium haeredem sit relictura ^32.
Therefore my mother was free from her work. She stayed close and did not leave me, wherever I went with the letters of recommendation I had received, asking a times about the lands I had visited, at times about the heavens. She was delighted with any science that I had learned, and compared what she knew with my explanations. She declared that she was now ready to die, since she was leaving behind a son to inherit the knowledge that only she possessed.
The Somnium Project 