De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

Lucretius. De Rerum Natura. William Ellery Leonard. E. P. Dutton. 1916.

  1. Thus, too, the ramparts of the mighty world
  2. On all sides round shall taken be by storm,
  3. And tumble to wrack and shivered fragments down.
  4. For food it is must keep things whole, renewing;
  5. 'Tis food must prop and give support to all,-
  6. But to no purpose, since nor veins suffice
  7. To hold enough, nor nature ministers
  8. As much as needful. And even now 'tis thus:
  9. Its age is broken and the earth, outworn
  10. With many parturitions, scarce creates
  11. The little lives- she who created erst
  12. All generations and gave forth at birth
  13. Enormous bodies of wild beasts of old.
  14. For never, I fancy, did a golden cord
  15. From off the firmament above let down
  16. The mortal generations to the fields;
  17. Nor sea, nor breakers pounding on the rocks
  18. Created them; but earth it was who bore-
  19. The same to-day who feeds them from herself.
  20. Besides, herself of own accord, she first
  21. The shining grains and vineyards of all joy
  22. Created for mortality; herself
  23. Gave the sweet fruitage and the pastures glad,
  24. Which now to-day yet scarcely wax in size,
  25. Even when aided by our toiling arms.
  26. We break the ox, and wear away the strength
  27. Of sturdy farm-hands; iron tools to-day
  28. Barely avail for tilling of the fields,
  29. So niggardly they grudge our harvestings,
  30. So much increase our labour. Now to-day
  31. The aged ploughman, shaking of his head,
  32. Sighs o'er and o'er that labours of his hands
  33. Have fallen out in vain, and, as he thinks
  34. How present times are not as times of old,
  35. Often he praises the fortunes of his sire,
  36. And crackles, prating, how the ancient race,
  37. Fulfilled with piety, supported life
  38. With simple comfort in a narrow plot,
  39. Since, man for man, the measure of each field
  40. Was smaller far i' the old days. And, again,
  41. The gloomy planter of the withered vine
  42. Rails at the season's change and wearies heaven,
  43. Nor grasps that all of things by sure degrees
  44. Are wasting away and going to the tomb,
  45. Outworn by venerable length of life.
  1. O thou who first uplifted in such dark
  2. So clear a torch aloft, who first shed light
  3. Upon the profitable ends of man,
  4. O thee I follow, glory of the Greeks,
  5. And set my footsteps squarely planted now
  6. Even in the impress and the marks of thine-
  7. Less like one eager to dispute the palm,
  8. More as one craving out of very love
  9. That I may copy thee!- for how should swallow
  10. Contend with swans or what compare could be
  11. In a race between young kids with tumbling legs
  12. And the strong might of the horse? Our father thou,
  13. And finder-out of truth, and thou to us
  14. Suppliest a father's precepts; and from out
  15. Those scriven leaves of thine, renowned soul
  16. (Like bees that sip of all in flowery wolds),
  17. We feed upon thy golden sayings all-
  18. Golden, and ever worthiest endless life.
  19. For soon as ever thy planning thought that sprang
  20. From god-like mind begins its loud proclaim
  21. Of nature's courses, terrors of the brain
  22. Asunder flee, the ramparts of the world
  23. Dispart away, and through the void entire
  24. I see the movements of the universe.
  25. Rises to vision the majesty of gods,
  26. And their abodes of everlasting calm
  27. Which neither wind may shake nor rain-cloud splash,
  28. Nor snow, congealed by sharp frosts, may harm
  29. With its white downfall: ever, unclouded sky
  30. O'er roofs, and laughs with far-diffused light.
  31. And nature gives to them their all, nor aught
  32. May ever pluck their peace of mind away.
  33. But nowhere to my vision rise no more
  34. The vaults of Acheron, though the broad earth
  35. Bars me no more from gazing down o'er all
  36. Which under our feet is going on below
  37. Along the void. O, here in these affairs
  38. Some new divine delight and trembling awe
  39. Takes hold through me, that thus by power of thine
  40. Nature, so plain and manifest at last,
  41. Hath been on every side laid bare to man!
  42. And since I've taught already of what sort
  43. The seeds of all things are, and how, distinct
  44. In divers forms, they flit of own accord,
  45. Stirred with a motion everlasting on,
  46. And in what mode things be from them create,
  47. Now, after such matters, should my verse, meseems,
  48. Make clear the nature of the mind and soul,
  49. And drive that dread of Acheron without,
  50. Headlong, which so confounds our human life
  51. Unto its deeps, pouring o'er all that is
  52. The black of death, nor leaves not anything
  53. To prosper- a liquid and unsullied joy.