De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Nothing is seen to happen with such speed
  2. As what the mind proposes and begins;
  3. Therefore the same bestirs itself more swiftly
  4. Than aught whose nature's palpable to eyes.
  5. But what's so agile must of seeds consist
  6. Most round, most tiny, that they may be moved,
  7. When hit by impulse slight. So water moves,
  8. In waves along, at impulse just the least-
  9. Being create of little shapes that roll;
  10. But, contrariwise, the quality of honey
  11. More stable is, its liquids more inert,
  12. More tardy its flow; for all its stock of matter
  13. Cleaves more together, since, indeed, 'tis made
  14. Of atoms not so smooth, so fine, and round.
  15. For the light breeze that hovers yet can blow
  16. High heaps of poppy-seed away for thee
  17. Downward from off the top; but, contrariwise,
  18. A pile of stones or spiny ears of wheat
  19. It can't at all. Thus, in so far as bodies
  20. Are small and smooth, is their mobility;
  21. But, contrariwise, the heavier and more rough,
  22. The more immovable they prove. Now, then,
  23. Since nature of mind is movable so much,
  24. Consist it must of seeds exceeding small
  25. And smooth and round. Which fact once known to thee,
  26. Good friend, will serve thee opportune in else.
  27. This also shows the nature of the same,
  28. How nice its texture, in how small a space
  29. 'Twould go, if once compacted as a pellet:
  30. When death's unvexed repose gets hold on man
  31. And mind and soul retire, thou markest there
  32. From the whole body nothing ta'en in form,
  33. Nothing in weight. Death grants ye everything,
  34. But vital sense and exhalation hot.
  35. Thus soul entire must be of smallmost seeds,
  36. Twined through the veins, the vitals, and the thews,
  37. Seeing that, when 'tis from whole body gone,
  38. The outward figuration of the limbs
  39. Is unimpaired and weight fails not a whit.
  40. Just so, when vanished the bouquet of wine,
  41. Or when an unguent's perfume delicate
  42. Into the winds away departs, or when
  43. From any body savour's gone, yet still
  44. The thing itself seems minished naught to eyes,
  45. Thereby, nor aught abstracted from its weight-
  46. No marvel, because seeds many and minute
  47. Produce the savours and the redolence
  48. In the whole body of the things.
  1. And so,
  2. Again, again, nature of mind and soul
  3. 'Tis thine to know created is of seeds
  4. The tiniest ever, since at flying-forth
  5. It beareth nothing of the weight away.
  6. Yet fancy not its nature simple so.
  7. For an impalpable aura, mixed with heat,
  8. Deserts the dying, and heat draws off the air;
  9. And heat there's none, unless commixed with air:
  10. For, since the nature of all heat is rare,
  11. Athrough it many seeds of air must move.
  12. Thus nature of mind is triple; yet those all
  13. Suffice not for creating sense- since mind
  14. Accepteth not that aught of these can cause
  15. Sense-bearing motions, and much less the thoughts
  16. A man revolves in mind. So unto these
  17. Must added be a somewhat, and a fourth;
  18. That somewhat's altogether void of name;
  19. Than which existeth naught more mobile, naught
  20. More an impalpable, of elements
  21. More small and smooth and round. That first transmits
  22. Sense-bearing motions through the frame, for that
  23. Is roused the first, composed of little shapes;
  24. Thence heat and viewless force of wind take up
  25. The motions, and thence air, and thence all things
  26. Are put in motion; the blood is strook, and then
  27. The vitals all begin to feel, and last
  28. To bones and marrow the sensation comes-
  29. Pleasure or torment. Nor will pain for naught
  30. Enter so far, nor a sharp ill seep through,
  31. But all things be perturbed to that degree
  32. That room for life will fail, and parts of soul
  33. Will scatter through the body's every pore.
  34. Yet as a rule, almost upon the skin
  35. These motion aIl are stopped, and this is why
  36. We have the power to retain our life.
  37. Now in my eagerness to tell thee how
  38. They are commixed, through what unions fit
  39. They function so, my country's pauper-speech
  40. Constrains me sadly. As I can, however,
  41. I'll touch some points and pass.
  1. In such a wise
  2. Course these primordials 'mongst one another
  3. With inter-motions that no one can be
  4. From other sundered, nor its agency
  5. Perform, if once divided by a space;
  6. Like many powers in one body they work.
  7. As in the flesh of any creature still
  8. Is odour and savour and a certain warmth,
  9. And yet from all of these one bulk of body
  10. Is made complete, so, viewless force of wind
  11. And warmth and air, commingled, do create
  12. One nature, by that mobile energy
  13. Assisted which from out itself to them
  14. Imparts initial motion, whereby first
  15. Sense-bearing motion along the vitals springs.
  16. For lurks this essence far and deep and under,
  17. Nor in our body is aught more shut from view,
  18. And 'tis the very soul of all the soul.
  19. And as within our members and whole frame
  20. The energy of mind and power of soul
  21. Is mixed and latent, since create it is
  22. Of bodies small and few, so lurks this fourth,
  23. This essence void of name, composed of small,
  24. And seems the very soul of all the soul,
  25. And holds dominion o'er the body all.
  26. And by like reason wind and air and heat
  27. Must function so, commingled through the frame,
  28. And now the one subside and now another
  29. In interchange of dominance, that thus
  30. From all of them one nature be produced,
  31. Lest heat and wind apart, and air apart,
  32. Make sense to perish, by disseverment.