De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. And, verily, those tortures said to be
  2. In Acheron, the deep, they all are ours
  3. Here in this life. No Tantalus, benumbed
  4. With baseless terror, as the fables tell,
  5. Fears the huge boulder hanging in the air:
  6. But, rather, in life an empty dread of Gods
  7. Urges mortality, and each one fears
  8. Such fall of fortune as may chance to him.
  9. Nor eat the vultures into Tityus
  10. Prostrate in Acheron, nor can they find,
  11. Forsooth, throughout eternal ages, aught
  12. To pry around for in that mighty breast.
  13. However hugely he extend his bulk-
  14. Who hath for outspread limbs not acres nine,
  15. But the whole earth- he shall not able be
  16. To bear eternal pain nor furnish food
  17. From his own frame forever. But for us
  18. A Tityus is he whom vultures rend
  19. Prostrate in love, whom anxious anguish eats,
  20. Whom troubles of any unappeased desires
  21. Asunder rip. We have before our eyes
  22. Here in this life also a Sisyphus
  23. In him who seeketh of the populace
  24. The rods, the axes fell, and evermore
  25. Retires a beaten and a gloomy man.
  26. For to seek after power- an empty name,
  27. Nor given at all- and ever in the search
  28. To endure a world of toil, O this it is
  29. To shove with shoulder up the hill a stone
  30. Which yet comes rolling back from off the top,
  31. And headlong makes for levels of the plain.
  32. Then to be always feeding an ingrate mind,
  33. Filling with good things, satisfying never-
  34. As do the seasons of the year for us,
  35. When they return and bring their progenies
  36. And varied charms, and we are never filled
  37. With the fruits of life- O this, I fancy, 'tis
  38. To pour, like those young virgins in the tale,
  39. Waters into a sieve, unfilled forever.
  40. . . . . . .
  41. Cerberus and Furies, and that Lack of Light
  42. . . . . . .
  43. Tartarus, out-belching from his mouth the surge
  44. Of horrible heat- the which are nowhere, nor
  45. Indeed can be: but in this life is fear
  46. Of retributions just and expiations
  47. For evil acts: the dungeon and the leap
  48. From that dread rock of infamy, the stripes,
  49. The executioners, the oaken rack,
  50. The iron plates, bitumen, and the torch.
  51. And even though these are absent, yet the mind,
  52. With a fore-fearing conscience, plies its goads
  53. And burns beneath the lash, nor sees meanwhile
  54. What terminus of ills, what end of pine
  55. Can ever be, and feareth lest the same
  56. But grow more heavy after death. Of truth,
  57. The life of fools is Acheron on earth.
  1. This also to thy very self sometimes
  2. Repeat thou mayst: "Lo, even good Ancus left
  3. The sunshine with his eyes, in divers things
  4. A better man than thou, O worthless hind;
  5. And many other kings and lords of rule
  6. Thereafter have gone under, once who swayed
  7. O'er mighty peoples. And he also, he-
  8. Who whilom paved a highway down the sea,
  9. And gave his legionaries thoroughfare
  10. Along the deep, and taught them how to cross
  11. The pools of brine afoot, and did contemn,
  12. Trampling upon it with his cavalry,
  13. The bellowings of ocean- poured his soul
  14. From dying body, as his light was ta'en.
  15. And Scipio's son, the thunderbolt of war,
  16. Horror of Carthage, gave his bones to earth,
  17. Like to the lowliest villein in the house.
  18. Add finders-out of sciences and arts;
  19. Add comrades of the Heliconian dames,
  20. Among whom Homer, sceptered o'er them all,
  21. Now lies in slumber sunken with the rest.
  22. Then, too, Democritus, when ripened eld
  23. Admonished him his memory waned away,
  24. Of own accord offered his head to death.
  25. Even Epicurus went, his light of life
  26. Run out, the man in genius who o'er-topped
  27. The human race, extinguishing all others,
  28. As sun, in ether arisen, all the stars.
  29. Wilt thou, then, dally, thou complain to go?-
  30. For whom already life's as good as dead,
  31. Whilst yet thou livest and lookest?- who in sleep
  32. Wastest thy life- time's major part, and snorest
  33. Even when awake, and ceasest not to see
  34. The stuff of dreams, and bearest a mind beset
  35. By baseless terror, nor discoverest oft
  36. What's wrong with thee, when, like a sotted wretch,
  37. Thou'rt jostled along by many crowding cares,
  38. And wanderest reeling round, with mind aswim."
  1. If men, in that same way as on the mind
  2. They feel the load that wearies with its weight,
  3. Could also know the causes whence it comes,
  4. And why so great the heap of ill on heart,
  5. O not in this sort would they live their life,
  6. As now so much we see them, knowing not
  7. What 'tis they want, and seeking ever and ever
  8. A change of place, as if to drop the burden.
  9. The man who sickens of his home goes out,
  10. Forth from his splendid halls, and straight- returns,
  11. Feeling i'faith no better off abroad.
  12. He races, driving his Gallic ponies along,
  13. Down to his villa, madly,- as in haste
  14. To hurry help to a house afire.- At once
  15. He yawns, as soon as foot has touched the threshold,
  16. Or drowsily goes off in sleep and seeks
  17. Forgetfulness, or maybe bustles about
  18. And makes for town again. In such a way
  19. Each human flees himself- a self in sooth,
  20. As happens, he by no means can escape;
  21. And willy-nilly he cleaves to it and loathes,
  22. Sick, sick, and guessing not the cause of ail.
  23. Yet should he see but that, O chiefly then,
  24. Leaving all else, he'd study to divine
  25. The nature of things, since here is in debate
  26. Eternal time and not the single hour,
  27. Mortal's estate in whatsoever remains
  28. After great death.