De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. And when perchance, in mingling seed with his,
  2. The female hath o'erpowered the force of male
  3. And by a sudden fling hath seized it fast,
  4. Then are the offspring, more from mothers' seed,
  5. More like their mothers; as, from fathers' seed,
  6. They're like to fathers. But whom seest to be
  7. Partakers of each shape, one equal blend
  8. Of parents' features, these are generate
  9. From fathers' body and from mothers' blood,
  10. When mutual and harmonious heat hath dashed
  11. Together seeds, aroused along their frames
  12. By Venus' goads, and neither of the twain
  13. Mastereth or is mastered. Happens too
  14. That sometimes offspring can to being come
  15. In likeness of their grandsires, and bring back
  16. Often the shapes of grandsires' sires, because
  17. Their parents in their bodies oft retain
  18. Concealed many primal germs, commixed
  19. In many modes, which, starting with the stock,
  20. Sire handeth down to son, himself a sire;
  21. Whence Venus by a variable chance
  22. Engenders shapes, and diversely brings back
  23. Ancestral features, voices too, and hair.
  24. A female generation rises forth
  25. From seed paternal, and from mother's body
  26. Exist created males: since sex proceeds
  27. No more from singleness of seed than faces
  28. Or bodies or limbs of ours: for every birth
  29. Is from a twofold seed; and what's created
  30. Hath, of that parent which it is more like,
  31. More than its equal share; as thou canst mark,-
  32. Whether the breed be male or female stock.
  1. Nor do the powers divine grudge any man
  2. The fruits of his seed-sowing, so that never
  3. He be called "father" by sweet children his,
  4. And end his days in sterile love forever.
  5. What many men suppose; and gloomily
  6. They sprinkle the altars with abundant blood,
  7. And make the high platforms odorous with burnt gifts,
  8. To render big by plenteous seed their wives-
  9. And plague in vain godheads and sacred lots.
  10. For sterile are these men by seed too thick,
  11. Or else by far too watery and thin.
  12. Because the thin is powerless to cleave
  13. Fast to the proper places, straightaway
  14. It trickles from them, and, returned again,
  15. Retires abortively. And then since seed
  16. More gross and solid than will suit is spent
  17. By some men, either it flies not forth amain
  18. With spurt prolonged enough, or else it fails
  19. To enter suitably the proper places,
  20. Or, having entered, the seed is weakly mixed
  21. With seed of the woman: harmonies of Venus
  22. Are seen to matter vastly here; and some
  23. Impregnate some more readily, and from some
  24. Some women conceive more readily and become
  25. Pregnant. And many women, sterile before
  26. In several marriage-beds, have yet thereafter
  27. Obtained the mates from whom they could conceive
  28. The baby-boys, and with sweet progeny
  29. Grow rich. And even for husbands (whose own wives,
  30. Although of fertile wombs, have borne for them
  31. No babies in the house) are also found
  32. Concordant natures so that they at last
  33. Can bulwark their old age with goodly sons.
  34. A matter of great moment 'tis in truth,
  35. That seeds may mingle readily with seeds
  36. Suited for procreation, and that thick
  37. Should mix with fluid seeds, with thick the fluid.
  38. And in this business 'tis of some import
  39. Upon what diet life is nourished:
  40. For some foods thicken seeds within our members,
  41. And others thin them out and waste away.
  42. And in what modes the fond delight itself
  43. Is carried on- this too importeth vastly.
  44. For commonly 'tis thought that wives conceive
  45. More readily in manner of wild-beasts,
  46. After the custom of the four-foot breeds,
  47. Because so postured, with the breasts beneath
  48. And buttocks then upreared, the seeds can take
  49. Their proper places. Nor is need the least
  50. For wives to use the motions of blandishment;
  51. For thus the woman hinders and resists
  52. Her own conception, if too joyously
  53. Herself she treats the Venus of the man
  54. With haunches heaving, and with all her bosom
  55. Now yielding like the billows of the sea-
  56. Aye, from the ploughshare's even course and track
  57. She throws the furrow, and from proper places
  58. Deflects the spurt of seed. And courtesans
  59. Are thuswise wont to move for their own ends,
  60. To keep from pregnancy and lying in,
  61. And all the while to render Venus more
  62. A pleasure for the men- the which meseems
  63. Our wives have never need of.
  1. Sometimes too
  2. It happens- and through no divinity
  3. Nor arrows of Venus- that a sorry chit
  4. Of scanty grace will be beloved by man;
  5. For sometimes she herself by very deeds,
  6. By her complying ways, and tidy habits,
  7. Will easily accustom thee to pass
  8. With her thy life-time- and, moreover, lo,
  9. Long habitude can gender human love,
  10. Even as an object smitten o'er and o'er
  11. By blows, however lightly, yet at last
  12. Is overcome and wavers. Seest thou not,
  13. Besides, how drops of water falling down
  14. Against the stones at last bore through the stones?