De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Bodies that strike the eyes, awaking sight.
  2. From certain things flow odours evermore,
  3. As cold from rivers, heat from sun, and spray
  4. From waves of ocean, eater-out of walls
  5. Around the coasts. Nor ever cease to flit
  6. The varied voices, sounds athrough the air.
  7. Then too there comes into the mouth at times
  8. The wet of a salt taste, when by the sea
  9. We roam about; and so, whene'er we watch
  10. The wormword being mixed, its bitter stings.
  11. To such degree from all things is each thing
  12. Borne streamingly along, and sent about
  13. To every region round; and nature grants
  14. Nor rest nor respite of the onward flow,
  15. Since 'tis incessantly we feeling have,
  16. And all the time are suffered to descry
  17. And smell all things at hand, and hear them sound.
  1. Besides, since shape examined by our hands
  2. Within the dark is known to be the same
  3. As that by eyes perceived within the light
  4. And lustrous day, both touch and sight must be
  5. By one like cause aroused. So, if we test
  6. A square and get its stimulus on us
  7. Within the dark, within the light what square
  8. Can fall upon our sight, except a square
  9. That images the things? Wherefore it seems
  10. The source of seeing is in images,
  11. Nor without these can anything be viewed.
  12. Now these same films I name are borne about
  13. And tossed and scattered into regions all.
  14. But since we do perceive alone through eyes,
  15. It follows hence that whitherso we turn
  16. Our sight, all things do strike against it there
  17. With form and hue. And just how far from us
  18. Each thing may be away, the image yields
  19. To us the power to see and chance to tell:
  20. For when 'tis sent, at once it shoves ahead
  21. And drives along the air that's in the space
  22. Betwixt it and our eyes. And thus this air
  23. All glides athrough our eyeballs, and, as 'twere,
  24. Brushes athrough our pupils and thuswise
  25. Passes across. Therefore it comes we see
  26. How far from us each thing may be away,
  27. And the more air there be that's driven before,
  28. And too the longer be the brushing breeze
  29. Against our eyes, the farther off removed
  30. Each thing is seen to be: forsooth, this work
  31. With mightily swift order all goes on,
  32. So that upon one instant we may see
  33. What kind the object and how far away.
  34. Nor over-marvellous must this be deemed
  35. In these affairs that, though the films which strike
  36. Upon the eyes cannot be singly seen,
  37. The things themselves may be perceived. For thus
  38. When the wind beats upon us stroke by stroke
  39. And when the sharp cold streams, 'tis not our wont
  40. To feel each private particle of wind
  41. Or of that cold, but rather all at once;
  42. And so we see how blows affect our body,
  43. As if one thing were beating on the same
  44. And giving us the feel of its own body
  45. Outside of us. Again, whene'er we thump
  46. With finger-tip upon a stone, we touch
  47. But the rock's surface and the outer hue,
  48. Nor feel that hue by contact- rather feel
  49. The very hardness deep within the rock.
  1. Now come, and why beyond a looking-glass
  2. An image may be seen, perceive. For seen
  3. It soothly is, removed far within.
  4. 'Tis the same sort as objects peered upon
  5. Outside in their true shape, whene'er a door
  6. Yields through itself an open peering-place,
  7. And lets us see so many things outside
  8. Beyond the house. Also that sight is made
  9. By a twofold twin air: for first is seen
  10. The air inside the door-posts; next the doors,
  11. The twain to left and right; and afterwards
  12. A light beyond comes brushing through our eyes,
  13. Then other air, then objects peered upon
  14. Outside in their true shape. And thus, when first
  15. The image of the glass projects itself,
  16. As to our gaze it comes, it shoves ahead
  17. And drives along the air that's in the space
  18. Betwixt it and our eyes, and brings to pass
  19. That we perceive the air ere yet the glass.
  20. But when we've also seen the glass itself,
  21. Forthwith that image which from us is borne
  22. Reaches the glass, and there thrown back again
  23. Comes back unto our eyes, and driving rolls
  24. Ahead of itself another air, that then
  25. 'Tis this we see before itself, and thus
  26. It looks so far removed behind the glass.
  27. Wherefore again, again, there's naught for wonder
  28. . . . . . .
  29. In those which render from the mirror's plane
  30. A vision back, since each thing comes to pass
  31. By means of the two airs. Now, in the glass
  32. The right part of our members is observed
  33. Upon the left, because, when comes the image
  34. Hitting against the level of the glass,
  35. 'Tis not returned unshifted; but forced off
  36. Backwards in line direct and not oblique,-
  37. Exactly as whoso his plaster-mask
  38. Should dash, before 'twere dry, on post or beam,
  39. And it should straightway keep, at clinging there,
  40. Its shape, reversed, facing him who threw,
  41. And so remould the features it gives back:
  42. It comes that now the right eye is the left,
  43. The left the right.