De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. A pool of water of but a finger's depth,
  2. Which lies between the stones along the pave,
  3. Offers a vision downward into earth
  4. As far, as from the earth o'erspread on high
  5. The gulfs of heaven; that thus thou seemest to view
  6. Clouds down below and heavenly bodies plunged
  7. Wondrously in heaven under earth.
  8. Then too, when in the middle of the stream
  9. Sticks fast our dashing horse, and down we gaze
  10. Into the river's rapid waves, some force
  11. Seems then to bear the body of the horse,
  12. Though standing still, reversely from his course,
  13. And swiftly push up-stream. And wheresoe'er
  14. We cast our eyes across, all objects seem
  15. Thus to be onward borne and flow along
  16. In the same way as we. A portico,
  17. Albeit it stands well propped from end to end
  18. On equal columns, parallel and big,
  19. Contracts by stages in a narrow cone,
  20. When from one end the long, long whole is seen,-
  21. Until, conjoining ceiling with the floor,
  22. And the whole right side with the left, it draws
  23. Together to a cone's nigh-viewless point.
  24. To sailors on the main the sun he seems
  25. From out the waves to rise, and in the waves
  26. To set and bury his light- because indeed
  27. They gaze on naught but water and the sky.
  28. Again, to gazers ignorant of the sea,
  29. Vessels in port seem, as with broken poops,
  30. To lean upon the water, quite agog;
  31. For any portion of the oars that's raised
  32. Above the briny spray is straight, and straight
  33. The rudders from above. But other parts,
  34. Those sunk, immersed below the water-line,
  35. Seem broken all and bended and inclined
  36. Sloping to upwards, and turned back to float
  37. Almost atop the water. And when the winds
  38. Carry the scattered drifts along the sky
  39. In the night-time, then seem to glide along
  40. The radiant constellations 'gainst the clouds
  41. And there on high to take far other course
  42. From that whereon in truth they're borne. And then,
  1. If haply our hand be set beneath one eye
  2. And press below thereon, then to our gaze
  3. Each object which we gaze on seems to be,
  4. By some sensation twain- then twain the lights
  5. Of lampions burgeoning in flowers of flame,
  6. And twain the furniture in all the house,
  7. Two-fold the visages of fellow-men,
  8. And twain their bodies. And again, when sleep
  9. Has bound our members down in slumber soft
  10. And all the body lies in deep repose,
  11. Yet then we seem to self to be awake
  12. And move our members; and in night's blind gloom
  13. We think to mark the daylight and the sun;
  14. And, shut within a room, yet still we seem
  15. To change our skies, our oceans, rivers, hills,
  16. To cross the plains afoot, and hear new sounds,
  17. Though still the austere silence of the night
  18. Abides around us, and to speak replies,
  19. Though voiceless. Other cases of the sort
  20. Wondrously many do we see, which all
  21. Seek, so to say, to injure faith in sense-
  22. In vain, because the largest part of these
  23. Deceives through mere opinions of the mind,
  24. Which we do add ourselves, feigning to see
  25. What by the senses are not seen at all.
  26. For naught is harder than to separate
  27. Plain facts from dubious, which the mind forthwith
  28. Adds by itself.