De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. When this
  2. Thou well hast noted, thou canst render count
  3. Unto thyself and others why it is
  4. Along the lonely places that the rocks
  5. Give back like shapes of words in order like,
  6. When search we after comrades wandering
  7. Among the shady mountains, and aloud
  8. Call unto them, the scattered. I have seen
  9. Spots that gave back even voices six or seven
  10. For one thrown forth- for so the very hills,
  11. Dashing them back against the hills, kept on
  12. With their reverberations. And these spots
  13. The neighbouring country-side doth feign to be
  14. Haunts of the goat-foot satyrs and the nymphs;
  15. And tells ye there be fauns, by whose night noise
  16. And antic revels yonder they declare
  17. The voiceless silences are broken oft,
  18. And tones of strings are made and wailings sweet
  19. Which the pipe, beat by players' finger-tips,
  20. Pours out; and far and wide the farmer-race
  21. Begins to hear, when, shaking the garmentings
  22. Of pine upon his half-beast head, god-Pan
  23. With puckered lip oft runneth o'er and o'er
  24. The open reeds,- lest flute should cease to pour
  25. The woodland music! Other prodigies
  26. And wonders of this ilk they love to tell,
  27. Lest they be thought to dwell in lonely spots
  28. And even by gods deserted. This is why
  29. They boast of marvels in their story-tellings;
  30. Or by some other reason are led on-
  31. Greedy, as all mankind hath ever been,
  32. To prattle fables into ears.
  1. Again,
  2. One need not wonder how it comes about
  3. That through those places (through which eyes cannot
  4. View objects manifest) sounds yet may pass
  5. And assail the ears. For often we observe
  6. People conversing, though the doors be closed;
  7. No marvel either, since all voice unharmed
  8. Can wind through bended apertures of things,
  9. While idol-films decline to- for they're rent,
  10. Unless along straight apertures they swim,
  11. Like those in glass, through which all images
  12. Do fly across. And yet this voice itself,
  13. In passing through shut chambers of a house,
  14. Is dulled, and in a jumble enters ears,
  15. And sound we seem to hear far more than words.
  16. Moreover, a voice is into all directions
  17. Divided up, since off from one another
  18. New voices are engendered, when one voice
  19. Hath once leapt forth, outstarting into many-
  20. As oft a spark of fire is wont to sprinkle
  21. Itself into its several fires. And so,
  22. Voices do fill those places hid behind,
  23. Which all are in a hubbub round about,
  24. Astir with sound. But idol-films do tend,
  25. As once sent forth, in straight directions all;
  26. Wherefore one can inside a wall see naught,
  27. Yet catch the voices from beyond the same.