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.
  1. Nor tongue and palate, whereby we flavour feel,
  2. Present more problems for more work of thought.
  3. Firstly, we feel a flavour in the mouth,
  4. When forth we squeeze it, in chewing up our food,-
  5. As any one perchance begins to squeeze
  6. With hand and dry a sponge with water soaked.
  7. Next, all which forth we squeeze is spread about
  8. Along the pores and intertwined paths
  9. Of the loose-textured tongue. And so, when smooth
  10. The bodies of the oozy flavour, then
  11. Delightfully they touch, delightfully
  12. They treat all spots, around the wet and trickling
  13. Enclosures of the tongue. And contrariwise,
  14. They sting and pain the sense with their assault,
  15. According as with roughness they're supplied.
  16. Next, only up to palate is the pleasure
  17. Coming from flavour; for in truth when down
  18. 'Thas plunged along the throat, no pleasure is,
  19. Whilst into all the frame it spreads around;
  20. Nor aught it matters with what food is fed
  21. The body, if only what thou take thou canst
  22. Distribute well digested to the frame
  23. And keep the stomach in a moist career.
  24. Now, how it is we see some food for some,
  25. Others for others....
  26. . . . . . .
  27. I will unfold, or wherefore what to some
  28. Is foul and bitter, yet the same to others
  29. Can seem delectable to eat,- why here
  30. So great the distance and the difference is
  31. That what is food to one to some becomes
  32. Fierce poison, as a certain snake there is
  33. Which, touched by spittle of a man, will waste
  34. And end itself by gnawing up its coil.
  35. Again, fierce poison is the hellebore
  36. To us, but puts the fat on goats and quails.
  37. That thou mayst know by what devices this
  38. Is brought about, in chief thou must recall
  39. What we have said before, that seeds are kept
  40. Commixed in things in divers modes. Again,
  41. As all the breathing creatures which take food
  42. Are outwardly unlike, and outer cut
  43. And contour of their members bounds them round,
  44. Each differing kind by kind, they thus consist
  45. Of seeds of varying shape. And furthermore,
  46. Since seeds do differ, divers too must be
  47. The interstices and paths (which we do call
  48. The apertures) in all the members, even
  49. In mouth and palate too. Thus some must be
  50. More small or yet more large, three-cornered some
  51. And others squared, and many others round,
  52. And certain of them many-angled too
  53. In many modes. For, as the combination
  54. And motion of their divers shapes demand,
  55. The shapes of apertures must be diverse
  56. And paths must vary according to their walls
  57. That bound them. Hence when what is sweet to some,
  58. Becomes to others bitter, for him to whom
  59. 'Tis sweet, the smoothest particles must needs
  60. Have entered caressingly the palate's pores.
  61. And, contrariwise, with those to whom that sweet
  62. Is sour within the mouth, beyond a doubt
  63. The rough and barbed particles have got
  64. Into the narrows of the apertures.
  65. Now easy it is from these affairs to know
  66. Whatever...
  67. . . . . . .
  68. Indeed, where one from o'er-abundant bile
  69. Is stricken with fever, or in other wise
  70. Feels the roused violence of some malady,
  71. There the whole frame is now upset, and there
  72. All the positions of the seeds are changed,-
  73. So that the bodies which before were fit
  74. To cause the savour, now are fit no more,
  75. And now more apt are others which be able
  76. To get within the pores and gender sour.
  77. Both sorts, in sooth, are intermixed in honey-
  78. What oft we've proved above to thee before.