De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  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.
  1. Now come, and I will indicate what wise
  2. Impact of odour on the nostrils touches.
  3. And first, 'tis needful there be many things
  4. From whence the streaming flow of varied odours
  5. May roll along, and we're constrained to think
  6. They stream and dart and sprinkle themselves about
  7. Impartially. But for some breathing creatures
  8. One odour is more apt, to others another-
  9. Because of differing forms of seeds and pores.
  10. Thus on and on along the zephyrs bees
  11. Are led by odour of honey, vultures too
  12. By carcasses. Again, the forward power
  13. Of scent in dogs doth lead the hunter on
  14. Whithersoever the splay-foot of wild beast
  15. Hath hastened its career; and the white goose,
  16. The saviour of the Roman citadel,
  17. Forescents afar the odour of mankind.
  18. Thus, diversly to divers ones is given
  19. Peculiar smell that leadeth each along
  20. To his own food or makes him start aback
  21. From loathsome poison, and in this wise are
  22. The generations of the wild preserved.
  23. Yet is this pungence not alone in odours
  24. Or in the class of flavours; but, likewise,
  25. The look of things and hues agree not all
  26. So well with senses unto all, but that
  27. Some unto some will be, to gaze upon,
  28. More keen and painful. Lo, the raving lions,
  29. They dare not face and gaze upon the cock
  30. Who's wont with wings to flap away the night
  31. From off the stage, and call the beaming morn
  32. With clarion voice- and lions straightway thus
  33. Bethink themselves of flight, because, ye see,
  34. Within the body of the cocks there be
  35. Some certain seeds, which, into lions' eyes
  36. Injected, bore into the pupils deep
  37. And yield such piercing pain they can't hold out
  38. Against the cocks, however fierce they be-
  39. Whilst yet these seeds can't hurt our gaze the least,
  40. Either because they do not penetrate,
  41. Or since they have free exit from the eyes
  42. As soon as penetrating, so that thus
  43. They cannot hurt our eyes in any part
  44. By there remaining.
  45. To speak once more of odour;
  46. Whatever assail the nostrils, some can travel
  47. A longer way than others. None of them,
  48. However, 's borne so far as sound or voice-
  49. While I omit all mention of such things
  50. As hit the eyesight and assail the vision.
  51. For slowly on a wandering course it comes
  52. And perishes sooner, by degrees absorbed
  53. Easily into all the winds of air;-
  54. And first, because from deep inside the thing
  55. It is discharged with labour (for the fact
  56. That every object, when 'tis shivered, ground,
  57. Or crumbled by the fire, will smell the stronger
  58. Is sign that odours flow and part away
  59. From inner regions of the things). And next,
  60. Thou mayest see that odour is create
  61. Of larger primal germs than voice, because
  62. It enters not through stony walls, wherethrough
  63. Unfailingly the voice and sound are borne;
  64. Wherefore, besides, thou wilt observe 'tis not
  65. So easy to trace out in whatso place
  66. The smelling object is. For, dallying on
  67. Along the winds, the particles cool off,
  68. And then the scurrying messengers of things
  69. Arrive our senses, when no longer hot.
  70. So dogs oft wander astray, and hunt the scent.