De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Lest, perchance,
  2. Concerning these affairs thou ponderest
  3. In silent meditation, let me say
  4. 'Twas lightning brought primevally to earth
  5. The fire for mortals, and from thence hath spread
  6. O'er all the lands the flames of heat. For thus
  7. Even now we see so many objects, touched
  8. By the celestial flames, to flash aglow,
  9. When thunderbolt has dowered them with heat.
  10. Yet also when a many-branched tree,
  11. Beaten by winds, writhes swaying to and fro,
  12. Pressing 'gainst branches of a neighbour tree,
  13. There by the power of mighty rub and rub
  14. Is fire engendered; and at times out-flares
  15. The scorching heat of flame, when boughs do chafe
  16. Against the trunks. And of these causes, either
  17. May well have given to mortal men the fire.
  18. Next, food to cook and soften in the flame
  19. The sun instructed, since so oft they saw
  20. How objects mellowed, when subdued by warmth
  21. And by the raining blows of fiery beams,
  22. Through all the fields.
  1. And more and more each day
  2. Would men more strong in sense, more wise in heart,
  3. Teach them to change their earlier mode and life
  4. By fire and new devices. Kings began
  5. Cities to found and citadels to set,
  6. As strongholds and asylums for themselves,
  7. And flocks and fields to portion for each man
  8. After the beauty, strength, and sense of each-
  9. For beauty then imported much, and strength
  10. Had its own rights supreme. Thereafter, wealth
  11. Discovered was, and gold was brought to light,
  12. Which soon of honour stripped both strong and fair;
  13. For men, however beautiful in form
  14. Or valorous, will follow in the main
  15. The rich man's party. Yet were man to steer
  16. His life by sounder reasoning, he'd own
  17. Abounding riches, if with mind content
  18. He lived by thrift; for never, as I guess,
  19. Is there a lack of little in the world.
  20. But men wished glory for themselves and power
  21. Even that their fortunes on foundations firm
  22. Might rest forever, and that they themselves,
  23. The opulent, might pass a quiet life-
  24. In vain, in vain; since, in the strife to climb
  25. On to the heights of honour, men do make
  26. Their pathway terrible; and even when once
  27. They reach them, envy like the thunderbolt
  28. At times will smite, O hurling headlong down
  29. To murkiest Tartarus, in scorn; for, lo,
  30. All summits, all regions loftier than the rest,
  31. Smoke, blasted as by envy's thunderbolts;
  32. So better far in quiet to obey,
  33. Than to desire chief mastery of affairs
  34. And ownership of empires. Be it so;
  35. And let the weary sweat their life-blood out
  36. All to no end, battling in hate along
  37. The narrow path of man's ambition;
  38. Since all their wisdom is from others' lips,
  39. And all they seek is known from what they've heard
  40. And less from what they've thought. Nor is this folly
  41. Greater to-day, nor greater soon to be,
  42. Than' twas of old.
  1. And therefore kings were slain,
  2. And pristine majesty of golden thrones
  3. And haughty sceptres lay o'erturned in dust;
  4. And crowns, so splendid on the sovereign heads,
  5. Soon bloody under the proletarian feet,
  6. Groaned for their glories gone- for erst o'er-much
  7. Dreaded, thereafter with more greedy zest
  8. Trampled beneath the rabble heel. Thus things
  9. Down to the vilest lees of brawling mobs
  10. Succumbed, whilst each man sought unto himself
  11. Dominion and supremacy. So next
  12. Some wiser heads instructed men to found
  13. The magisterial office, and did frame
  14. Codes that they might consent to follow laws.
  15. For humankind, o'er wearied with a life
  16. Fostered by force, was ailing from its feuds;
  17. And so the sooner of its own free will
  18. Yielded to laws and strictest codes. For since
  19. Each hand made ready in its wrath to take
  20. A vengeance fiercer than by man's fair laws
  21. Is now conceded, men on this account
  22. Loathed the old life fostered by force. 'Tis thence
  23. That fear of punishments defiles each prize
  24. Of wicked days; for force and fraud ensnare
  25. Each man around, and in the main recoil
  26. On him from whence they sprung. Not easy 'tis
  27. For one who violates by ugly deeds
  28. The bonds of common peace to pass a life
  29. Composed and tranquil. For albeit he 'scape
  30. The race of gods and men, he yet must dread
  31. 'Twill not be hid forever- since, indeed,
  32. So many, oft babbling on amid their dreams
  33. Or raving in sickness, have betrayed themselves
  34. (As stories tell) and published at last
  35. Old secrets and the sins.