De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. But ere on this I take a step to utter
  2. Oracles holier and soundlier based
  3. Than ever the Pythian pronounced for men
  4. From out the tripod and the Delphian laurel,
  5. I will unfold for thee with learned words
  6. Many a consolation, lest perchance,
  7. Still bridled by religion, thou suppose
  8. Lands, sun, and sky, sea, constellations, moon,
  9. Must dure forever, as of frame divine-
  10. And so conclude that it is just that those,
  11. (After the manner of the Giants), should all
  12. Pay the huge penalties for monstrous crime,
  13. Who by their reasonings do overshake
  14. The ramparts of the universe and wish
  15. There to put out the splendid sun of heaven,
  16. Branding with mortal talk immortal things-
  17. Though these same things are even so far removed
  18. From any touch of deity and seem
  19. So far unworthy of numbering with the gods,
  20. That well they may be thought to furnish rather
  21. A goodly instance of the sort of things
  22. That lack the living motion, living sense.
  23. For sure 'tis quite beside the mark to think
  24. That judgment and the nature of the mind
  25. In any kind of body can exist-
  26. Just as in ether can't exist a tree,
  27. Nor clouds in the salt sea, nor in the fields
  28. Can fishes live, nor blood in timber be,
  29. Nor sap in boulders: fixed and arranged
  30. Where everything may grow and have its place.
  31. Thus nature of mind cannot arise alone
  32. Without the body, nor have its being far
  33. From thews and blood. Yet if 'twere possible?-
  34. Much rather might this very power of mind
  35. Be in the head, the shoulders, or the heels,
  36. And, born in any part soever, yet
  37. In the same man, in the same vessel abide
  38. But since within this body even of ours
  39. Stands fixed and appears arranged sure
  40. Where soul and mind can each exist and grow,
  41. Deny we must the more that they can dure
  42. Outside the body and the breathing form
  43. In rotting clods of earth, in the sun's fire,
  44. In water, or in ether's skiey coasts.
  45. Therefore these things no whit are furnished
  46. With sense divine, since never can they be
  47. With life-force quickened.
  1. Likewise, thou canst ne'er
  2. Believe the sacred seats of gods are here
  3. In any regions of this mundane world;
  4. Indeed, the nature of the gods, so subtle,
  5. So far removed from these our senses, scarce
  6. Is seen even by intelligence of mind.
  7. And since they've ever eluded touch and thrust
  8. Of human hands, they cannot reach to grasp
  9. Aught tangible to us. For what may not
  10. Itself be touched in turn can never touch.
  11. Wherefore, besides, also their seats must be
  12. Unlike these seats of ours,- even subtle too,
  13. As meet for subtle essence- as I'll prove
  14. Hereafter unto thee with large discourse.
  15. Further, to say that for the sake of men
  16. They willed to prepare this world's magnificence,
  17. And that 'tis therefore duty and behoof
  18. To praise the work of gods as worthy praise,
  19. And that 'tis sacrilege for men to shake
  20. Ever by any force from out their seats
  21. What hath been stablished by the Forethought old
  22. To everlasting for races of mankind,
  23. And that 'tis sacrilege to assault by words
  24. And overtopple all from base to beam,-
  25. Memmius, such notions to concoct and pile,
  26. Is verily- to dote. Our gratefulness,
  27. O what emoluments could it confer
  28. Upon Immortals and upon the Blessed
  29. That they should take a step to manage aught
  30. For sake of us? Or what new factor could,
  31. After so long a time, inveigle them-
  32. The hitherto reposeful- to desire
  33. To change their former life? For rather he
  34. Whom old things chafe seems likely to rejoice
  35. At new; but one that in fore-passed time
  36. Hath chanced upon no ill, through goodly years,
  37. O what could ever enkindle in such an one
  38. Passion for strange experiment? Or what
  39. The evil for us, if we had ne'er been born?-
  40. As though, forsooth, in darkling realms and woe
  41. Our life were lying till should dawn at last
  42. The day-spring of creation! Whosoever
  43. Hath been begotten wills perforce to stay
  44. In life, so long as fond delight detains;
  45. But whoso ne'er hath tasted love of life,
  46. And ne'er was in the count of living things,
  47. What hurts it him that he was never born?
  48. Whence, further, first was planted in the gods
  49. The archetype for gendering the world
  50. And the fore-notion of what man is like,
  51. So that they knew and pre-conceived with mind
  52. Just what they wished to make? Or how were known
  53. Ever the energies of primal germs,
  54. And what those germs, by interchange of place,
  55. Could thus produce, if nature's self had not
  56. Given example for creating all?
  57. For in such wise primordials of things,
  58. Many in many modes, astir by blows
  59. From immemorial aeons, in motion too
  60. By their own weights, have evermore been wont
  61. To be so borne along and in all modes
  62. To meet together and to try all sorts
  63. Which, by combining one with other, they
  64. Are powerful to create, that thus it is
  65. No marvel now, if they have also fallen
  66. Into arrangements such, and if they've passed
  67. Into vibrations such, as those whereby
  68. This sum of things is carried on to-day
  69. By fixed renewal.