De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  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.