De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Bulls, too, they tried
  2. In war's grim business; and essayed to send
  3. Outrageous boars against the foes. And some
  4. Sent on before their ranks puissant lions
  5. With armed trainers and with masters fierce
  6. To guide and hold in chains- and yet in vain,
  7. Since fleshed with pell-mell slaughter, fierce they flew,
  8. And blindly through the squadrons havoc wrought,
  9. Shaking the frightful crests upon their heads,
  10. Now here, now there. Nor could the horsemen calm
  11. Their horses, panic-breasted at the roar,
  12. And rein them round to front the foe. With spring
  13. The infuriate she-lions would up-leap
  14. Now here, now there; and whoso came apace
  15. Against them, these they'd rend across the face;
  16. And others unwitting from behind they'd tear
  17. Down from their mounts, and twining round them, bring
  18. Tumbling to earth, o'ermastered by the wound,
  19. And with those powerful fangs and hooked claws
  20. Fasten upon them. Bulls would toss their friends,
  21. And trample under foot, and from beneath
  22. Rip flanks and bellies of horses with their horns,
  23. And with a threat'ning forehead jam the sod;
  24. And boars would gore with stout tusks their allies,
  25. Splashing in fury their own blood on spears
  26. Splintered in their own bodies, and would fell
  27. In rout and ruin infantry and horse.
  28. For there the beasts-of-saddle tried to scape
  29. The savage thrusts of tusk by shying off,
  30. Or rearing up with hoofs a-paw in air.
  31. In vain- since there thou mightest see them sink,
  32. Their sinews severed, and with heavy fall
  33. Bestrew the ground. And such of these as men
  34. Supposed well-trained long ago at home,
  35. Were in the thick of action seen to foam
  36. In fury, from the wounds, the shrieks, the flight,
  37. The panic, and the tumult; nor could men
  38. Aught of their numbers rally. For each breed
  39. And various of the wild beasts fled apart
  40. Hither or thither, as often in wars to-day
  41. Flee those Lucanian oxen, by the steel
  42. Grievously mangled, after they have wrought
  43. Upon their friends so many a dreadful doom.
  44. (If 'twas, indeed, that thus they did at all:
  45. But scarcely I'll believe that men could not
  46. With mind foreknow and see, as sure to come,
  47. Such foul and general disaster.- This
  48. We, then, may hold as true in the great All,
  49. In divers worlds on divers plan create,-
  50. Somewhere afar more likely than upon
  51. One certain earth.) But men chose this to do
  52. Less in the hope of conquering than to give
  53. Their enemies a goodly cause of woe,
  54. Even though thereby they perished themselves,
  55. Since weak in numbers and since wanting arms.