De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. But by the mouth
  2. To imitate the liquid notes of birds
  3. Was earlier far 'mongst men than power to make,
  4. By measured song, melodious verse and give
  5. Delight to ears. And whistlings of the wind
  6. Athrough the hollows of the reeds first taught
  7. The peasantry to blow into the stalks
  8. Of hollow hemlock-herb. Then bit by bit
  9. They learned sweet plainings, such as pipe out-pours,
  10. Beaten by finger-tips of singing men,
  11. When heard through unpathed groves and forest deeps
  12. And woodsy meadows, through the untrod haunts
  13. Of shepherd folk and spots divinely still.
  14. Thus time draws forward each and everything
  15. Little by little unto the midst of men,
  16. And reason uplifts it to the shores of light.
  17. These tunes would soothe and glad the minds of mortals
  18. When sated with food,- for songs are welcome then.
  19. And often, lounging with friends in the soft grass
  20. Beside a river of water, underneath
  21. A big tree's branches, merrily they'd refresh
  22. Their frames, with no vast outlay- most of all
  23. If the weather were smiling and the times of the year
  24. Were painting the green of the grass around with flowers.
  25. Then jokes, then talk, then peals of jollity
  26. Would circle round; for then the rustic muse
  27. Was in her glory; then would antic Mirth
  28. Prompt them to garland head and shoulders about
  29. With chaplets of intertwined flowers and leaves,
  30. And to dance onward, out of tune, with limbs
  31. Clownishly swaying, and with clownish foot
  32. To beat our mother earth- from whence arose
  33. Laughter and peals of jollity, for, lo,
  34. Such frolic acts were in their glory then,
  35. Being more new and strange. And wakeful men
  36. Found solaces for their unsleeping hours
  37. In drawing forth variety of notes,
  38. In modulating melodies, in running
  39. With puckered lips along the tuned reeds,
  40. Whence, even in our day do the watchmen guard
  41. These old traditions, and have learned well
  42. To keep true measure. And yet they no whit
  43. Do get a larger fruit of gladsomeness
  44. Than got the woodland aborigines
  45. In olden times. For what we have at hand-
  46. If theretofore naught sweeter we have known-
  47. That chiefly pleases and seems best of all;
  48. But then some later, likely better, find
  49. Destroys its worth and changes our desires
  50. Regarding good of yesterday.