De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  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.
  1. But knew I never what
  2. The seeds primordial were, yet would I dare
  3. This to affirm, even from deep judgments based
  4. Upon the ways and conduct of the skies-
  5. This to maintain by many a fact besides-
  6. That in no wise the nature of all things
  7. For us was fashioned by a power divine-
  8. So great the faults it stands encumbered with.
  9. First, mark all regions which are overarched
  10. By the prodigious reaches of the sky:
  11. One yawning part thereof the mountain-chains
  12. And forests of the beasts do have and hold;
  13. And cliffs, and desert fens, and wastes of sea
  14. (Which sunder afar the beaches of the lands)
  15. Possess it merely; and, again, thereof
  16. Well-nigh two-thirds intolerable heat
  17. And a perpetual fall of frost doth rob
  18. From mortal kind. And what is left to till,
  19. Even that the force of nature would o'errun
  20. With brambles, did not human force oppose,-
  21. Long wont for livelihood to groan and sweat
  22. Over the two-pronged mattock and to cleave
  23. The soil in twain by pressing on the plough.
  24. . . . . . .
  25. Unless, by the ploughshare turning the fruitful clods
  26. And kneading the mould, we quicken into birth,
  27. [The crops] spontaneously could not come up
  28. Into the free bright air. Even then sometimes,
  29. When things acquired by the sternest toil
  30. Are now in leaf, are now in blossom all,
  31. Either the skiey sun with baneful heats
  32. Parches, or sudden rains or chilling rime
  33. Destroys, or flaws of winds with furious whirl
  34. Torment and twist. Beside these matters, why
  35. Doth nature feed and foster on land and sea
  36. The dreadful breed of savage beasts, the foes
  37. Of the human clan? Why do the seasons bring
  38. Distempers with them? Wherefore stalks at large
  39. Death, so untimely? Then, again, the babe,
  40. Like to the castaway of the raging surf,
  41. Lies naked on the ground, speechless, in want
  42. Of every help for life, when nature first
  43. Hath poured him forth upon the shores of light
  44. With birth-pangs from within the mother's womb,
  45. And with a plaintive wail he fills the place,-
  46. As well befitting one for whom remains
  47. In life a journey through so many ills.
  48. But all the flocks and herds and all wild beasts
  49. Come forth and grow, nor need the little rattles,
  50. Nor must be treated to the humouring nurse's
  51. Dear, broken chatter; nor seek they divers clothes
  52. To suit the changing skies; nor need, in fine,
  53. Nor arms, nor lofty ramparts, wherewithal
  54. Their own to guard- because the earth herself
  55. And nature, artificer of the world, bring forth
  56. Aboundingly all things for all.
  1. And first,
  2. Since body of earth and water, air's light breath,
  3. And fiery exhalations (of which four
  4. This sum of things is seen to be compact)
  5. So all have birth and perishable frame,
  6. Thus the whole nature of the world itself
  7. Must be conceived as perishable too.
  8. For, verily, those things of which we see
  9. The parts and members to have birth in time
  10. And perishable shapes, those same we mark
  11. To be invariably born in time
  12. And born to die. And therefore when I see
  13. The mightiest members and the parts of this
  14. Our world consumed and begot again,
  15. 'Tis mine to know that also sky above
  16. And earth beneath began of old in time
  17. And shall in time go under to disaster.
  18. And lest in these affairs thou deemest me
  19. To have seized upon this point by sleight to serve
  20. My own caprice- because I have assumed
  21. That earth and fire are mortal things indeed,
  22. And have not doubted water and the air
  23. Both perish too and have affirmed the same
  24. To be again begotten and wax big-
  25. Mark well the argument: in first place, lo,
  26. Some certain parts of earth, grievously parched
  27. By unremitting suns, and trampled on
  28. By a vast throng of feet, exhale abroad
  29. A powdery haze and flying clouds of dust,
  30. Which the stout winds disperse in the whole air.
  31. A part, moreover, of her sod and soil
  32. Is summoned to inundation by the rains;
  33. And rivers graze and gouge the banks away.
  34. Besides, whatever takes a part its own
  35. In fostering and increasing [aught]...
  36. . . . . . .
  37. Is rendered back; and since, beyond a doubt,
  38. Earth, the all-mother, is beheld to be
  39. Likewise the common sepulchre of things,
  40. Therefore thou seest her minished of her plenty,
  41. And then again augmented with new growth.
  1. And for the rest, that sea, and streams, and springs
  2. Forever with new waters overflow,
  3. And that perennially the fluids well,
  4. Needeth no words- the mighty flux itself
  5. Of multitudinous waters round about
  6. Declareth this. But whatso water first
  7. Streams up is ever straightway carried off,
  8. And thus it comes to pass that all in all
  9. There is no overflow; in part because
  10. The burly winds (that over-sweep amain)
  11. And skiey sun (that with his rays dissolves)
  12. Do minish the level seas; in part because
  13. The water is diffused underground
  14. Through all the lands. The brine is filtered off,
  15. And then the liquid stuff seeps back again
  16. And all regathers at the river-heads,
  17. Whence in fresh-water currents on it flows
  18. Over the lands, adown the channels which
  19. Were cleft erstwhile and erstwhile bore along
  20. The liquid-footed floods.
  1. Now, then, of air
  2. I'll speak, which hour by hour in all its body
  3. Is changed innumerably. For whatso'er
  4. Streams up in dust or vapour off of things,
  5. The same is all and always borne along
  6. Into the mighty ocean of the air;
  7. And did not air in turn restore to things
  8. Bodies, and thus recruit them as they stream,
  9. All things by this time had resolved been
  10. And changed into air. Therefore it never
  11. Ceases to be engendered off of things
  12. And to return to things, since verily
  13. In constant flux do all things stream.
  1. Likewise,
  2. The abounding well-spring of the liquid light,
  3. The ethereal sun, doth flood the heaven o'er
  4. With constant flux of radiance ever new,
  5. And with fresh light supplies the place of light,
  6. Upon the instant. For whatever effulgence
  7. Hath first streamed off, no matter where it falls,
  8. Is lost unto the sun. And this 'tis thine
  9. To know from these examples: soon as clouds
  10. Have first begun to under-pass the sun,
  11. And, as it were, to rend the rays of light
  12. In twain, at once the lower part of them
  13. Is lost entire, and earth is overcast
  14. Where'er the thunderheads are rolled along-
  15. So know thou mayst that things forever need
  16. A fresh replenishment of gleam and glow,
  17. And each effulgence, foremost flashed forth,
  18. Perisheth one by one. Nor otherwise
  19. Can things be seen in sunlight, lest alway
  20. The fountain-head of light supply new light.
  21. Indeed your earthly beacons of the night,
  22. The hanging lampions and the torches, bright
  23. With darting gleams and dense with livid soot,
  24. Do hurry in like manner to supply
  25. With ministering heat new light amain;
  26. Are all alive to quiver with their fires,-
  27. Are so alive, that thus the light ne'er leaves
  28. The spots it shines on, as if rent in twain:
  29. So speedily is its destruction veiled
  30. By the swift birth of flame from all the fires.
  31. Thus, then, we must suppose that sun and moon
  32. And stars dart forth their light from under-births
  33. Ever and ever new, and whatso flames
  34. First rise do perish always one by one-
  35. Lest, haply, thou shouldst think they each endure
  36. Inviolable.
  1. Again, perceivest not
  2. How stones are also conquered by Time?-
  3. Not how the lofty towers ruin down,
  4. And boulders crumble?- Not how shrines of gods
  5. And idols crack outworn?- Nor how indeed
  6. The holy Influence hath yet no power
  7. There to postpone the Terminals of Fate,
  8. Or headway make 'gainst Nature's fixed decrees?
  9. Again, behold we not the monuments
  10. Of heroes, now in ruins, asking us,
  11. In their turn likewise, if we don't believe
  12. They also age with eld? Behold we not
  13. The rended basalt ruining amain
  14. Down from the lofty mountains, powerless
  15. To dure and dree the mighty forces there
  16. Of finite time?- for they would never fall
  17. Rended asudden, if from infinite Past
  18. They had prevailed against all engin'ries
  19. Of the assaulting aeons, with no crash.
  1. Again, now look at This, which round, above,
  2. Contains the whole earth in its one embrace:
  3. If from itself it procreates all things-
  4. As some men tell- and takes them to itself
  5. When once destroyed, entirely must it be
  6. Of mortal birth and body; for whate'er
  7. From out itself giveth to other things
  8. Increase and food, the same perforce must be
  9. Minished, and then recruited when it takes
  10. Things back into itself.
  1. Besides all this,
  2. If there had been no origin-in-birth
  3. Of lands and sky, and they had ever been
  4. The everlasting, why, ere Theban war
  5. And obsequies of Troy, have other bards
  6. Not also chanted other high affairs?
  7. Whither have sunk so oft so many deeds
  8. Of heroes? Why do those deeds live no more,
  9. Ingrafted in eternal monuments
  10. Of glory? Verily, I guess, because
  11. The Sum is new, and of a recent date
  12. The nature of our universe, and had
  13. Not long ago its own exordium.
  14. Wherefore, even now some arts are being still
  15. Refined, still increased: now unto ships
  16. Is being added many a new device;
  17. And but the other day musician-folk
  18. Gave birth to melic sounds of organing;
  19. And, then, this nature, this account of things
  20. Hath been discovered latterly, and I
  21. Myself have been discovered only now,
  22. As first among the first, able to turn
  23. The same into ancestral Roman speech.
  24. Yet if, percase, thou deemest that ere this
  25. Existed all things even the same, but that
  26. Perished the cycles of the human race
  27. In fiery exhalations, or cities fell
  28. By some tremendous quaking of the world,
  29. Or rivers in fury, after constant rains,
  30. Had plunged forth across the lands of earth
  31. And whelmed the towns- then, all the more must thou
  32. Confess, defeated by the argument,
  33. That there shall be annihilation too
  34. Of lands and sky. For at a time when things
  35. Were being taxed by maladies so great,
  36. And so great perils, if some cause more fell
  37. Had then assailed them, far and wide they would
  38. Have gone to disaster and supreme collapse.
  39. And by no other reasoning are we
  40. Seen to be mortal, save that all of us
  41. Sicken in turn with those same maladies
  42. With which have sickened in the past those men
  43. Whom nature hath removed from life.