De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  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.