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.
  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.