De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  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.