De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Again,
  2. Whatever abides eternal must indeed
  3. Either repel all strokes, because 'tis made
  4. Of solid body, and permit no entrance
  5. Of aught with power to sunder from within
  6. The parts compact- as are those seeds of stuff
  7. Whose nature we've exhibited before;
  8. Or else be able to endure through time
  9. For this: because they are from blows exempt,
  10. As is the void, the which abides untouched,
  11. Unsmit by any stroke; or else because
  12. There is no room around, whereto things can,
  13. As 'twere, depart in dissolution all,-
  14. Even as the sum of sums eternal is,
  15. Without or place beyond whereto things may
  16. Asunder fly, or bodies which can smite,
  17. And thus dissolve them by the blows of might.
  18. But not of solid body, as I've shown,
  19. Exists the nature of the world, because
  20. In things is intermingled there a void;
  21. Nor is the world yet as the void, nor are,
  22. Moreover, bodies lacking which, percase,
  23. Rising from out the infinite, can fell
  24. With fury-whirlwinds all this sum of things,
  25. Or bring upon them other cataclysm
  26. Of peril strange; and yonder, too, abides
  27. The infinite space and the profound abyss-
  28. Whereinto, lo, the ramparts of the world
  29. Can yet be shivered. Or some other power
  30. Can pound upon them till they perish all.
  31. Thus is the door of doom, O nowise barred
  32. Against the sky, against the sun and earth
  33. And deep-sea waters, but wide open stands
  34. And gloats upon them, monstrous and agape.
  35. Wherefore, again, 'tis needful to confess
  36. That these same things are born in time; for things
  37. Which are of mortal body could indeed
  38. Never from infinite past until to-day
  39. Have spurned the multitudinous assaults
  40. Of the immeasurable aeons old.