De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. For, lo,
  2. First came together the earthy particles
  3. (As being heavy and intertangled) there
  4. In the mid-region, and all began to take
  5. The lowest abodes; and ever the more they got
  6. One with another intertangled, the more
  7. They pressed from out their mass those particles
  8. Which were to form the sea, the stars, the sun,
  9. And moon, and ramparts of the mighty world-
  10. For these consist of seeds more smooth and round
  11. And of much smaller elements than earth.
  12. And thus it was that ether, fraught with fire,
  13. First broke away from out the earthen parts,
  14. Athrough the innumerable pores of earth,
  15. And raised itself aloft, and with itself
  16. Bore lightly off the many starry fires;
  17. And not far otherwise we often see
  18. . . . . . .
  19. And the still lakes and the perennial streams
  20. Exhale a mist, and even as earth herself
  21. Is seen at times to smoke, when first at dawn
  22. The light of the sun, the many-rayed, begins
  23. To redden into gold, over the grass
  24. Begemmed with dew. When all of these are brought
  25. Together overhead, the clouds on high
  26. With now concreted body weave a cover
  27. Beneath the heavens. And thuswise ether too,
  28. Light and diffusive, with concreted body
  29. On all sides spread, on all sides bent itself
  30. Into a dome, and, far and wide diffused
  31. On unto every region on all sides,
  32. Thus hedged all else within its greedy clasp.
  33. Hard upon ether came the origins
  34. Of sun and moon, whose globes revolve in air
  35. Midway between the earth and mightiest ether,-
  36. For neither took them, since they weighed too little
  37. To sink and settle, but too much to glide
  38. Along the upmost shores; and yet they are
  39. In such a wise midway between the twain
  40. As ever to whirl their living bodies round,
  41. And ever to dure as parts of the wide Whole;
  42. In the same fashion as certain members may
  43. In us remain at rest, whilst others move.
  44. When, then, these substances had been withdrawn,
  45. Amain the earth, where now extend the vast
  46. Cerulean zones of all the level seas,
  47. Caved in, and down along the hollows poured
  48. The whirlpools of her brine; and day by day
  49. The more the tides of ether and rays of sun
  50. On every side constrained into one mass
  51. The earth by lashing it again, again,
  52. Upon its outer edges (so that then,
  53. Being thus beat upon, 'twas all condensed
  54. About its proper centre), ever the more
  55. The salty sweat, from out its body squeezed,
  56. Augmented ocean and the fields of foam
  57. By seeping through its frame, and all the more
  58. Those many particles of heat and air
  59. Escaping, began to fly aloft, and form,
  60. By condensation there afar from earth,
  61. The high refulgent circuits of the heavens.
  62. The plains began to sink, and windy slopes
  63. Of the high mountains to increase; for rocks
  64. Could not subside, nor all the parts of ground
  65. Settle alike to one same level there.