De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Thus, then, the massy weight of earth stood firm
  2. With now concreted body, when (as 'twere)
  3. All of the slime of the world, heavy and gross,
  4. Had run together and settled at the bottom,
  5. Like lees or bilge. Then ocean, then the air,
  6. Then ether herself, the fraught-with-fire, were all
  7. Left with their liquid bodies pure and free,
  8. And each more lighter than the next below;
  9. And ether, most light and liquid of the three,
  10. Floats on above the long aerial winds,
  11. Nor with the brawling of the winds of air
  12. Mingles its liquid body. It doth leave
  13. All there- those under-realms below her heights-
  14. There to be overset in whirlwinds wild,-
  15. Doth leave all there to brawl in wayward gusts,
  16. Whilst, gliding with a fixed impulse still,
  17. Itself it bears its fires along. For, lo,
  18. That ether can flow thus steadily on, on,
  19. With one unaltered urge, the Pontus proves-
  20. That sea which floweth forth with fixed tides,
  21. Keeping one onward tenor as it glides.
  1. Now let us sing what makes the stars to move.
  2. In first place, if the mighty sphere of heaven
  3. Revolveth round, then needs we must aver
  4. That on the upper and the under pole
  5. Presses a certain air, and from without
  6. Confines them and encloseth at each end;
  7. And that, moreover, another air above
  8. Streams on athwart the top of the sphere and tends
  9. In same direction as are rolled along
  10. The glittering stars of the eternal world;
  11. Or that another still streams on below
  12. To whirl the sphere from under up and on
  13. In opposite direction- as we see
  14. The rivers turn the wheels and water-scoops.
  15. It may be also that the heavens do all
  16. Remain at rest, whilst yet are borne along
  17. The lucid constellations; either because
  18. Swift tides of ether are by sky enclosed,
  19. And whirl around, seeking a passage out,
  20. And everywhere make roll the starry fires
  21. Through the Summanian regions of the sky;
  22. Or else because some air, streaming along
  23. From an eternal quarter off beyond,
  24. Whileth the driven fires, or, then, because
  25. The fires themselves have power to creep along,
  26. Going wherever their food invites and calls,
  27. And feeding their flaming bodies everywhere
  28. Throughout the sky. Yet which of these is cause
  29. In this our world 'tis hard to say for sure;
  30. But what can be throughout the universe,
  31. In divers worlds on divers plan create,
  32. This only do I show, and follow on
  33. To assign unto the motions of the stars
  34. Even several causes which 'tis possible
  35. Exist throughout the universal All;
  36. Of which yet one must be the cause even here
  37. Which maketh motion for our constellations.
  38. Yet to decide which one of them it be
  39. Is not the least the business of a man
  40. Advancing step by cautious step, as I.
  1. And that the earth may there abide at rest
  2. In the mid-region of the world, it needs
  3. Must vanish bit by bit in weight and lessen,
  4. And have another substance underneath,
  5. Conjoined to it from its earliest age
  6. In linked unison with the vasty world's
  7. Realms of the air in which it roots and lives.
  8. On this account, the earth is not a load,
  9. Nor presses down on winds of air beneath;
  10. Even as unto a man his members be
  11. Without all weight- the head is not a load
  12. Unto the neck; nor do we feel the whole
  13. Weight of the body to centre in the feet.
  14. But whatso weights come on us from without,
  15. Weights laid upon us, these harass and chafe,
  16. Though often far lighter. For to such degree
  17. It matters always what the innate powers
  18. Of any given thing may be. The earth
  19. Was, then, no alien substance fetched amain,
  20. And from no alien firmament cast down
  21. On alien air; but was conceived, like air,
  22. In the first origin of this the world,
  23. As a fixed portion of the same, as now
  24. Our members are seen to be a part of us.
  25. Besides, the earth, when of a sudden shook
  26. By the big thunder, doth with her motion shake
  27. All that's above her- which she ne'er could do
  28. By any means, were earth not bounden fast
  29. Unto the great world's realms of air and sky:
  30. For they cohere together with common roots,
  31. Conjoined both, even from their earliest age,
  32. In linked unison. Aye, seest thou not
  33. That this most subtle energy of soul
  34. Supports our body, though so heavy a weight,-
  35. Because, indeed, 'tis with it so conjoined
  36. In linked unison? What power, in sum,
  37. Can raise with agile leap our body aloft,
  38. Save energy of mind which steers the limbs?
  39. Now seest thou not how powerful may be
  40. A subtle nature, when conjoined it is
  41. With heavy body, as air is with the earth
  42. Conjoined, and energy of mind with us?