De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. 'Twas Athens first, the glorious in name,
  2. That whilom gave to hapless sons of men
  3. The sheaves of harvest, and re-ordered life,
  4. And decreed laws; and she the first that gave
  5. Life its sweet solaces, when she begat
  6. A man of heart so wise, who whilom poured
  7. All wisdom forth from his truth-speaking mouth;
  8. The glory of whom, though dead, is yet to-day,
  9. Because of those discoveries divine
  10. Renowned of old, exalted to the sky.
  11. For when saw he that well-nigh everything
  12. Which needs of man most urgently require
  13. Was ready to hand for mortals, and that life,
  14. As far as might be, was established safe,
  15. That men were lords in riches, honour, praise,
  16. And eminent in goodly fame of sons,
  17. And that they yet, O yet, within the home,
  18. Still had the anxious heart which vexed life
  19. Unpausingly with torments of the mind,
  20. And raved perforce with angry plaints, then he,
  21. Then he, the master, did perceive that 'twas
  22. The vessel itself which worked the bane, and all,
  23. However wholesome, which from here or there
  24. Was gathered into it, was by that bane
  25. Spoilt from within,- in part, because he saw
  26. The vessel so cracked and leaky that nowise
  27. 'T could ever be filled to brim; in part because
  28. He marked how it polluted with foul taste
  29. Whate'er it got within itself. So he,
  30. The master, then by his truth-speaking words,
  31. Purged the breasts of men, and set the bounds
  32. Of lust and terror, and exhibited
  33. The supreme good whither we all endeavour,
  34. And showed the path whereby we might arrive
  35. Thereunto by a little cross-cut straight,
  36. And what of ills in all affairs of mortals
  37. Upsprang and flitted deviously about
  38. (Whether by chance or force), since nature thus
  39. Had destined; and from out what gates a man
  40. Should sally to each combat. And he proved
  41. That mostly vainly doth the human race
  42. Roll in its bosom the grim waves of care.
  43. For just as children tremble and fear all
  44. In the viewless dark, so even we at times
  45. Dread in the light so many things that be
  46. No whit more fearsome than what children feign,
  47. Shuddering, will be upon them in the dark.
  48. This terror then, this darkness of the mind,
  49. Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,
  50. Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse,
  51. But only nature's aspect and her law.
  52. Wherefore the more will I go on to weave
  53. In verses this my undertaken task.