De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. And, again,
  2. In following wise all things seem oft to quake
  3. At shock of heavy thunder, and mightiest walls
  4. Of the wide reaches of the upper world
  5. There on the instant to have sprung apart,
  6. Riven asunder, what time a gathered blast
  7. Of the fierce hurricane hath all at once
  8. Twisted its way into a mass of clouds,
  9. And, there enclosed, ever more and more
  10. Compelleth by its spinning whirl the cloud
  11. To grow all hollow with a thickened crust
  12. Surrounding; for thereafter, when the force
  13. And the keen onset of the wind have weakened
  14. That crust, lo, then the cloud, to-split in twain,
  15. Gives forth a hideous crash with bang and boom.
  16. No marvel this; since oft a bladder small,
  17. Filled up with air, will, when of sudden burst,
  18. Give forth a like large sound.
  19. There's reason, too,
  20. Why clouds make sounds, as through them blow the winds:
  21. We see, borne down the sky, oft shapes of clouds
  22. Rough-edged or branched many forky ways;
  23. And 'tis the same, as when the sudden flaws
  24. Of north-west wind through the dense forest blow,
  25. Making the leaves to sough and limbs to crash.
  26. It happens too at times that roused force
  27. Of the fierce hurricane to-rends the cloud,
  28. Breaking right through it by a front assault;
  29. For what a blast of wind may do up there
  30. Is manifest from facts when here on earth
  31. A blast more gentle yet uptwists tall trees
  32. And sucks them madly from their deepest roots.
  33. Besides, among the clouds are waves, and these
  34. Give, as they roughly break, a rumbling roar;
  35. As when along deep streams or the great sea
  36. Breaks the loud surf. It happens, too, whenever
  37. Out from one cloud into another falls
  38. The fiery energy of thunderbolt,
  39. That straightaway the cloud, if full of wet,
  40. Extinguishes the fire with mighty noise;
  41. As iron, white from the hot furnaces,
  42. Sizzles, when speedily we've plunged its glow
  43. Down the cold water. Further, if a cloud
  44. More dry receive the fire, 'twill suddenly
  45. Kindle to flame and burn with monstrous sound,
  46. As if a flame with whirl of winds should range
  47. Along the laurel-tressed mountains far,
  48. Upburning with its vast assault those trees;
  49. Nor is there aught that in the crackling flame
  50. Consumes with sound more terrible to man
  51. Than Delphic laurel of Apollo lord.
  52. Oft, too, the multitudinous crash of ice
  53. And down-pour of swift hail gives forth a sound
  54. Among the mighty clouds on high; for when
  55. The wind hath packed them close, each mountain mass
  56. Of rain-cloud, there congealed utterly
  57. And mixed with hail-stones, breaks and booms...
  58. . . . . . .