De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. And now the cause
  2. Whereby athrough the throat of Aetna's Mount
  3. Such vast tornado-fires out-breathe at times,
  4. I will unfold: for with no middling might
  5. Of devastation the flamy tempest rose
  6. And held dominion in Sicilian fields:
  7. Drawing upon itself the upturned faces
  8. Of neighbouring clans, what time they saw afar
  9. The skiey vaults a-fume and sparkling all,
  10. And filled their bosoms with dread anxiety
  11. Of what new thing nature were travailing at.
  12. In these affairs it much behooveth thee
  13. To look both wide and deep, and far abroad
  14. To peer to every quarter, that thou mayst
  15. Remember how boundless is the Sum-of-Things,
  16. And mark how infinitely small a part
  17. Of the whole Sum is this one sky of ours-
  18. O not so large a part as is one man
  19. Of the whole earth. And plainly if thou viewest
  20. This cosmic fact, placing it square in front,
  21. And plainly understandest, thou wilt leave
  22. Wondering at many things. For who of us
  23. Wondereth if some one gets into his joints
  24. A fever, gathering head with fiery heat,
  25. Or any other dolorous disease
  26. Along his members? For anon the foot
  27. Grows blue and bulbous; often the sharp twinge
  28. Seizes the teeth, attacks the very eyes;
  29. Out-breaks the sacred fire, and, crawling on
  30. Over the body, burneth every part
  31. It seizeth on, and works its hideous way
  32. Along the frame. No marvel this, since, lo,
  33. Of things innumerable be seeds enough,
  34. And this our earth and sky do bring to us
  35. Enough of bane from whence can grow the strength
  36. Of maladies uncounted. Thuswise, then,
  37. We must suppose to all the sky and earth
  38. Are ever supplied from out the infinite
  39. All things, O all in stores enough whereby
  40. The shaken earth can of a sudden move,
  41. And fierce typhoons can over sea and lands
  42. Go tearing on, and Aetna's fires o'erflow,
  43. And heaven become a flame-burst. For that, too,
  44. Happens at times, and the celestial vaults
  45. Glow into fire, and rainy tempests rise
  46. In heavier congregation, when, percase,
  47. The seeds of water have foregathered thus
  48. From out the infinite. "Aye, but passing huge
  49. The fiery turmoil of that conflagration!"
  50. So sayst thou; well, huge many a river seems
  51. To him that erstwhile ne'er a larger saw;
  52. Thus, huge seems tree or man; and everything
  53. Which mortal sees the biggest of each class,
  54. That he imagines to be "huge"; though yet
  55. All these, with sky and land and sea to boot,
  56. Are all as nothing to the sum entire
  57. Of the all-Sum.