De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Now come; and unto thee I will unfold,
  2. As to the Birdless spots and Birdless tarns,
  3. What sort of nature they are furnished with.
  4. First, as to name of "birdless,"- that derives
  5. From very fact, because they noxious be
  6. Unto all birds. For when above those spots
  7. In horizontal flight the birds have come,
  8. Forgetting to oar with wings, they furl their sails,
  9. And, with down-drooping of their delicate necks,
  10. Fall headlong into earth, if haply such
  11. The nature of the spots, or into water,
  12. If haply spreads thereunder Birdless tarn.
  13. Such spot's at Cumae, where the mountains smoke,
  14. Charged with the pungent sulphur, and increased
  15. With steaming springs. And such a spot there is
  16. Within the walls of Athens, even there
  17. On summit of Acropolis, beside
  18. Fane of Tritonian Pallas bountiful,
  19. Where never cawing crows can wing their course,
  20. Not even when smoke the altars with good gifts,-
  21. But evermore they flee- yet not from wrath
  22. Of Pallas, grieved at that espial old,
  23. As poets of the Greeks have sung the tale;
  24. But very nature of the place compels.
  25. In Syria also- as men say- a spot
  26. Is to be seen, where also four-foot kinds,
  27. As soon as ever they've set their steps within,
  28. Collapse, o'ercome by its essential power,
  29. As if there slaughtered to the under-gods.
  30. Lo, all these wonders work by natural law,
  31. And from what causes they are brought to pass
  32. The origin is manifest; so, haply,
  33. Let none believe that in these regions stands
  34. The gate of Orcus, nor us then suppose,
  35. Haply, that thence the under-gods draw down
  36. Souls to dark shores of Acheron- as stags,
  37. The wing-footed, are thought to draw to light,
  38. By sniffing nostrils, from their dusky lairs
  39. The wriggling generations of wild snakes.
  40. How far removed from true reason is this,
  41. Perceive thou straight; for now I'll try to say
  42. Somewhat about the very fact.