De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. And so in first place, then,
  2. With thunder are shaken the blue deeps of heaven,
  3. Because the ethereal clouds, scudding aloft,
  4. Together clash, what time 'gainst one another
  5. The winds are battling. For never a sound there comes
  6. From out the serene regions of the sky;
  7. But wheresoever in a host more dense
  8. The clouds foregather, thence more often comes
  9. A crash with mighty rumbling. And, again,
  10. Clouds cannot be of so condensed a frame
  11. As stones and timbers, nor again so fine
  12. As mists and flying smoke; for then perforce
  13. They'd either fall, borne down by their brute weight,
  14. Like stones, or, like the smoke, they'd powerless be
  15. To keep their mass, or to retain within
  16. Frore snows and storms of hail. And they give forth
  17. O'er skiey levels of the spreading world
  18. A sound on high, as linen-awning, stretched
  19. O'er mighty theatres, gives forth at times
  20. A cracking roar, when much 'tis beaten about
  21. Betwixt the poles and cross-beams. Sometimes, too,
  22. Asunder rent by wanton gusts, it raves
  23. And imitates the tearing sound of sheets
  24. Of paper- even this kind of noise thou mayst
  25. In thunder hear- or sound as when winds whirl
  26. With lashings and do buffet about in air
  27. A hanging cloth and flying paper-sheets.
  28. For sometimes, too, it chances that the clouds
  29. Cannot together crash head-on, but rather
  30. Move side-wise and with motions contrary
  31. Graze each the other's body without speed,
  32. From whence that dry sound grateth on our ears,
  33. So long drawn-out, until the clouds have passed
  34. From out their close positions.