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.
  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. . . . . . .
  1. Likewise, it lightens, when the clouds have struck,
  2. By their collision, forth the seeds of fire:
  3. As if a stone should smite a stone or steel,
  4. For light then too leaps forth and fire then scatters
  5. The shining sparks. But with our ears we get
  6. The thunder after eyes behold the flash,
  7. Because forever things arrive the ears
  8. More tardily than the eyes- as thou mayst see
  9. From this example too: when markest thou
  10. Some man far yonder felling a great tree
  11. With double-edged ax, it comes to pass
  12. Thine eye beholds the swinging stroke before
  13. The blow gives forth a sound athrough thine ears:
  14. Thus also we behold the flashing ere
  15. We hear the thunder, which discharged is
  16. At same time with the fire and by same cause,
  17. Born of the same collision.