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De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)
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De Rerum Natura

Author: Lucretius
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
73
Praeterea
si
inmortalis
natura
animai

constat
et
in
corpus
nascentibus
insinuatur
,
cur
super
ante
actam
aetatem
meminisse
nequimus

nec
vestigia
gestarum
rerum
ulla
tenemus
?
nam
si
tanto
operest
animi
mutata
potestas
,
omnis
ut
actarum
exciderit
retinentia
rerum
,
non
,
ut
opinor
,
id
ab
leto
iam
longius
errat
;
qua
propter
fateare
necessest
quae
fuit
ante

interiisse
,
et
quae
nunc
est
nunc
esse
creatam
.
Praeterea
si
iam
perfecto
corpore
nobis

inferri
solitast
animi
vivata
potestas

tum
cum
gignimur
et
vitae
cum
limen
inimus
,
haud
ita
conveniebat
uti
cum
corpore
et
una

cum
membris
videatur
in
ipso
sanguine
cresse
,
sed
vel
ut
in
cavea
per
se
sibi
vivere
solam

convenit
,
ut
sensu
corpus
tamen
affluat
omne
.
quare
etiam
atque
etiam
neque
originis
esse
putandumst

expertis
animas
nec
leti
lege
solutas
;
nam
neque
tanto
opere
adnecti
potuisse
putandumst

corporibus
nostris
extrinsecus
insinuatas
,
quod
fieri
totum
contra
manifesta
docet
res
ænamque

ita
conexa
est
per
venas
viscera
nervos

ossaque
,
uti
dentes
quoque
sensu
participentur
;
morbus
ut
indicat
et
gelidai
stringor
aquai

et
lapis
oppressus
subitis
e
frugibus
asperæ

nec
,
tam
contextae
cum
sint
,
exire
videntur

incolumes
posse
et
salvas
exsolvere
sese

omnibus
e
nervis
atque
ossibus
articulisque
,
quod
si
forte
putas
extrinsecus
insinuatam

permanare
animam
nobis
per
membra
solere
,
tanto
quique
magis
cum
corpore
fusa
peribit
;
quod
permanat
enim
,
dissolvitur
,
interit
ergo
;
dispertitur
enim
per
caulas
corporis
omnis
.
ut
cibus
,
in
membra
atque
artus
cum
diditur
omnis
,
disperit
atque
aliam
naturam
sufficit
ex
se
,
sic
anima
atque
animus
quamvis
integra
recens

corpus
eunt
,
tamen
in
manando
dissoluuntur
,
dum
quasi
per
caulas
omnis
diduntur
in
artus

particulae
quibus
haec
animi
natura
creatur
,
quae
nunc
in
nostro
dominatur
corpore
nata

ex
illa
quae
tunc
periit
partita
per
artus
.

And besides,
If soul immortal is, and winds its way
Into the body at the birth of man,
Why can we not remember something, then,
Of life-time spent before? why keep we not
Some footprints of the things we did of, old?
But if so changed hath been the power of mind,
That every recollection of things done
Is fallen away, at no o'erlong remove
Is that, I trow, from what we mean by death.
Wherefore 'tis sure that what hath been before
Hath died, and what now is is now create.
Moreover, if after the body hath been built
Our mind's live powers are wont to be put in,
Just at the moment that we come to birth,
And cross the sills of life, 'twould scarcely fit
For them to live as if they seemed to grow
Along with limbs and frame, even in the blood,
But rather as in a cavern all alone.
(Yet all the body duly throngs with sense.)
But public fact declares against all this:
For soul is so entwined through the veins,
The flesh, the thews, the bones, that even the teeth
Share in sensation, as proven by dull ache,
By twinge from icy water, or grating crunch
Upon a stone that got in mouth with bread.
Wherefore, again, again, souls must be thought
Nor void of birth, nor free from law of death;
Nor, if, from outward, in they wound their way,
Could they be thought as able so to cleave
To these our frames, nor, since so interwove,
Appears it that they're able to go forth
Unhurt and whole and loose themselves unscathed
From all the thews, articulations, bones.
But, if perchance thou thinkest that the soul,
From outward winding in its way, is wont
To seep and soak along these members ours,
Then all the more 'twill perish, being thus
With body fused- for what will seep and soak
Will be dissolved and will therefore die.
For just as food, dispersed through all the pores
Of body, and passed through limbs and all the frame,
Perishes, supplying from itself the stuff
For other nature, thus the soul and mind,
Though whole and new into a body going,
Are yet, by seeping in, dissolved away,
Whilst, as through pores, to all the frame there pass
Those particles from which created is
This nature of mind, now ruler of our body,
Born from that soul which perished, when divided
Along the frame.
74
quapropter
neque
natali
privata
videtur

esse
die
natura
animae
nec
funeris
expers
.
Semina
praeterea
linquontur
necne
animai

corpore
in
exanimo
?
quod
si
lincuntur
et
insunt
,
haut
erit
ut
merito
inmortalis
possit
haberi
,
partibus
amissis
quoniam
libata
recessit
.
sin
ita
sinceris
membris
ablata
profugit
,
ut
nullas
partis
in
corpore
liquerit
ex
se
,
unde
cadavera
rancenti
iam
viscere
vermes

expirant
atque
unde
animantum
copia
tanta

exos
et
exanguis
tumidos
perfluctuat
artus
?
quod
si
forte
animas
extrinsecus
insinuari
?
vermibus
et
privas
in
corpora
posse
venire

credis
nec
reputas
cur
milia
multa
animarum

conveniant
unde
una
recesserit
,
hoc
tamen
est
ut

quaerendum
videatur
et
in
discrimen
agendum
,
utrum
tandem
animae
venentur
semina
quaeque

vermiculorum
ipsaeque
sibi
fabricentur
ubi
sint
,
an
quasi
corporibus
perfectis
insinuentur
.
at
neque
cur
faciant
ipsae
quareve
laborent

dicere
suppeditat
.
neque
enim
,
sine
corpore
cum
sunt
,
sollicitae
volitant
morbis
alguque
fameque
;
corpus
enim
magis
his
vitiis
adfine
laborat
,
et
mala
multa
animus
contage
fungitur
eius
.
sed
tamen
his
esto
quamvis
facere
utile
corpus
,
cum
subeant
;
at
qua
possint
via
nulla
videtur
.
haut
igitur
faciunt
animae
sibi
corpora
et
artus
.
nec
tamen
est
ut
qui
perfectis
insinuentur

corporibus
;
neque
enim
poterunt
suptiliter
esse

conexae
neque
consensu
contagia
fient
.

Wherefore it seems that soul
Hath both a natal and funeral hour.
Besides are seeds of soul there left behind
In the breathless body, or not? If there they are,
It cannot justly be immortal deemed,
Since, shorn of some parts lost, 'thas gone away:
But if, borne off with members uncorrupt,
'Thas fled so absolutely all away
It leaves not one remainder of itself
Behind in body, whence do cadavers, then,
From out their putrid flesh exhale the worms,
And whence does such a mass of living things,
Boneless and bloodless, o'er the bloated frame
Bubble and swarm? But if perchance thou thinkest
That souls from outward into worms can wind,
And each into a separate body come,
And reckonest not why many thousand souls
Collect where only one has gone away,
Here is a point, in sooth, that seems to need
Inquiry and a putting to the test:
Whether the souls go on a hunt for seeds
Of worms wherewith to build their dwelling places,
Or enter bodies ready-made, as 'twere.
But why themselves they thus should do and toil
'Tis hard to say, since, being free of body,
They flit around, harassed by no disease,
Nor cold nor famine; for the body labours
By more of kinship to these flaws of life,
And mind by contact with that body suffers
So many ills. But grant it be for them
However useful to construct a body
To which to enter in, 'tis plain they can't.
Then, souls for self no frames nor bodies make,
Nor is there how they once might enter in
To bodies ready-made- for they cannot
Be nicely interwoven with the same,
And there'll be formed no interplay of sense
Common to each.
75
Denique
cur
acris
violentia
triste
leonum

seminium
sequitur
,
volpes
dolus
,
et
fuga
cervos
?
a
patribus
datur
et
patrius
pavor
incitat
artus
,
et
iam
cetera
de
genere
hoc
cur
omnia
membris

ex
ineunte
aevo
generascunt
ingenioque
,
si
non
,
certa
suo
quia
semine
seminioque

vis
animi
pariter
crescit
cum
corpore
quoque
?
quod
si
inmortalis
foret
et
mutare
soleret

corpora
,
permixtis
animantes
moribus
essent
,
effugeret
canis
Hyrcano
de
semine
saepe

cornigeri
incursum
cervi
tremeretque
per
auras
aëris

accipiter
fugiens
veniente
columba
,
desiperent
homines
,
saperent
fera
saecla
ferarum
.
illud
enim
falsa
fertur
ratione
,
quod
aiunt

inmortalem
animam
mutato
corpore
flecti
;
quod
mutatur
enim
,
dissolvitur
,
interit
ergo
;
traiciuntur
enim
partes
atque
ordine
migrant
;
quare
dissolui
quoque
debent
posse
per
artus
,
denique
ut
intereant
una
cum
corpore
cunctae
.
sin
animas
hominum
dicent
in
corpora
semper

ire
humana
,
tamen
quaeram
cur
e
sapienti

stulta
queat
fieri
,
nec
prudens
sit
puer
ullus
,
nec
tam
doctus
equae
pullus
quam
fortis
equi
vis
.
scilicet
in
tenero
tenerascere
corpore
mentem

confugient
.
quod
si
iam
fit
,
fateare
necessest

mortalem
esse
animam
,
quoniam
mutata
per
artus

tanto
opere
amittit
vitam
sensumque
priorem
.
quove
modo
poterit
pariter
cum
corpore
quoque

confirmata
cupitum
aetatis
tangere
florem

vis
animi
,
nisi
erit
consors
in
origine
prima
?
quidve
foras
sibi
vult
membris
exire
senectis
?
an
metuit
conclusa
manere
in
corpore
putri

et
domus
aetatis
spatio
ne
fessa
vetusto

obruat
?
at
non
sunt
immortali
ulla
pericla
.

Again, why is't there goes
Impetuous rage with lion's breed morose,
And cunning with foxes, and to deer why given
The ancestral fear and tendency to flee,
And why in short do all the rest of traits
Engender from the very start of life
In the members and mentality, if not
Because one certain power of mind that came
From its own seed and breed waxes the same
Along with all the body? But were mind
Immortal, were it wont to change its bodies,
How topsy-turvy would earth's creatures act!
The Hyrcan hound would flee the onset oft
Of antlered stag, the scurrying hawk would quake
Along the winds of air at the coming dove,
And men would dote, and savage beasts be wise;
For false the reasoning of those that say
Immortal mind is changed by change of body-
For what is changed dissolves, and therefore dies.
For parts are re-disposed and leave their order;
Wherefore they must be also capable
Of dissolution through the frame at last,
That they along with body perish all.
But should some say that always souls of men
Go into human bodies, I will ask:
How can a wise become a dullard soul?
And why is never a child's a prudent soul?
And the mare's filly why not trained so well
As sturdy strength of steed? We may be sure
They'll take their refuge in the thought that mind
Becomes a weakling in a weakling frame.
Yet be this so, 'tis needful to confess
The soul but mortal, since, so altered now
Throughout the frame, it loses the life and sense
It had before. Or how can mind wax strong
Coequally with body and attain
The craved flower of life, unless it be
The body's colleague in its origins?
Or what's the purport of its going forth
From aged limbs?- fears it, perhaps, to stay,
Pent in a crumbled body? Or lest its house,
Outworn by venerable length of days,
May topple down upon it? But indeed
For an immortal perils are there none.
76
Denique
conubia
ad
Veneris
partusque
ferarum

esse
animas
praesto
deridiculum
esse
videtur
,
expectare
immortalis
mortalia
membra

innumero
numero
certareque
praeproperanter

inter
se
quae
prima
potissimaque
insinuetur
;
si
non
forte
ita
sunt
animarum
foedera
pacta
,
ut
quae
prima
volans
advenerit
insinuetur

prima
neque
inter
se
contendant
viribus
hilum
.
Denique
in
aethere
non
arbor
,
non
aequore
in
alto

nubes
esse
queunt
nec
pisces
vivere
in
arvis

nec
cruor
in
lignis
neque
saxis
sucus
inesse
.
certum
ac
dispositumst
ubi
quicquid
crescat
et
insit
.
sic
animi
natura
nequit
sine
corpore
oriri

sola
neque
a
nervis
et
sanguine
longius
esse
.
quod
si
posset
enim
,
multo
prius
ipsa
animi
vis

in
capite
aut
umeris
aut
imis
calcibus
esse

posset
et
innasci
quavis
in
parte
soleret
,
tandem
in
eodem
homine
atque
in
eodem
vase
manere
.
quod
quoniam
nostro
quoque
constat
corpore
certum

dispositumque
videtur
ubi
esse
et
crescere
possit

sorsum
anima
atque
animus
,
tanto
magis
infitiandum

totum
posse
extra
corpus
durare
genique
.
quare
,
corpus
ubi
interiit
,
periisse
necessest

confiteare
animam
distractam
in
corpore
toto
.
quippe
etenim
mortale
aeterno
iungere
et
una

consentire
putare
et
fungi
mutua
posse

desiperest
;
quid
enim
diversius
esse
putandumst

aut
magis
inter
se
disiunctum
discrepitansque
,
quam
mortale
quod
est
inmortali
atque
perenni

iunctum
in
concilio
saevas
tolerare
procellas
?
praeterea
quaecumque
manent
aeterna
necessest

aut
quia
sunt
solido
cum
corpore
respuere
ictus

nec
penetrare
pati
sibi
quicquam
quod
queat
artas

dissociare
intus
partis
,
ut
materiai

corpora
sunt
,
quorum
naturam
ostendimus
ante
,
aut
ideo
durare
aetatem
posse
per
omnem
,
plagarum
quia
sunt
expertia
sicut
inanest
,
quod
manet
intactum
neque
ab
ictu
fungitur
hilum
,
aut
etiam
quia
nulla
loci
sit
copia
circum
,
quo
quasi
res
possint
discedere
dissoluique
,
sicut
summarum
summast
aeterna
,
neque
extra

quis
locus
est
quo
diffugiant
neque
corpora
sunt
quae

possint
incidere
et
valida
dissolvere
plaga
.

Again, at parturitions of the wild
And at the rites of Love, that souls should stand
Ready hard by seems ludicrous enough-
Immortals waiting for their mortal limbs
In numbers innumerable, contending madly
Which shall be first and chief to enter in!-
Unless perchance among the souls there be
Such treaties stablished that the first to come
Flying along, shall enter in the first,
And that they make no rivalries of strength!
Again, in ether can't exist a tree,
Nor clouds in ocean deeps, nor in the fields
Can fishes live, nor blood in timber be,
Nor sap in boulders: fixed and arranged
Where everything may grow and have its place.
Thus nature of mind cannot arise alone
Without the body, nor exist afar
From thews and blood. But if 'twere possible,
Much rather might this very power of mind
Be in the head, the shoulders or the heels,
And, born in any part soever, yet
In the same man, in the same vessel abide.
But since within this body even of ours
Stands fixed and appears arranged sure
Where soul and mind can each exist and grow,
Deny we must the more that they can have
Duration and birth, wholly outside the frame.
For, verily, the mortal to conjoin
With the eternal, and to feign they feel
Together, and can function each with each,
Is but to dote: for what can be conceived
Of more unlike, discrepant, ill-assorted,
Than something mortal in a union joined
With an immortal and a secular
To bear the outrageous tempests?
Then, again,
Whatever abides eternal must indeed
Either repel all strokes, because 'tis made
Of solid body, and permit no entrance
Of aught with power to sunder from within
The parts compact- as are those seeds of stuff
Whose nature we've exhibited before;
Or else be able to endure through time
For this: because they are from blows exempt,
As is the void, the which abides untouched,
Unsmit by any stroke; or else because
There is no room around, whereto things can,
As 'twere, depart in dissolution all,-
Even as the sum of sums eternal is,
Without or place beyond whereto things may
Asunder fly, or bodies which can smite,
And thus dissolve them by the blows of might.
77
Quod
si
forte
ideo
magis
inmortalis
habendast
,
quod
vitalibus
ab
rebus
munita
tenetur
,
aut
quia
non
veniunt
omnino
aliena
salutis
,
aut
quia
quae
veniunt
aliqua
ratione
recedunt

pulsa
prius
quam
quid
noceant
sentire
queamus
,
praeter
enim
quam
quod
morbis
cum
corporis
aegret
,
advenit
id
quod
eam
de
rebus
saepe
futuris

macerat
inque
metu
male
habet
curisque
fatigat
,
praeteritisque
male
admissis
peccata
remordent
.
adde
furorem
animi
proprium
atque
oblivia
rerum
,
adde
quod
in
nigras
lethargi
mergitur
undas
.

But if perchance the soul's to be adjudged
Immortal, mainly on ground 'tis kept secure
In vital forces- either because there come
Never at all things hostile to its weal,
Or else because what come somehow retire,
Repelled or ere we feel the harm they work,
. . . . . .
For, lo, besides that, when the frame's diseased,
Soul sickens too, there cometh, many a time,
That which torments it with the things to be,
Keeps it in dread, and wearies it with cares;
And even when evil acts are of the past,
Still gnaw the old transgressions bitterly.
Add, too, that frenzy, peculiar to the mind,
And that oblivion of the things that were;
Add its submergence in the murky waves
Of drowse and torpor.
78
Nil
igitur
mors
est
ad
nos
neque
pertinet
hilum
,
quandoquidem
natura
animi
mortalis
habetur
.
et
vel
ut
ante
acto
nihil
tempore
sensimus
aegri
,
ad
confligendum
venientibus
undique
Poenis
,
omnia
cum
belli
trepido
concussa
tumultu

horrida
contremuere
sub
altis
aetheris
auris
,
in
dubioque
fuere
utrorum
ad
regna
cadendum

omnibus
humanis
esset
terraque
marique
,
sic
,
ubi
non
erimus
,
cum
corporis
atque
animai

discidium
fuerit
,
quibus
e
sumus
uniter
apti
,
scilicet
haud
nobis
quicquam
,
qui
non
erimus
tum
,
accidere
omnino
poterit
sensumque
movere
,
non
si
terra
mari
miscebitur
et
mare
caelo
.
et
si
iam
nostro
sentit
de
corpore
postquam

distractast
animi
natura
animaeque
potestas
,
nil
tamen
est
ad
nos
,
qui
comptu
coniugioque

corporis
atque
animae
consistimus
uniter
apti
.
nec
,
si
materiem
nostram
collegerit
aetas

post
obitum
rursumque
redegerit
ut
sita
nunc
est
,
atque
iterum
nobis
fuerint
data
lumina
vitae
,
pertineat
quicquam
tamen
ad
nos
id
quoque
factum
,
interrupta
semel
cum
sit
repetentia
nostri
.
et
nunc
nil
ad
nos
de
nobis
attinet
,
ante

qui
fuimus
,
iam
de
illis
nos
adficit
angor
.
nam
cum
respicias
inmensi
temporis
omne

praeteritum
spatium
,
tum
motus
materiai

multimodi
quam
sint
,
facile
hoc
adcredere
possis
,
semina
saepe
in
eodem
,
ut
nunc
sunt
,
ordine
posta

haec
eadem
,
quibus
e
nunc
nos
sumus
,
ante
fuisse
.
nec
memori
tamen
id
quimus
reprehendere
mente
;
inter
enim
iectast
vitai
pausa
vageque

deerrarunt
passim
motus
ab
sensibus
omnes
.
debet
enim
,
misere
si
forte
aegreque
futurumst
;
ipse
quoque
esse
in
eo
tum
tempore
,
cui
male
possit

accidere
.
id
quoniam
mors
eximit
,
esseque
prohibet

illum
cui
possint
incommoda
conciliari
,
scire
licet
nobis
nihil
esse
in
morte
timendum

nec
miserum
fieri
qui
non
est
posse
,
neque
hilum

differre
an
nullo
fuerit
iam
tempore
natus
,
mortalem
vitam
mors
cum
inmortalis
ademit
.
FOLLY OF THE FEAR OF DEATH
Therefore death to us
Is nothing, nor concerns us in the least,
Since nature of mind is mortal evermore.
And just as in the ages gone before
We felt no touch of ill, when all sides round
To battle came the Carthaginian host,
And the times, shaken by tumultuous war,
Under the aery coasts of arching heaven
Shuddered and trembled, and all humankind
Doubted to which the empery should fall
By land and sea, thus when we are no more,
When comes that sundering of our body and soul
Through which we're fashioned to a single state,
Verily naught to us, us then no more,
Can come to pass, naught move our senses then-
No, not if earth confounded were with sea,
And sea with heaven. But if indeed do feel
The nature of mind and energy of soul,
After their severance from this body of ours,
Yet nothing 'tis to us who in the bonds
And wedlock of the soul and body live,
Through which we're fashioned to a single state.
And, even if time collected after death
The matter of our frames and set it all
Again in place as now, and if again
To us the light of life were given, O yet
That process too would not concern us aught,
When once the self-succession of our sense
Has been asunder broken. And now and here,
Little enough we're busied with the selves
We were aforetime, nor, concerning them,
Suffer a sore distress. For shouldst thou gaze
Backwards across all yesterdays of time
The immeasurable, thinking how manifold
The motions of matter are, then couldst thou well
Credit this too: often these very seeds
(From which we are to-day) of old were set
In the same order as they are to-day-
Yet this we can't to consciousness recall
Through the remembering mind. For there hath been
An interposed pause of life, and wide
Have all the motions wandered everywhere
From these our senses. For if woe and ail
Perchance are toward, then the man to whom
The bane can happen must himself be there
At that same time. But death precludeth this,
Forbidding life to him on whom might crowd
Such irk and care; and granted 'tis to know:
Nothing for us there is to dread in death,
No wretchedness for him who is no more,
The same estate as if ne'er born before,
When death immortal hath ta'en the mortal life.
79
Proinde
ubi
se
videas
hominem
indignarier
ipsum
,
post
mortem
fore
ut
aut
putescat
corpore
posto

aut
flammis
interfiat
malisve
ferarum
,
scire
licet
non
sincerum
sonere
atque
subesse

caecum
aliquem
cordi
stimulum
,
quamvis
neget
ipse

credere
se
quemquam
sibi
sensum
in
morte
futurum
;
non
,
ut
opinor
,
enim
dat
quod
promittit
et
unde

nec
radicitus
e
vita
se
tollit
et
eicit
,
sed
facit
esse
sui
quiddam
super
inscius
ipse
.
vivus
enim
sibi
cum
proponit
quisque
futurum
,
corpus
uti
volucres
lacerent
in
morte
feraeque
,
ipse
sui
miseret
;
neque
enim
se
dividit
illim

nec
removet
satis
a
proiecto
corpore
et
illum

se
fingit
sensuque
suo
contaminat
astans
.
hinc
indignatur
se
mortalem
esse
creatum

nec
videt
in
vera
nullum
fore
morte
alium
se
,
qui
possit
vivus
sibi
se
lugere
peremptum

stansque
iacentem
lacerari
urive
dolere
.
nam
si
in
morte
malumst
malis
morsuque
ferarum

tractari
,
non
invenio
qui
non
sit
acerbum

ignibus
inpositum
calidis
torrescere
flammis

aut
in
melle
situm
suffocari
atque
rigere

frigore
,
cum
summo
gelidi
cubat
aequore
saxi
,
urgerive
superne
obrutum
pondere
terrae
.

Hence, where thou seest a man to grieve because
When dead he rots with body laid away,
Or perishes in flames or jaws of beasts,
Know well: he rings not true, and that beneath
Still works an unseen sting upon his heart,
However he deny that he believes.
His shall be aught of feeling after death.
For he, I fancy, grants not what he says,
Nor what that presupposes, and he fails
To pluck himself with all his roots from life
And cast that self away, quite unawares
Feigning that some remainder's left behind.
For when in life one pictures to oneself
His body dead by beasts and vultures torn,
He pities his state, dividing not himself
Therefrom, removing not the self enough
From the body flung away, imagining
Himself that body, and projecting there
His own sense, as he stands beside it: hence
He grieves that he is mortal born, nor marks
That in true death there is no second self
Alive and able to sorrow for self destroyed,
Or stand lamenting that the self lies there
Mangled or burning. For if it an evil is
Dead to be jerked about by jaw and fang
Of the wild brutes, I see not why 'twere not
Bitter to lie on fires and roast in flames,
Or suffocate in honey, and, reclined
On the smooth oblong of an icy slab,
Grow stiff in cold, or sink with load of earth
Down-crushing from above.
80
'
Iam
iam
non
domus
accipiet
te
laeta
neque
uxor

optima
,
nec
dulces
occurrent
oscula
nati

praeripere
et
tacita
pectus
dulcedine
tangent
.
non
poteris
factis
florentibus
esse
tuisque

praesidium
.
misero
misere
'
aiunt
'
omnia
ademit

una
dies
infesta
tibi
tot
praemia
vitae
.'
illud
in
his
rebus
non
addunt
'
nec
tibi
earum

iam
desiderium
rerum
super
insidet
una
.'
quod
bene
si
videant
animo
dictisque
sequantur
,
dissoluant
animi
magno
se
angore
metuque
.
'
tu
quidem
ut
es
leto
sopitus
,
sic
eris
aevi

quod
super
est
cunctis
privatus
doloribus
aegris
;
at
nos
horrifico
cinefactum
te
prope
busto

insatiabiliter
deflevimus
,
aeternumque

nulla
dies
nobis
maerorem
e
pectore
demet
.'
illud
ab
hoc
igitur
quaerendum
est
,
quid
sit
amari

tanto
opere
,
ad
somnum
si
res
redit
atque
quietem
,
cur
quisquam
aeterno
possit
tabescere
luctu
.
Hoc
etiam
faciunt
ubi
discubuere
tenentque

pocula
saepe
homines
et
inumbrant
ora
coronis
,
ex
animo
ut
dicant
: '
brevis
hic
est
fructus
homullis
;
iam
fuerit
neque
post
umquam
revocare
licebit
.'
tam
quam
in
morte
mali
cum
primis
hoc
sit
eorum
,
quod
sitis
exurat
miseros
atque
arida
torrat
,
aut
aliae
cuius
desiderium
insideat
rei
.
nec
sibi
enim
quisquam
tum
se
vitamque
requiret
,
cum
pariter
mens
et
corpus
sopita
quiescunt
;
nam
licet
aeternum
per
nos
sic
esse
soporem
,
nec
desiderium
nostri
nos
adficit
ullum
,
et
tamen
haud
quaquam
nostros
tunc
illa
per
artus

longe
ab
sensiferis
primordia
motibus
errant
,
cum
correptus
homo
ex
somno
se
colligit
ipse
.
multo
igitur
mortem
minus
ad
nos
esse
putandumst
,
si
minus
esse
potest
quam
quod
nihil
esse
videmus
;
maior
enim
turbae
disiectus
materiai

consequitur
leto
nec
quisquam
expergitus
extat
,
frigida
quem
semel
est
vitai
pausa
secuta
.

"Thee now no more
The joyful house and best of wives shall welcome,
Nor little sons run up to snatch their kisses
And touch with silent happiness thy heart.
Thou shalt not speed in undertakings more,
Nor be the warder of thine own no more.
Poor wretch," they say, "one hostile hour hath ta'en
Wretchedly from thee all life's many guerdons,"
But add not, "yet no longer unto thee
Remains a remnant of desire for them"
If this they only well perceived with mind
And followed up with maxims, they would free
Their state of man from anguish and from fear.
"O even as here thou art, aslumber in death,
So shalt thou slumber down the rest of time,
Released from every harrying pang. But we,
We have bewept thee with insatiate woe,
Standing beside whilst on the awful pyre
Thou wert made ashes; and no day shall take
For us the eternal sorrow from the breast."
But ask the mourner what's the bitterness
That man should waste in an eternal grief,
If, after all, the thing's but sleep and rest?
For when the soul and frame together are sunk
In slumber, no one then demands his self
Or being. Well, this sleep may be forever,
Without desire of any selfhood more,
For all it matters unto us asleep.
Yet not at all do those primordial germs
Roam round our members, at that time, afar
From their own motions that produce our senses-
Since, when he's startled from his sleep, a man
Collects his senses. Death is, then, to us
Much less- if there can be a less than that
Which is itself a nothing: for there comes
Hard upon death a scattering more great
Of the throng of matter, and no man wakes up
On whom once falls the icy pause of life.
This too, O often from the soul men say,
Along their couches holding of the cups,
With faces shaded by fresh wreaths awry:
"Brief is this fruit of joy to paltry man,
Soon, soon departed, and thereafter, no,
It may not be recalled."- As if, forsooth,
It were their prime of evils in great death
To parch, poor tongues, with thirst and arid drought,
Or chafe for any lack.