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De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)
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De Rerum Natura

Author: Lucretius
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
153
At
nox
obruit
ingenti
caligine
terras
,
aut
ubi
de
longo
cursu
sol
ultima
caeli

impulit
atque
suos
efflavit
languidus
ignis

concussos
itere
et
labefactos
aëre
multo
,
aut
quia
sub
terras
cursum
convortere
cogit

vis
eadem
,
supra
quae
terras
pertulit
orbem
.
Tempore
item
certo
roseam
Matuta
per
oras

aetheris
auroram
differt
et
lumina
pandit
,
aut
quia
sol
idem
,
sub
terras
ille
revertens
,
anticipat
caelum
radiis
accendere
temptans
,
aut
quia
conveniunt
ignes
et
semina
multa

confluere
ardoris
consuerunt
tempore
certo
,
quae
faciunt
solis
nova
semper
lumina
gigni
;
quod
genus
Idaeis
fama
est
e
montibus
altis

dispersos
ignis
orienti
lumine
cerni
,
inde
coire
globum
quasi
in
unum
et
conficere
orbem
.
nec
tamen
illud
in
his
rebus
mirabile
debet

esse
,
quod
haec
ignis
tam
certo
tempore
possint

semina
confluere
et
solis
reparare
nitorem
.
multa
videmus
enim
,
certo
quae
tempore
fiunt

omnibus
in
rebus
.
florescunt
tempore
certo

arbusta
et
certo
dimittunt
tempore
florem
.
nec
minus
in
certo
dentes
cadere
imperat
aetas

tempore
et
inpubem
molli
pubescere
veste

et
pariter
mollem
malis
demittere
barbam
.
fulmina
postremo
nix
imbres
nubila
venti

non
nimis
incertis
fiunt
in
partibus
anni
.
namque
ubi
sic
fuerunt
causarum
exordia
prima

atque
ita
res
mundi
cecidere
ab
origine
prima
,
conseque
quoque
iam
redeunt
ex
ordine
certo
.

But night o'erwhelms the lands with vasty murk
Either when sun, after his diurnal course,
Hath walked the ultimate regions of the sky
And wearily hath panted forth his fires,
Shivered by their long journeying and wasted
By traversing the multitudinous air,
Or else because the self-same force that drave
His orb along above the lands compels
Him then to turn his course beneath the lands.
Matuta also at a fixed hour
Spreadeth the roseate morning out along
The coasts of heaven and deploys the light,
Either because the self-same sun, returning
Under the lands, aspires to seize the sky,
Striving to set it blazing with his rays
Ere he himself appear, or else because
Fires then will congregate and many seeds
Of heat are wont, even at a fixed time,
To stream together- gendering evermore
New suns and light. Just so the story goes
That from the Idaean mountain-tops are seen
Dispersed fires upon the break of day
Which thence combine, as 'twere, into one ball
And form an orb. Nor yet in these affairs
Is aught for wonder that these seeds of fire
Can thus together stream at time so fixed
And shape anew the splendour of the sun.
For many facts we see which come to pass
At fixed time in all things: burgeon shrubs
At fixed time, and at a fixed time
They cast their flowers; and Eld commands the teeth,
At time as surely fixed, to drop away,
And Youth commands the growing boy to bloom
With the soft down and let from both his cheeks
The soft beard fall. And lastly, thunder-bolts,
Snow, rains, clouds, winds, at seasons of the year
Nowise unfixed, all do come to pass.
For where, even from their old primordial start
Causes have ever worked in such a way,
And where, even from the world's first origin,
Thuswise have things befallen, so even now
After a fixed order they come round
In sequence also.
154
Crescere
itemque
dies
licet
et
tabescere
noctes
,
et
minui
luces
,
cum
sumant
augmina
noctis
,
aut
quia
sol
idem
sub
terras
atque
superne

imparibus
currens
amfractibus
aetheris
oras

partit
et
in
partis
non
aequas
dividit
orbem
,
et
quod
ab
alterutra
detraxit
parte
,
reponit

eius
in
adversa
tanto
plus
parte
relatus
,
donec
ad
id
signum
caeli
pervenit
,
ubi
anni

nodus
nocturnas
exaequat
lucibus
umbras
;
nam
medio
cursu
flatus
aquilonis
et
austri

distinet
aequato
caelum
discrimine
metas

propter
signiferi
posituram
totius
orbis
,
annua
sol
in
quo
concludit
tempora
serpens
,
obliquo
terras
et
caelum
lumine
lustrans
,
ut
ratio
declarat
eorum
qui
loca
caeli

omnia
dispositis
signis
ornata
notarunt
.
aut
quia
crassior
est
certis
in
partibus
aër
,
sub
terris
ideo
tremulum
iubar
haesitat
ignis

nec
penetrare
potest
facile
atque
emergere
ad
ortus
;
propterea
noctes
hiberno
tempore
longae

cessant
,
dum
veniat
radiatum
insigne
diei
.
aut
etiam
,
quia
sic
alternis
partibus
anni

tardius
et
citius
consuerunt
confluere
ignes
,
qui
faciunt
solem
certa
de
surgere
parte
,
propterea
fit
uti
videantur
dicere
verum
.

Likewise, days may wax
Whilst the nights wane, and daylight minished be
Whilst nights do take their augmentations,
Either because the self-same sun, coursing
Under the lands and over in two arcs,
A longer and a briefer, doth dispart
The coasts of ether and divides in twain
His orbit all unequally, and adds,
As round he's borne, unto the one half there
As much as from the other half he's ta'en,
Until he then arrives that sign of heaven
Where the year's node renders the shades of night
Equal unto the periods of light.
For when the sun is midway on his course
Between the blasts of northwind and of south,
Heaven keeps his two goals parted equally,
By virtue of the fixed position old
Of the whole starry Zodiac, through which
That sun, in winding onward, takes a year,
Illumining the sky and all the lands
With oblique light- as men declare to us
Who by their diagrams have charted well
Those regions of the sky which be adorned
With the arranged signs of Zodiac.
Or else, because in certain parts the air
Under the lands is denser, the tremulous
Bright beams of fire do waver tardily,
Nor easily can penetrate that air
Nor yet emerge unto their rising-place:
For this it is that nights in winter time
Do linger long, ere comes the many-rayed
Round Badge of the day. Or else because, as said,
In alternating seasons of the year
Fires, now more quick, and now more slow, are wont
To stream together,- the fires which make the sun
To rise in some one spot- therefore it is
That those men seem to speak the truth [who hold
A new sun is with each new daybreak born].
155
Luna
potest
solis
radiis
percussa
nitere

inque
dies
magis
lumen
convertere
nobis

ad
speciem
,
quantum
solis
secedit
ab
orbi
,
donique
eum
contra
pleno
bene
lumine
fulsit

atque
oriens
obitus
eius
super
edita
vidit
;
inde
minutatim
retro
quasi
condere
lumen

debet
item
,
quanto
propius
iam
solis
ad
ignem

labitur
ex
alia
signorum
parte
per
orbem
;
ut
faciunt
,
lunam
qui
fingunt
esse
pilai

consimilem
cursusque
viam
sub
sole
tenere
.
est
etiam
quare
proprio
cum
lumine
possit

volvier
et
varias
splendoris
reddere
formas
;
corpus
enim
licet
esse
aliud
,
quod
fertur
et
una

labitur
omnimodis
occursans
officiensque
,
nec
potis
est
cerni
,
quia
cassum
lumine
fertur
.
versarique
potest
,
globus
ut
,
si
forte
,
pilai

dimidia
ex
parti
candenti
lumine
tinctus
,
versandoque
globum
variantis
edere
formas
,
donique
eam
partem
,
quae
cumque
est
ignibus
aucta
,
ad
speciem
vertit
nobis
oculosque
patentis
;
inde
minutatim
retro
contorquet
et
aufert

luciferam
partem
glomeraminis
atque
pilai
;
ut
Babylonica
Chaldaeum
doctrina
refutans

astrologorum
artem
contra
convincere
tendit
,
proinde
quasi
id
fieri
nequeat
quod
pugnat
uterque

aut
minus
hoc
illo
sit
cur
amplectier
ausis
.
denique
cur
nequeat
semper
nova
luna
creari

ordine
formarum
certo
certisque
figuris

inque
dies
privos
aborisci
quaeque
creata

atque
alia
illius
reparari
in
parte
locoque
,
difficilest
ratione
docere
et
vincere
verbis
,
ordine
cum
tam
certo
multa
creari
.
it
Ver
et
Venus
et
Veneris
praenuntius
ante

pennatus
graditur
,
Zephyri
vestigia
propter

Flora
quibus
mater
praespargens
ante
viai

cuncta
coloribus
egregiis
et
odoribus
opplet
.
inde
loci
sequitur
Calor
aridus
et
comes
una

pulverulenta
Ceres
etesia
flabra
aquilonum
.
inde
Autumnus
adit
,
graditur
simul
Euhius
Euan
.
inde
aliae
tempestates
ventique
secuntur
,
altitonans
Volturnus
et
Auster
fulmine
pollens
.
tandem
Bruma
nives
adfert
pigrumque
rigorem

reddit
.
Hiemps
sequitur
crepitans
hanc
dentibus
algu
.
quo
minus
est
mirum
,
si
certo
tempore
luna

gignitur
et
certo
deletur
tempore
rusus
,
cum
fieri
possint
tam
certo
tempore
multa
.

The moon she possibly doth shine because
Strook by the rays of sun, and day by day
May turn unto our gaze her light, the more
She doth recede from orb of sun, until,
Facing him opposite across the world,
She hath with full effulgence gleamed abroad,
And, at her rising as she soars above,
Hath there observed his setting; thence likewise
She needs must hide, as 'twere, her light behind
By slow degrees, the nearer now she glides,
Along the circle of the Zodiac,
From her far place toward fires of yonder sun,-
As those men hold who feign the moon to be
Just like a ball and to pursue a course
Betwixt the sun and earth. There is, again,
Some reason to suppose that moon may roll
With light her very own, and thus display
The varied shapes of her resplendence there.
For near her is, percase, another body,
Invisible, because devoid of light,
Borne on and gliding all along with her,
Which in three modes may block and blot her disk.
Again, she may revolve upon herself,
Like to a ball's sphere- if perchance that be-
One half of her dyed o'er with glowing light,
And by the revolution of that sphere
She may beget for us her varying shapes,
Until she turns that fiery part of her
Full to the sight and open eyes of men;
Thence by slow stages round and back she whirls,
Withdrawing thus the luminiferous part
Of her sphered mass and ball, as, verily,
The Babylonian doctrine of Chaldees,
Refuting the art of Greek astrologers,
Labours, in opposition, to prove sure-
As if, forsooth, the thing for which each fights,
Might not alike be true,- or aught there were
Wherefore thou mightest risk embracing one
More than the other notion. Then, again,
Why a new moon might not forevermore
Created be with fixed successions there
Of shapes and with configurations fixed,
And why each day that bright created moon
Might not miscarry and another be,
In its stead and place, engendered anew,
'Tis hard to show by reason, or by words
To prove absurd- since, lo, so many things
Can be create with fixed successions:
Spring-time and Venus come, and Venus' boy,
The winged harbinger, steps on before,
And hard on Zephyr's foot-prints Mother Flora,
Sprinkling the ways before them, filleth all
With colours and with odours excellent;
Whereafter follows arid Heat, and he
Companioned is by Ceres, dusty one,
And by the Etesian Breezes of the north;
Then cometh Autumn on, and with him steps
Lord Bacchus, and then other Seasons too
And other Winds do follow- the high roar
Of great Volturnus, and the Southwind strong
With thunder-bolts. At last earth's Shortest-Day
Bears on to men the snows and brings again
The numbing cold. And Winter follows her,
His teeth with chills a-chatter. Therefore, 'tis
The less a marvel, if at fixed time
A moon is thus begotten and again
At fixed time destroyed, since things so many
Can come to being thus at fixed time.
Likewise, the sun's eclipses and the moon's
Far occultations rightly thou mayst deem
156
Solis
item
quoque
defectus
lunaeque
latebras

pluribus
e
causis
fieri
tibi
posse
putandumst
.
nam
cur
luna
queat
terram
secludere
solis

lumine
et
a
terris
altum
caput
obstruere
ei
,
obiciens
caecum
radiis
ardentibus
orbem
,
tempore
eodem
aliut
facere
id
non
posse
putetur

corpus
,
quod
cassum
labatur
lumine
semper
?
solque
suos
etiam
dimittere
languidus
ignis

tempore
cur
certo
nequeat
recreareque
lumen
,
cum
loca
praeteriit
flammis
infesta
per
auras
,
quae
faciunt
ignis
interstingui
atque
perire
?
et
cur
terra
queat
lunam
spoliare
vicissim

lumine
et
oppressum
solem
super
ipsa
tenere
,
menstrua
dum
rigidas
coni
perlabitur
umbras
,
tempore
eodem
aliud
nequeat
succurrere
lunae

corpus
vel
supra
solis
perlabier
orbem
,
quod
radios
inter
rumpat
lumenque
profusum
?
et
tamen
ipsa
suo
si
fulget
luna
nitore
,
cur
nequeat
certa
mundi
languescere
parte
,
dum
loca
luminibus
propriis
inimica
per
exit
?
.

As due to several causes. For, indeed,
Why should the moon be able to shut out
Earth from the light of sun, and on the side
To earthward thrust her high head under sun,
Opposing dark orb to his glowing beams-
And yet, at same time, one suppose the effect
Could not result from some one other body
Which glides devoid of light forevermore?
Again, why could not sun, in weakened state,
At fixed time for-lose his fires, and then,
When he has passed on along the air
Beyond the regions, hostile to his flames,
That quench and kill his fires, why could not he
Renew his light? And why should earth in turn
Have power to rob the moon of light, and there,
Herself on high, keep the sun hid beneath,
Whilst the moon glideth in her monthly course
Athrough the rigid shadows of the cone?-
And yet, at same time, some one other body
Not have the power to under-pass the moon,
Or glide along above the orb of sun,
Breaking his rays and outspread light asunder?
And still, if moon herself refulgent be
With her own sheen, why could she not at times
In some one quarter of the mighty world
Grow weak and weary, whilst she passeth through
Regions unfriendly to the beams her own?
157
Quod
superest
,
quoniam
magni
per
caerula
mundi

qua
fieri
quicquid
posset
ratione
resolvi
,
solis
uti
varios
cursus
lunaeque
meatus

noscere
possemus
quae
vis
et
causa
cieret
,
quove
modo
offecto
lumine
obire

et
neque
opinantis
tenebris
obducere
terras
,
cum
quasi
conivent
et
aperto
lumine
rursum

omnia
convisunt
clara
loca
candida
luce
,
nunc
redeo
ad
mundi
novitatem
et
mollia
terrae

arva
,
novo
fetu
quid
primum
in
luminis
oras

tollere
et
incertis
crerint
committere
ventis
.
Principio
genus
herbarum
viridemque
nitorem

terra
dedit
circum
collis
camposque
per
omnis
,
florida
fulserunt
viridanti
prata
colore
,
arboribusque
datumst
variis
exinde
per
auras

crescendi
magnum
inmissis
certamen
habenis
.
ut
pluma
atque
pili
primum
saetaeque
creantur

quadripedum
membris
et
corpore
pennipotentum
,
sic
nova
tum
tellus
herbas
virgultaque
primum

sustulit
,
inde
loci
mortalia
saecla
creavit

multa
modis
multis
varia
ratione
coorta
.
nam
neque
de
caelo
cecidisse
animalia
possunt
,
nec
terrestria
de
salsis
exisse
lacunis
.
linquitur
ut
merito
maternum
nomen
adepta

terra
sit
,
e
terra
quoniam
sunt
cuncta
creata
.
multaque
nunc
etiam
existunt
animalia
terris

imbribus
et
calido
solis
concreta
vapore
;
quo
minus
est
mirum
,
si
tum
sunt
plura
coorta

et
maiora
,
nova
tellure
atque
aethere
adulta
.
principio
genus
alituum
variaeque
volucres

ova
relinquebant
exclusae
tempore
verno
,
folliculos
ut
nunc
teretis
aestate
cicadae

lincunt
sponte
sua
victum
vitamque
petentes
.
tum
tibi
terra
dedit
primum
mortalia
saecla
.
multus
enim
calor
atque
umor
superabat
in
arvis
.
hoc
ubi
quaeque
loci
regio
opportuna
dabatur
,
crescebant
uteri
terram
radicibus
apti
;
quos
ubi
tempore
maturo
pate
fecerat
aetas

infantum
,
fugiens
umorem
aurasque
petessens
,
convertebat
ibi
natura
foramina
terrae

et
sucum
venis
cogebat
fundere
apertis

consimilem
lactis
,
sicut
nunc
femina
quaeque

cum
peperit
,
dulci
repletur
lacte
,
quod
omnis

impetus
in
mammas
convertitur
ille
alimenti
.
terra
cibum
pueris
,
vestem
vapor
,
herba
cubile

praebebat
multa
et
molli
lanugine
abundans
.
at
novitas
mundi
nec
frigora
dura
ciebat

nec
nimios
aestus
nec
magnis
viribus
auras
.
omnia
enim
pariter
crescunt
et
robora
sumunt
.
ORIGINS OF VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE
And now to what remains!- Since I've resolved
By what arrangements all things come to pass
Through the blue regions of the mighty world,-
How we can know what energy and cause
Started the various courses of the sun
And the moon's goings, and by what far means
They can succumb, the while with thwarted light,
And veil with shade the unsuspecting lands,
When, as it were, they blink, and then again
With open eye survey all regions wide,
Resplendent with white radiance- I do now
Return unto the world's primeval age
And tell what first the soft young fields of earth
With earliest parturition had decreed
To raise in air unto the shores of light
And to entrust unto the wayward winds.
In the beginning, earth gave forth, around
The hills and over all the length of plains,
The race of grasses and the shining green;
The flowery meadows sparkled all aglow
With greening colour, and thereafter, lo,
Unto the divers kinds of trees was given
An emulous impulse mightily to shoot,
With a free rein, aloft into the air.
As feathers and hairs and bristles are begot
The first on members of the four-foot breeds
And on the bodies of the strong-y-winged,
Thus then the new Earth first of all put forth
Grasses and shrubs, and afterward begat
The mortal generations, there upsprung-
Innumerable in modes innumerable-
After diverging fashions. For from sky
These breathing-creatures never can have dropped,
Nor the land-dwellers ever have come up
Out of sea-pools of salt. How true remains,
How merited is that adopted name
Of earth- "The Mother!"- since from out the earth
Are all begotten. And even now arise
From out the loams how many living things-
Concreted by the rains and heat of the sun.
Wherefore 'tis less a marvel, if they sprang
In Long Ago more many, and more big,
Matured of those days in the fresh young years
Of earth and ether. First of all, the race
Of the winged ones and parti-coloured birds,
Hatched out in spring-time, left their eggs behind;
As now-a-days in summer tree-crickets
Do leave their shiny husks of own accord,
Seeking their food and living. Then it was
This earth of thine first gave unto the day
The mortal generations; for prevailed
Among the fields abounding hot and wet.
And hence, where any fitting spot was given,
There 'gan to grow womb-cavities, by roots
Affixed to earth. And when in ripened time
The age of the young within (that sought the air
And fled earth's damps) had burst these wombs, O then
Would Nature thither turn the pores of earth
And make her spurt from open veins a juice
Like unto milk; even as a woman now
Is filled, at child-bearing, with the sweet milk,
Because all that swift stream of aliment
Is thither turned unto the mother-breasts.
There earth would furnish to the children food;
Warmth was their swaddling cloth, the grass their bed
Abounding in soft down. Earth's newness then
Would rouse no dour spells of the bitter cold,
Nor extreme heats nor winds of mighty powers-
For all things grow and gather strength through time
In like proportions; and then earth was young.
158
Quare
etiam
atque
etiam
maternum
nomen
adepta

terra
tenet
merito
,
quoniam
genus
ipsa
creavit

humanum
atque
animal
prope
certo
tempore
fudit

omne
quod
in
magnis
bacchatur
montibus
passim
,
aëriasque

simul
volucres
variantibus
formis
.
sed
quia
finem
aliquam
pariendi
debet
habere
,
destitit
,
ut
mulier
spatio
defessa
vetusto
.
mutat
enim
mundi
naturam
totius
aetas

ex
alioque
alius
status
excipere
omnia
debet

nec
manet
ulla
sui
similis
res
:
omnia
migrant
,
omnia
commutat
natura
et
vertere
cogit
.
namque
aliud
putrescit
et
aevo
debile
languet
,
porro
aliud
crescit
et
contemptibus
exit
.
sic
igitur
mundi
naturam
totius
aetas

mutat
,
et
ex
alio
terram
status
excipit
alter
,
quod
potuit
nequeat
,
possit
quod
non
tulit
ante
.
Multaque
tum
tellus
etiam
portenta
creare

conatast
mira
facie
membrisque
coorta
,
androgynem
,
interutras
necutrumque
utrimque
remotum
,
orba
pedum
partim
,
manuum
viduata
vicissim
,
muta
sine
ore
etiam
,
sine
voltu
caeca
reperta
,
vinctaque
membrorum
per
totum
corpus
adhaesu
,
nec
facere
ut
possent
quicquam
nec
cedere
quoquam

nec
vitare
malum
nec
sumere
quod
volet
usus
.
cetera
de
genere
hoc
monstra
ac
portenta
creabat
,
ne
quiquam
,
quoniam
natura
absterruit
auctum

nec
potuere
cupitum
aetatis
tangere
florem

nec
reperire
cibum
nec
iungi
per
Veneris
res
.
multa
videmus
enim
rebus
concurrere
debere
,
ut
propagando
possint
procudere
saecla
;
pabula
primum
ut
sint
,
genitalia
deinde
per
artus

semina
qua
possint
membris
manare
remissis
,
feminaque
ut
maribus
coniungi
possit
,
habere
,
mutua
qui
mutent
inter
se
gaudia
uterque
.

Wherefore, again, again, how merited
Is that adopted name of Earth- The Mother!-
Since she herself begat the human race,
And at one well-nigh fixed time brought forth
Each breast that ranges raving round about
Upon the mighty mountains and all birds
Aerial with many a varied shape.
But, lo, because her bearing years must end,
She ceased, like to a woman worn by eld.
For lapsing aeons change the nature of
The whole wide world, and all things needs must take
One status after other, nor aught persists
Forever like itself. All things depart;
Nature she changeth all, compelleth all
To transformation. Lo, this moulders down,
A-slack with weary eld, and that, again,
Prospers in glory, issuing from contempt.
In suchwise, then, the lapsing aeons change
The nature of the whole wide world, and earth
Taketh one status after other. And what
She bore of old, she now can bear no longer,
And what she never bore, she can to-day.
In those days also the telluric world
Strove to beget the monsters that upsprung
With their astounding visages and limbs-
The Man-woman- a thing betwixt the twain,
Yet neither, and from either sex remote-
Some gruesome Boggles orphaned of the feet,
Some widowed of the hands, dumb Horrors too
Without a mouth, or blind Ones of no eye,
Or Bulks all shackled by their legs and arms
Cleaving unto the body fore and aft,
Thuswise, that never could they do or go,
Nor shun disaster, nor take the good they would.
And other prodigies and monsters earth
Was then begetting of this sort- in vain,
Since Nature banned with horror their increase,
And powerless were they to reach unto
The coveted flower of fair maturity,
Or to find aliment, or to intertwine
In works of Venus. For we see there must
Concur in life conditions manifold,
If life is ever by begetting life
To forge the generations one by one:
First, foods must be; and, next, a path whereby
The seeds of impregnation in the frame
May ooze, released from the members all;
Last, the possession of those instruments
Whereby the male with female can unite,
The one with other in mutual ravishments.
159
Multaque
tum
interiisse
animantum
saecla
necessest

nec
potuisse
propagando
procudere
prolem
.
nam
quae
cumque
vides
vesci
vitalibus
auris
,
aut
dolus
aut
virtus
aut
denique
mobilitas
est

ex
ineunte
aevo
genus
id
tuta
TA
reservans
.
multaque
sunt
,
nobis
ex
utilitate
sua
quae

commendata
manent
,
tutelae
tradita
nostrae
.
principio
genus
acre
leonum
saevaque
saecla

tutatast
virtus
,
volpes
dolus
et
fuga
cervos
.
at
levisomna
canum
fido
cum
pectore
corda
,
et
genus
omne
quod
est
veterino
semine
partum

lanigeraeque
simul
pecudes
et
bucera
saecla

omnia
sunt
hominum
tutelae
tradita
,
Memmi
;
nam
cupide
fugere
feras
pacemque
secuta

sunt
et
larga
suo
sine
pabula
parta
labore
,
quae
damus
utilitatis
eorum
praemia
causa
.
at
quis
nil
horum
tribuit
natura
,
nec
ipsa

sponte
sua
possent
ut
vivere
nec
dare
nobis

utilitatem
aliquam
,
quare
pateremur
eorum

praesidio
nostro
pasci
genus
esseque
tutum
,
scilicet
haec
aliis
praedae
lucroque
iacebant

indupedita
suis
fatalibus
omnia
vinclis
,
donec
ad
interitum
genus
id
natura
redegit
.

And in the ages after monsters died,
Perforce there perished many a stock, unable
By propagation to forge a progeny.
For whatsoever creatures thou beholdest
Breathing the breath of life, the same have been
Even from their earliest age preserved alive
By cunning, or by valour, or at least
By speed of foot or wing. And many a stock
Remaineth yet, because of use to man,
And so committed to man's guardianship.
Valour hath saved alive fierce lion-breeds
And many another terrorizing race,
Cunning the foxes, flight the antlered stags.
Light-sleeping dogs with faithful heart in breast,
However, and every kind begot from seed
Of beasts of draft, as, too, the woolly flocks
And horned cattle, all, my Memmius,
Have been committed to guardianship of men.
For anxiously they fled the savage beasts,
And peace they sought and their abundant foods,
Obtained with never labours of their own,
Which we secure to them as fit rewards
For their good service. But those beasts to whom
Nature has granted naught of these same things-
Beasts quite unfit by own free will to thrive
And vain for any service unto us
In thanks for which we should permit their kind
To feed and be in our protection safe-
Those, of a truth, were wont to be exposed,
Enshackled in the gruesome bonds of doom,
As prey and booty for the rest, until
Nature reduced that stock to utter death.
160
Sed
neque
Centauri
fuerunt
nec
tempore
in
ullo

esse
queunt
duplici
natura
et
corpore
bino

ex
alienigenis
membris
compacta
,
potestas

hinc
illinc
partis
ut
sat
par
esse
potissit
.
id
licet
hinc
quamvis
hebeti
cognoscere
corde
.
principio
circum
tribus
actis
impiger
annis

floret
equus
,
puer
haut
quaquam
;
nam
saepe
etiam
nunc

ubera
mammarum
in
somnis
lactantia
quaeret
.
post
ubi
equum
validae
vires
aetate
senecta

membraque
deficiunt
fugienti
languida
vita
,
tum
demum
puerili
aevo
florenta
iuventas

officit
et
molli
vestit
lanugine
malas
;
ne
forte
ex
homine
et
veterino
semine
equorum

confieri
credas
Centauros
posse
neque
esse
,
aut
rapidis
canibus
succinctas
semimarinis

corporibus
Scyllas
et
cetera
de
genere
horum
,
inter
se
quorum
discordia
membra
videmus
;
quae
neque
florescunt
pariter
nec
robora
sumunt

corporibus
neque
proiciunt
aetate
senecta

nec
simili
Venere
ardescunt
nec
moribus
unis

conveniunt
neque
sunt
eadem
iucunda
per
artus
.
quippe
videre
licet
pinguescere
saepe
cicuta

barbigeras
pecudes
,
homini
quae
est
acre
venenum
.
flamma
quidem
cum
corpora
fulva
leonum

tam
soleat
torrere
atque
urere
quam
genus
omne

visceris
in
terris
quod
cumque
et
sanguinis
extet
,
qui
fieri
potuit
,
triplici
cum
corpore
ut
una
,
prima
leo
,
postrema
draco
,
media
ipsa
,
Chimaera

ore
foras
acrem
flaret
de
corpore
flammam
?
quare
etiam
tellure
nova
caeloque
recenti

talia
qui
fingit
potuisse
animalia
gigni
,
nixus
in
hoc
uno
novitatis
nomine
inani
,
multa
licet
simili
ratione
effutiat
ore
,
aurea
tum
dicat
per
terras
flumina
vulgo

fluxisse
et
gemmis
florere
arbusta
suësse

aut
hominem
tanto
membrorum
esse
impete
natum
,
trans
maria
alta
pedum
nisus
ut
ponere
posset

et
manibus
totum
circum
se
vertere
caelum
.
nam
quod
multa
fuere
in
terris
semina
rerum
,
tempore
quo
primum
tellus
animalia
fudit
,
nil
tamen
est
signi
mixtas
potuisse
creari

inter
se
pecudes
compactaque
membra
animantum
,
propterea
quia
quae
de
terris
nunc
quoque
abundant

herbarum
genera
ac
fruges
arbustaque
laeta

non
tamen
inter
se
possunt
complexa
creari
,
sed
res
quaeque
suo
ritu
procedit
et
omnes

foedere
naturae
certo
discrimina
servant
.

But Centaurs ne'er have been, nor can there be
Creatures of twofold stock and double frame,
Compact of members alien in kind,
Yet formed with equal function, equal force
In every bodily part- a fact thou mayst,
However dull thy wits, well learn from this:
The horse, when his three years have rolled away,
Flowers in his prime of vigour; but the boy
Not so, for oft even then he gropes in sleep
After the milky nipples of the breasts,
An infant still. And later, when at last
The lusty powers of horses and stout limbs,
Now weak through lapsing life, do fail with age,
Lo, only then doth youth with flowering years
Begin for boys, and clothe their ruddy cheeks
With the soft down. So never deem, percase,
That from a man and from the seed of horse,
The beast of draft, can Centaurs be composed
Or e'er exist alive, nor Scyllas be-
The half-fish bodies girdled with mad dogs-
Nor others of this sort, in whom we mark
Members discordant each with each; for ne'er
At one same time they reach their flower of age
Or gain and lose full vigour of their frame,
And never burn with one same lust of love,
And never in their habits they agree,
Nor find the same foods equally delightsome-
Sooth, as one oft may see the bearded goats
Batten upon the hemlock which to man
Is violent poison. Once again, since flame
Is wont to scorch and burn the tawny bulks
Of the great lions as much as other kinds
Of flesh and blood existing in the lands,
How could it be that she, Chimaera lone,
With triple body- fore, a lion she;
And aft, a dragon; and betwixt, a goat-
Might at the mouth from out the body belch
Infuriate flame? Wherefore, the man who feigns
Such beings could have been engendered
When earth was new and the young sky was fresh
(Basing his empty argument on new)
May babble with like reason many whims
Into our ears: he'll say, perhaps, that then
Rivers of gold through every landscape flowed,
That trees were wont with precious stones to flower,
Or that in those far aeons man was born
With such gigantic length and lift of limbs
As to be able, based upon his feet,
Deep oceans to bestride or with his hands
To whirl the firmament around his head.
For though in earth were many seeds of things
In the old time when this telluric world
First poured the breeds of animals abroad,
Still that is nothing of a sign that then
Such hybrid creatures could have been begot
And limbs of all beasts heterogeneous
Have been together knit; because, indeed,
The divers kinds of grasses and the grains
And the delightsome trees- which even now
Spring up abounding from within the earth-
Can still ne'er be begotten with their stems
Begrafted into one; but each sole thing
Proceeds according to its proper wont
And all conserve their own distinctions based
In nature's fixed decree.