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De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)
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De Rerum Natura

Author: Lucretius
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
217
profluvium
porro
qui
taetri
sanguinis
acre

exierat
,
tamen
in
nervos
huic
morbus
et
artus

ibat
et
in
partis
genitalis
corporis
ipsas
.
et
graviter
partim
metuentes
limina
leti

vivebant
ferro
privati
parte
virili
,
et
manibus
sine
non
nulli
pedibusque
manebant

in
vita
tamen
et
perdebant
lumina
partim
.
usque
adeo
mortis
metus
iis
incesserat
acer
.
atque
etiam
quosdam
cepere
oblivia
rerum

cunctarum
,
neque
se
possent
cognoscere
ut
ipsi
.
multaque
humi
cum
inhumata
iacerent
corpora
supra

corporibus
,
tamen
alituum
genus
atque
ferarum

aut
procul
absiliebat
,
ut
acrem
exiret
odorem
,
aut
,
ubi
gustarat
,
languebat
morte
propinqua
.
nec
tamen
omnino
temere
illis
solibus
ulla

comparebat
avis
,
nec
tristia
saecla
ferarum

exibant
silvis
.
languebant
pleraque
morbo

et
moriebantur
.
cum
primis
fida
canum
vis

strata
viis
animam
ponebat
in
omnibus
aegre
;
extorquebat
enim
vitam
vis
morbida
membris
.
incomitata
rapi
certabant
funera
vasta

nec
ratio
remedii
communis
certa
dabatur
;
nam
quod
ali
dederat
vitalis
aeëris
auras

volvere
in
ore
licere
et
caeli
templa
tueri
,
hoc
aliis
erat
exitio
letumque
parabat
.

And whoso had survived that virulent flow
Of the vile blood, yet into thews of him
And into his joints and very genitals
Would pass the old disease. And some there were,
Dreading the doorways of destruction
So much, lived on, deprived by the knife
Of the male member; not a few, though lopped
Of hands and feet, would yet persist in life,
And some there were who lost their eyeballs: O
So fierce a fear of death had fallen on them!
And some, besides, were by oblivion
Of all things seized, that even themselves they knew
No longer. And though corpse on corpse lay piled
Unburied on ground, the race of birds and beasts
Would or spring back, scurrying to escape
The virulent stench, or, if they'd tasted there,
Would languish in approaching death. But yet
Hardly at all during those many suns
Appeared a fowl, nor from the woods went forth
The sullen generations of wild beasts-
They languished with disease and died and died.
In chief, the faithful dogs, in all the streets
Outstretched, would yield their breath distressfully
For so that Influence of bane would twist
Life from their members. Nor was found one sure
And universal principle of cure:
For what to one had given the power to take
The vital winds of air into his mouth,
And to gaze upward at the vaults of sky,
The same to others was their death and doom.
218
Illud
in
his
rebus
miserandum
magnopere
unum

aerumnabile
erat
,
quod
ubi
se
quisque
videbat

implicitum
morbo
,
morti
damnatus
ut
esset
,
deficiens
animo
maesto
cum
corde
iacebat
,
funera
respectans
animam
amittebat
ibidem
.
quippe
etenim
nullo
cessabant
tempore
apisci

ex
aliis
alios
avidi
contagia
morbi
,
lanigeras
tam
quam
pecudes
et
bucera
saecla
,
idque
vel
in
primis
cumulabat
funere
funus

nam
qui
cumque
suos
fugitabant
visere
ad
aegros
,
vitai
nimium
cupidos
mortisque
timentis

poenibat
paulo
post
turpi
morte
malaque
,
desertos
,
opis
expertis
,
incuria
mactans
.
qui
fuerant
autem
praesto
,
contagibus
ibant

atque
labore
,
pudor
quem
tum
cogebat
obire

blandaque
lassorum
vox
mixta
voce
querellae
.
optimus
hoc
leti
genus
ergo
quisque
subibat
.

In those affairs, O awfullest of all,
O pitiable most was this, was this:
Whoso once saw himself in that disease
Entangled, ay, as damned unto death,
Would lie in wanhope, with a sullen heart,
Would, in fore-vision of his funeral,
Give up the ghost, O then and there. For, lo,
At no time did they cease one from another
To catch contagion of the greedy plague,-
As though but woolly flocks and horned herds;
And this in chief would heap the dead on dead:
For who forbore to look to their own sick,
O these (too eager of life, of death afeard)
Would then, soon after, slaughtering Neglect
Visit with vengeance of evil death and base-
Themselves deserted and forlorn of help.
But who had stayed at hand would perish there
By that contagion and the toil which then
A sense of honour and the pleading voice
Of weary watchers, mixed with voice of wail
Of dying folk, forced them to undergo.
This kind of death each nobler soul would meet.
The funerals, uncompanioned, forsaken,
Like rivals contended to be hurried through.
. . . . . .
And men contending to ensepulchre
Pile upon pile the throng of their own dead:
And weary with woe and weeping wandered home;
And then the most would take to bed from grief.
Nor could be found not one, whom nor disease
Nor death, nor woe had not in those dread times
Attacked.
219
Praeterea
iam
pastor
et
armentarius
omnis

et
robustus
item
curvi
moderator
aratri

languebat
,
penitusque
casa
contrusa
iacebant

corpora
paupertate
et
morbo
dedita
morti
.
exanimis
pueris
super
exanimata
parentum

corpora
non
numquam
posses
retroque
videre

matribus
et
patribus
natos
super
edere
vitam
.
nec
minimam
partem
ex
agris
maeror
is
in
urbem

confluxit
,
languens
quem
contulit
agricolarum

copia
conveniens
ex
omni
morbida
parte
.
omnia
conplebant
loca
tectaque
quo
magis
aestu
,
confertos
ita
acervatim
mors
accumulabat
.
multa
siti
prostrata
viam
per
proque
voluta

corpora
silanos
ad
aquarum
strata
iacebant

interclusa
anima
nimia
ab
dulcedine
aquarum
,
multaque
per
populi
passim
loca
prompta
viasque

languida
semanimo
cum
corpore
membra
videres

horrida
paedore
et
pannis
cooperta
perire
,
corporis
inluvie
,
pelli
super
ossibus
una
,
ulceribus
taetris
prope
iam
sordeque
sepulta
.
omnia
denique
sancta
deum
delubra
replerat

corporibus
mors
exanimis
onerataque
passim

cuncta
cadaveribus
caelestum
templa
manebant
,
hospitibus
loca
quae
complerant
aedituentes
.
nec
iam
religio
divom
nec
numina
magni

pendebantur
enim
:
praesens
dolor
exsuperabat
.
nec
mos
ille
sepulturae
remanebat
in
urbe
,
quo
prius
hic
populus
semper
consuerat
humari
;
perturbatus
enim
totus
trepidabat
et
unus

quisque
suum
pro
re
maestus
humabat
.
multaque
subita
et
paupertas
horrida
suasit
;
namque
suos
consanguineos
aliena
rogorum

insuper
extructa
ingenti
clamore
locabant

subdebantque
faces
,
multo
cum
sanguine
saepe

rixantes
,
potius
quam
corpora
desererentur
,
inque
aliis
alium
populum
sepelire
suorum

certantes
;
lacrimis
lassi
luctuque
redibant
;
inde
bonam
partem
in
lectum
maerore
dabantur
;
nec
poterat
quisquam
reperiri
,
quem
neque
morbus

nec
mors
nec
luctus
temptaret
tempore
tali
.

By now the shepherds and neatherds all,
Yea, even the sturdy guiders of curved ploughs,
Began to sicken, and their bodies would lie
Huddled within back-corners of their huts,
Delivered by squalor and disease to death.
O often and often couldst thou then have seen
On lifeless children lifeless parents prone,
Or offspring on their fathers', mothers' corpse
Yielding the life. And into the city poured
O not in least part from the countryside
That tribulation, which the peasantry
Sick, sick, brought thither, thronging from every quarter,
Plague-stricken mob. All places would they crowd,
All buildings too; whereby the more would death
Up-pile a-heap the folk so crammed in town.
Ah, many a body thirst had dragged and rolled
Along the highways there was lying strewn
Besides Silenus-headed water-fountains,-
The life-breath choked from that too dear desire
Of pleasant waters. Ah, everywhere along
The open places of the populace,
And along the highways, O thou mightest see
Of many a half-dead body the sagged limbs,
Rough with squalor, wrapped around with rags,
Perish from very nastiness, with naught
But skin upon the bones, well-nigh already
Buried- in ulcers vile and obscene filth.
All holy temples, too, of deities
Had Death becrammed with the carcasses;
And stood each fane of the Celestial Ones
Laden with stark cadavers everywhere-
Places which warders of the shrines had crowded
With many a guest. For now no longer men
Did mightily esteem the old Divine,
The worship of the gods: the woe at hand
Did over-master. Nor in the city then
Remained those rites of sepulture, with which
That pious folk had evermore been wont
To buried be. For it was wildered all
In wild alarms, and each and every one
With sullen sorrow would bury his own dead,
As present shift allowed. And sudden stress
And poverty to many an awful act
Impelled; and with a monstrous screaming they
Would, on the frames of alien funeral pyres,
Place their own kin, and thrust the torch beneath
Oft brawling with much bloodshed round about
Rather than quit dead bodies loved in life.