De Rerum Natura |
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
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169 |
O genus infelix humanum , talia divis cum tribuit facta atque iras adiunxit acerbas ! quantos tum gemitus ipsi sibi , quantaque nobis volnera , quas lacrimas peperere minoribus nostris ! nec pietas ullast velatum saepe videri vertier ad lapidem atque omnis accedere ad aras nec procumbere humi prostratum et pandere palmas ante deum delubra nec aras sanguine multo spargere quadrupedum nec votis nectere vota , sed mage pacata posse omnia mente tueri . nam cum suspicimus magni caelestia mundi templa super stellisque micantibus aethera fixum , et venit in mentem solis lunaeque viarum , tunc aliis oppressa malis in pectora cura illa quoque expergefactum caput erigere infit , ne quae forte deum nobis inmensa potestas sit , vario motu quae candida sidera verset ; temptat enim dubiam mentem rationis egestas , ecquae nam fuerit mundi genitalis origo , et simul ecquae sit finis , quoad moenia mundi et taciti motus hunc possint ferre laborem , an divinitus aeterna donata salute perpetuo possint aevi labentia tractu inmensi validas aevi contemnere viris . praeterea cui non animus formidine divum contrahitur , cui non correpunt membra pavore , fulminis horribili cum plaga torrida tellus contremit et magnum percurrunt murmura caelum ? non populi gentesque tremunt , regesque superbi corripiunt divum percussi membra timore , ne quod ob admissum foede dictumve superbe poenarum grave sit solvendi tempus adauctum ? summa etiam cum vis violenti per mare venti induperatorem classis super aequora verrit cum validis pariter legionibus atque elephantis , non divom pacem votis adit ac prece quaesit ventorum pavidus paces animasque secundas ? ne quiquam , quoniam violento turbine saepe correptus nihilo fertur minus ad vada leti . usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam opterit et pulchros fascis saevasque secures proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur . denique sub pedibus tellus cum tota vacillat concussaeque cadunt urbes dubiaeque minantur , quid mirum si se temnunt mortalia saecla atque potestatis magnas mirasque relinquunt in rebus viris divum , quae cuncta gubernent ?
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O humankind unhappy!- when it ascribed Unto divinities such awesome deeds, And coupled thereto rigours of fierce wrath! What groans did men on that sad day beget Even for themselves, and O what wounds for us, What tears for our children's children! Nor, O man, Is thy true piety in this: with head Under the veil, still to be seen to turn Fronting a stone, and ever to approach Unto all altars; nor so prone on earth Forward to fall, to spread upturned palms Before the shrines of gods, nor yet to dew Altars with profuse blood of four-foot beasts, Nor vows with vows to link. But rather this: To look on all things with a master eye And mind at peace. For when we gaze aloft Upon the skiey vaults of yon great world And ether, fixed high o'er twinkling stars, And into our thought there come the journeyings Of sun and moon, O then into our breasts, O'erburdened already with their other ills, Begins forthwith to rear its sudden head One more misgiving: lest o'er us, percase, It be the gods' immeasurable power That rolls, with varied motion, round and round The far white constellations. For the lack Of aught of reasons tries the puzzled mind: Whether was ever a birth-time of the world, And whether, likewise, any end shall be How far the ramparts of the world can still Outstand this strain of ever-roused motion, Or whether, divinely with eternal weal Endowed, they can through endless tracts of age Glide on, defying the o'er-mighty powers Of the immeasurable ages. Lo, What man is there whose mind with dread of gods Cringes not close, whose limbs with terror-spell Crouch not together, when the parched earth Quakes with the horrible thunderbolt amain, And across the mighty sky the rumblings run? Do not the peoples and the nations shake, And haughty kings do they not hug their limbs, Strook through with fear of the divinities, Lest for aught foully done or madly said The heavy time be now at hand to pay? When, too, fierce force of fury-winds at sea Sweepeth a navy's admiral down the main With his stout legions and his elephants, Doth he not seek the peace of gods with vows, And beg in prayer, a-tremble, lulled winds And friendly gales?- in vain, since, often up-caught In fury-cyclones, is he borne along, For all his mouthings, to the shoals of doom. Ah, so irrevocably some hidden power Betramples forevermore affairs of men, And visibly grindeth with its heel in mire The lictors' glorious rods and axes dire, Having them in derision! Again, when earth From end to end is rocking under foot, And shaken cities ruin down, or threaten Upon the verge, what wonder is it then That mortal generations abase themselves, And unto gods in all affairs of earth Assign as last resort almighty powers And wondrous energies to govern all? |
170 |
Quod super est , aeque aurum ferrumque repertumst et simul argenti pondus plumbique potestas , ignis ubi ingentis silvas ardore cremarat montibus in magnis , seu caelo fulmine misso , sive quod inter se bellum silvestre gerentes hostibus intulerant ignem formidinis ergo , sive quod inducti terrae bonitate volebant pandere agros pinguis et pascua reddere rura , sive feras interficere et ditescere praeda ; nam fovea atque igni prius est venarier ortum quam saepire plagis saltum canibusque ciere . quicquid id est , qua cumque e causa flammeus ardor horribili sonitu silvas exederat altis a radicibus et terram percoxerat igni , manabat venis ferventibus in loca terrae concava conveniens argenti rivus et auri , aeris item et plumbi . quae cum concreta videbant posterius claro in terra splendere colore , tollebant nitido capti levique lepore , et simili formata videbant esse figura atque lacunarum fuerant vestigia cuique . tum penetrabat eos posse haec liquefacta calore quamlibet in formam et faciem decurrere rerum , et prorsum quamvis in acuta ac tenvia posse mucronum duci fastigia procudendo , ut sibi tela parent silvasque ut caedere possint materiemque dolare et levia radere tigna et terebrare etiam ac pertundere perque forare . nec minus argento facere haec auroque parabant quam validi primum violentis viribus aeris , ne quiquam , quoniam cedebat victa potestas nec poterant pariter durum sufferre laborem . nam fuit in pretio magis aes aurumque iacebat propter inutilitatem hebeti mucrone retusum ; nunc iacet aes , aurum in summum successit honorem . sic volvenda aetas commutat tempora rerum . quod fuit in pretio , fit nullo denique honore ; porro aliud succedit et contemptibus exit inque dies magis adpetitur floretque repertum laudibus et miro est mortalis inter honore .
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Now for the rest: copper and gold and iron Discovered were, and with them silver's weight And power of lead, when with prodigious heat The conflagrations burned the forest trees Among the mighty mountains, by a bolt Of lightning from the sky, or else because Men, warring in the woodlands, on their foes Had hurled fire to frighten and dismay, Or yet because, by goodness of the soil Invited, men desired to clear rich fields And turn the countryside to pasture-lands, Or slay the wild and thrive upon the spoils. (For hunting by pit-fall and by fire arose Before the art of hedging the covert round With net or stirring it with dogs of chase.) Howso the fact, and from what cause soever The flamy heat with awful crack and roar Had there devoured to their deepest roots The forest trees and baked the earth with fire, Then from the boiling veins began to ooze O rivulets of silver and of gold, Of lead and copper too, collecting soon Into the hollow places of the ground. And when men saw the cooled lumps anon To shine with splendour-sheen upon the ground, Much taken with that lustrous smooth delight, They 'gan to pry them out, and saw how each Had got a shape like to its earthy mould. Then would it enter their heads how these same lumps, If melted by heat, could into any form Or figure of things be run, and how, again, If hammered out, they could be nicely drawn To sharpest points or finest edge, and thus Yield to the forgers tools and give them power To chop the forest down, to hew the logs, To shave the beams and planks, besides to bore And punch and drill. And men began such work At first as much with tools of silver and gold As with the impetuous strength of the stout copper; But vainly- since their over-mastered power Would soon give way, unable to endure, Like copper, such hard labour. In those days Copper it was that was the thing of price; And gold lay useless, blunted with dull edge. Now lies the copper low, and gold hath come Unto the loftiest honours. Thus it is That rolling ages change the times of things: What erst was of a price, becomes at last A discard of no honour; whilst another Succeeds to glory, issuing from contempt, And day by day is sought for more and more, And, when 'tis found, doth flower in men's praise, Objects of wondrous honour. |
171 |
Nunc tibi quo pacto ferri natura reperta sit facilest ipsi per te cognoscere , Memmi . arma antiqua manus ungues dentesque fuerunt et lapides et item silvarum fragmina rami et flamma atque ignes , post quam sunt cognita primum . posterius ferri vis est aerisque reperta . et prior aeris erat quam ferri cognitus usus , quo facilis magis est natura et copia maior . aere solum terrae tractabant , aereque belli miscebant fluctus et vulnera vasta serebant et pecus atque agros adimebant ; nam facile ollis omnia cedebant armatis nuda et inerma . inde minutatim processit ferreus ensis versaque in obprobrium species est falcis ahenae , et ferro coepere solum proscindere terrae exaequataque sunt creperi certamina belli . et prius est armatum in equi conscendere costas et moderarier hunc frenis dextraque vigere quam biiugo curru belli temptare pericla . et biiugo prius est quam bis coniungere binos et quam falciferos armatum escendere currus . inde boves Lucas turrito corpore , tetras , anguimanus , belli docuerunt volnera Poeni sufferre et magnas Martis turbare catervas . sic alid ex alio peperit discordia tristis , horribile humanis quod gentibus esset in armis , inque dies belli terroribus addidit augmen .
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Now, Memmius, How nature of iron discovered was, thou mayst Of thine own self divine. Man's ancient arms Were hands, and nails and teeth, stones too and boughs- Breakage of forest trees- and flame and fire, As soon as known. Thereafter force of iron And copper discovered was; and copper's use Was known ere iron's, since more tractable Its nature is and its abundance more. With copper men to work the soil began, With copper to rouse the hurly waves of war, To straw the monstrous wounds, and seize away Another's flocks and fields. For unto them, Thus armed, all things naked of defence Readily yielded. Then by slow degrees The sword of iron succeeded, and the shape Of brazen sickle into scorn was turned: With iron to cleave the soil of earth they 'gan, And the contentions of uncertain war Were rendered equal. And, lo, man was wont Armed to mount upon the ribs of horse And guide him with the rein, and play about With right hand free, oft times before he tried Perils of war in yoked chariot; And yoked pairs abreast came earlier Than yokes of four, or scythed chariots Whereinto clomb the men-at-arms. And next The Punic folk did train the elephants- Those curst Lucanian oxen, hideous, The serpent-handed, with turrets on their bulks- To dure the wounds of war and panic-strike The mighty troops of Mars. Thus Discord sad Begat the one Thing after other, to be The terror of the nations under arms, And day by day to horrors of old war She added an increase. |
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Temptarunt etiam tauros in moenere belli expertique sues saevos sunt mittere in hostis . et validos partim prae se misere leones cum doctoribus armatis saevisque magistris , qui moderarier his possent vinclisque tenere , ne quiquam , quoniam permixta caede calentes turbabant saevi nullo discrimine turmas , terrificas capitum quatientis undique cristas , nec poterant equites fremitu perterrita equorum pectora mulcere et frenis convertere in hostis . inritata leae iaciebant corpora saltu undique et adversum venientibus ora patebant et nec opinantis a tergo deripiebant deplexaeque dabant in terram volnere victos , morsibus adfixae validis atque unguibus uncis . iactabantque suos tauri pedibusque terebant et latera ac ventres hauribant supter equorum cornibus et terram minitanti mente ruebant . et validis socios caedebant dentibus apri tela infracta suo tinguentes sanguine saevi permixtasque dabant equitum peditumque ruinas . nam transversa feros exibant dentis adactus iumenta aut pedibus ventos erecta petebant , ne quiquam , quoniam ab nervis succisa videres concidere atque gravi terram consternere casu . si quos ante domi domitos satis esse putabant , effervescere cernebant in rebus agundis volneribus clamore fuga terrore tumultu , nec poterant ullam partem redducere eorum ; diffugiebat enim varium genus omne ferarum , ut nunc saepe boves Lucae ferro male mactae diffugiunt , fera facta suis cum multa dedere . Sed facere id non tam vincendi spe voluerunt ; quam dare quod gemerent hostes , ipsique perire , qui numero diffidebant armisque vacabant , si fuit ut facerent . sed vix adducor ut ante non quierint animo praesentire atque videre , quam commune malum fieret foedumque , futurum . et magis id possis factum contendere in omni in variis mundis varia ratione creatis , quam certo atque uno terrarum quolibet orbi .
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Bulls, too, they tried In war's grim business; and essayed to send Outrageous boars against the foes. And some Sent on before their ranks puissant lions With armed trainers and with masters fierce To guide and hold in chains- and yet in vain, Since fleshed with pell-mell slaughter, fierce they flew, And blindly through the squadrons havoc wrought, Shaking the frightful crests upon their heads, Now here, now there. Nor could the horsemen calm Their horses, panic-breasted at the roar, And rein them round to front the foe. With spring The infuriate she-lions would up-leap Now here, now there; and whoso came apace Against them, these they'd rend across the face; And others unwitting from behind they'd tear Down from their mounts, and twining round them, bring Tumbling to earth, o'ermastered by the wound, And with those powerful fangs and hooked claws Fasten upon them. Bulls would toss their friends, And trample under foot, and from beneath Rip flanks and bellies of horses with their horns, And with a threat'ning forehead jam the sod; And boars would gore with stout tusks their allies, Splashing in fury their own blood on spears Splintered in their own bodies, and would fell In rout and ruin infantry and horse. For there the beasts-of-saddle tried to scape The savage thrusts of tusk by shying off, Or rearing up with hoofs a-paw in air. In vain- since there thou mightest see them sink, Their sinews severed, and with heavy fall Bestrew the ground. And such of these as men Supposed well-trained long ago at home, Were in the thick of action seen to foam In fury, from the wounds, the shrieks, the flight, The panic, and the tumult; nor could men Aught of their numbers rally. For each breed And various of the wild beasts fled apart Hither or thither, as often in wars to-day Flee those Lucanian oxen, by the steel Grievously mangled, after they have wrought Upon their friends so many a dreadful doom. (If 'twas, indeed, that thus they did at all: But scarcely I'll believe that men could not With mind foreknow and see, as sure to come, Such foul and general disaster.- This We, then, may hold as true in the great All, In divers worlds on divers plan create,- Somewhere afar more likely than upon One certain earth.) But men chose this to do Less in the hope of conquering than to give Their enemies a goodly cause of woe, Even though thereby they perished themselves, Since weak in numbers and since wanting arms. |
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Nexilis ante fuit vestis quam textile tegmen . textile post ferrumst , quia ferro tela paratur , nec ratione alia possunt tam levia gigni insilia ac fusi , radii , scapique sonantes . et facere ante viros lanam natura coëgit quam muliebre genus ; nam longe praestat in arte et sollertius est multo genus omne virile ; agricolae donec vitio vertere severi , ut muliebribus id manibus concedere vellent atque ipsi pariter durum sufferre laborem atque opere in duro durarent membra manusque .
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Now, clothes of roughly inter-plaited strands Were earlier than loom-wove coverings; The loom-wove later than man's iron is, Since iron is needful in the weaving art, Nor by no other means can there be wrought Such polished tools- the treadles, spindles, shuttles, And sounding yarn-beams. And nature forced the men, Before the woman kind, to work the wool: For all the male kind far excels in skill, And cleverer is by much- until at last The rugged farmer folk jeered at such tasks, And so were eager soon to give them o'er To women's hands, and in more hardy toil To harden arms and hands. |
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At specimen sationis et insitionis origo ipsa fuit rerum primum natura creatrix , arboribus quoniam bacae glandesque caducae tempestiva dabant pullorum examina supter ; unde etiam libitumst stirpis committere ramis et nova defodere in terram virgulta per agros . inde aliam atque aliam culturam dulcis agelli temptabant fructusque feros mansuescere terra cernebant indulgendo blandeque colendo . inque dies magis in montem succedere silvas cogebant infraque locum concedere cultis , prata lacus rivos segetes vinetaque laeta collibus et campis ut haberent , atque olearum caerula distinguens inter plaga currere posset per tumulos et convallis camposque profusa ; ut nunc esse vides vario distincta lepore omnia , quae pomis intersita dulcibus ornant arbustisque tenent felicibus opsita circum .
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But nature herself, Mother of things, was the first seed-sower And primal grafter; since the berries and acorns, Dropping from off the trees, would there beneath Put forth in season swarms of little shoots; Hence too men's fondness for ingrafting slips Upon the boughs and setting out in holes The young shrubs o'er the fields. Then would they try Ever new modes of tilling their loved crofts, And mark they would how earth improved the taste Of the wild fruits by fond and fostering care. And day by day they'd force the woods to move Still higher up the mountain, and to yield The place below for tilth, that there they might, On plains and uplands, have their meadow-plats, Cisterns and runnels, crops of standing grain, And happy vineyards, and that all along O'er hillocks, intervales, and plains might run The silvery-green belt of olive-trees, Marking the plotted landscape; even as now Thou seest so marked with varied loveliness All the terrain which men adorn and plant With rows of goodly fruit-trees and hedge round With thriving shrubberies sown. |
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At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore ante fuit multo quam levia carmina cantu concelebrare homines possent aurisque iuvare . et zephyri cava per calamorum sibila primum agrestis docuere cavas inflare cicutas . inde minutatim dulcis didicere querellas , tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum , avia per nemora ac silvas saltusque reperta , per loca pastorum deserta atque otia dia . haec animos ollis mulcebant atque iuvabant cum satiate cibi ; nam tum sunt omnia cordi . saepe itaque inter se prostrati in gramine molli propter aquae rivom sub ramis arboris altae . non magnis opibus iucunde corpora habebant , praesertim cum tempestas ridebat et anni tempora pingebant viridantis floribus herbas . tum ioca , tum sermo , tum dulces esse cachinni consuerant ; agrestis enim tum musa vigebat . tum caput atque umeros plexis redimire coronis floribus et foliis lascivia laeta movebat , atque extra numerum procedere membra moventes duriter et duro terram pede pellere matrem ; unde oriebantur risus dulcesque cachinni , omnia quod nova tum magis haec et mira vigebant . et vigilantibus hinc aderant solacia somno ducere multimodis voces et flectere cantus et supera calamos unco percurrere labro ; unde etiam vigiles nunc haec accepta tuentur . et numerum servare genus didicere , neque hilo maiore interea capiunt dulcedine fructum quam silvestre genus capiebat terrigenarum . nam quod adest praesto , nisi quid cognovimus ante suavius , in primis placet et pollere videtur , posteriorque fere melior res illa reperta perdit et immutat sensus ad pristina quaeque .
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But by the mouth To imitate the liquid notes of birds Was earlier far 'mongst men than power to make, By measured song, melodious verse and give Delight to ears. And whistlings of the wind Athrough the hollows of the reeds first taught The peasantry to blow into the stalks Of hollow hemlock-herb. Then bit by bit They learned sweet plainings, such as pipe out-pours, Beaten by finger-tips of singing men, When heard through unpathed groves and forest deeps And woodsy meadows, through the untrod haunts Of shepherd folk and spots divinely still. Thus time draws forward each and everything Little by little unto the midst of men, And reason uplifts it to the shores of light. These tunes would soothe and glad the minds of mortals When sated with food,- for songs are welcome then. And often, lounging with friends in the soft grass Beside a river of water, underneath A big tree's branches, merrily they'd refresh Their frames, with no vast outlay- most of all If the weather were smiling and the times of the year Were painting the green of the grass around with flowers. Then jokes, then talk, then peals of jollity Would circle round; for then the rustic muse Was in her glory; then would antic Mirth Prompt them to garland head and shoulders about With chaplets of intertwined flowers and leaves, And to dance onward, out of tune, with limbs Clownishly swaying, and with clownish foot To beat our mother earth- from whence arose Laughter and peals of jollity, for, lo, Such frolic acts were in their glory then, Being more new and strange. And wakeful men Found solaces for their unsleeping hours In drawing forth variety of notes, In modulating melodies, in running With puckered lips along the tuned reeds, Whence, even in our day do the watchmen guard These old traditions, and have learned well To keep true measure. And yet they no whit Do get a larger fruit of gladsomeness Than got the woodland aborigines In olden times. For what we have at hand- If theretofore naught sweeter we have known- That chiefly pleases and seems best of all; But then some later, likely better, find Destroys its worth and changes our desires Regarding good of yesterday. |
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sic odium coepit glandis , sic illa relicta strata cubilia sunt herbis et frondibus aucta . pellis item cecidit vestis contempta ferina ; quam reor invidia tali tunc esse repertam , ut letum insidiis qui gessit primus obiret , et tamen inter eos distractam sanguine multo disperiise neque in fructum convertere quisse . tunc igitur pelles , nunc aurum et purpura curis exercent hominum vitam belloque fatigant ; quo magis in nobis , ut opinor , culpa resedit . frigus enim nudos sine pellibus excruciabat terrigenas ; at nos nil laedit veste carere purpurea atque auro signisque ingentibus apta , dum plebeia tamen sit , quae defendere possit . Ergo hominum genus in cassum frustraque laborat semper et curis consumit inanibus aevom , ni mirum quia non cognovit quae sit habendi finis et omnino quoad crescat vera voluptas ; idque minutatim vitam provexit in altum et belli magnos commovit funditus aestus .
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And thus Began the loathing of the acorn; thus Abandoned were those beds with grasses strewn And with the leaves beladen. Thus, again, Fell into new contempt the pelts of beasts- Erstwhile a robe of honour, which, I guess, Aroused in those days envy so malign That the first wearer went to woeful death By ambuscades,- and yet that hairy prize, Rent into rags by greedy foemen there And splashed by blood, was ruined utterly Beyond all use or vantage. Thus of old 'Twas pelts, and of to-day 'tis purple and gold That cark men's lives with cares and weary with war. Wherefore, methinks, resides the greater blame With us vain men to-day: for cold would rack, Without their pelts, the naked sons of earth; But us it nothing hurts to do without The purple vestment, broidered with gold And with imposing figures, if we still Make shift with some mean garment of the Plebs. So man in vain futilities toils on Forever and wastes in idle cares his years- Because, of very truth, he hath not learnt What the true end of getting is, nor yet At all how far true pleasure may increase. And 'tis desire for better and for more Hath carried by degrees mortality Out onward to the deep, and roused up From the far bottom mighty waves of war. |