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De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)
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De Rerum Natura

Author: Lucretius
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
137
Aëra

nunc
igitur
dicam
,
qui
corpore
toto

innumerabiliter
privas
mutatur
in
horas
.
semper
enim
,
quod
cumque
fluit
de
rebus
,
id
omne
aëris

in
magnum
fertur
mare
;
qui
nisi
contra

corpora
retribuat
rebus
recreetque
fluentis
,
omnia
iam
resoluta
forent
et
in
aëra
versa
.
haut
igitur
cessat
gigni
de
rebus
et
in
res

reccidere
,
adsidue
quoniam
fluere
omnia
constat
.

Now, then, of air
I'll speak, which hour by hour in all its body
Is changed innumerably. For whatso'er
Streams up in dust or vapour off of things,
The same is all and always borne along
Into the mighty ocean of the air;
And did not air in turn restore to things
Bodies, and thus recruit them as they stream,
All things by this time had resolved been
And changed into air. Therefore it never
Ceases to be engendered off of things
And to return to things, since verily
In constant flux do all things stream.
138
Largus
item
liquidi
fons
luminis
,
aetherius
sol
,
inrigat
adsidue
caelum
candore
recenti

suppeditatque
novo
confestim
lumine
lumen
.
nam
primum
quicquid
fulgoris
disperit
ei
,
quo
cumque
accidit
.
id
licet
hinc
cognoscere
possis
,
quod
simul
ac
primum
nubes
succedere
soli

coepere
et
radios
inter
quasi
rumpere
lucis
,
extemplo
inferior
pars
horum
disperit
omnis

terraque
inumbratur
qua
nimbi
cumque
feruntur
;
ut
noscas
splendore
novo
res
semper
egere

et
primum
iactum
fulgoris
quemque
perire

nec
ratione
alia
res
posse
in
sole
videri
,
perpetuo
ni
suppeditet
lucis
caput
ipsum
.
quin
etiam
nocturna
tibi
,
terrestria
quae
sunt
,
lumina
,
pendentes
lychni
claraeque
coruscis

fulguribus
pingues
multa
caligine
taedae

consimili
properant
ratione
,
ardore
ministro
,
suppeditare
novom
lumen
,
tremere
ignibus
instant
,
instant
,
nec
loca
lux
inter
quasi
rupta
relinquit
:
usque
adeo
properanter
ab
omnibus
ignibus
ei

exitium
celeri
celeratur
origine
flammae
.
sic
igitur
solem
lunam
stellasque
putandum

ex
alio
atque
alio
lucem
iactare
subortu

et
primum
quicquid
flammarum
perdere
semper
,
inviolabilia
haec
ne
credas
forte
vigere
.

Likewise,
The abounding well-spring of the liquid light,
The ethereal sun, doth flood the heaven o'er
With constant flux of radiance ever new,
And with fresh light supplies the place of light,
Upon the instant. For whatever effulgence
Hath first streamed off, no matter where it falls,
Is lost unto the sun. And this 'tis thine
To know from these examples: soon as clouds
Have first begun to under-pass the sun,
And, as it were, to rend the rays of light
In twain, at once the lower part of them
Is lost entire, and earth is overcast
Where'er the thunderheads are rolled along-
So know thou mayst that things forever need
A fresh replenishment of gleam and glow,
And each effulgence, foremost flashed forth,
Perisheth one by one. Nor otherwise
Can things be seen in sunlight, lest alway
The fountain-head of light supply new light.
Indeed your earthly beacons of the night,
The hanging lampions and the torches, bright
With darting gleams and dense with livid soot,
Do hurry in like manner to supply
With ministering heat new light amain;
Are all alive to quiver with their fires,-
Are so alive, that thus the light ne'er leaves
The spots it shines on, as if rent in twain:
So speedily is its destruction veiled
By the swift birth of flame from all the fires.
Thus, then, we must suppose that sun and moon
And stars dart forth their light from under-births
Ever and ever new, and whatso flames
First rise do perish always one by one-
Lest, haply, thou shouldst think they each endure
Inviolable.
139
Denique
non
lapides
quoque
vinci
cernis
ab
aevo
,
non
altas
turris
ruere
et
putrescere
saxa
,
non
delubra
deum
simulacraque
fessa
fatisci

nec
sanctum
numen
fati
protollere
finis

posse
neque
adversus
naturae
foedera
niti
?
denique
non
monimenta
virum
dilapsa
videmus
,
non
ruere
avolsos
silices
a
montibus
altis

nec
validas
aevi
vires
perferre
patique

finiti
?
neque
enim
caderent
avolsa
repente
,
ex
infinito
quae
tempore
pertolerassent

omnia
tormenta
aetatis
,
privata
fragore
.

Again, perceivest not
How stones are also conquered by Time?-
Not how the lofty towers ruin down,
And boulders crumble?- Not how shrines of gods
And idols crack outworn?- Nor how indeed
The holy Influence hath yet no power
There to postpone the Terminals of Fate,
Or headway make 'gainst Nature's fixed decrees?
Again, behold we not the monuments
Of heroes, now in ruins, asking us,
In their turn likewise, if we don't believe
They also age with eld? Behold we not
The rended basalt ruining amain
Down from the lofty mountains, powerless
To dure and dree the mighty forces there
Of finite time?- for they would never fall
Rended asudden, if from infinite Past
They had prevailed against all engin'ries
Of the assaulting aeons, with no crash.
140
Denique
iam
tuere
hoc
,
circum
supraque
quod
omne

continet
amplexu
terram
:
si
procreat
ex
se

omnia
,
quod
quidam
memorant
,
recipitque
perempta
,
totum
nativum
mortali
corpore
constat
.
nam
quod
cumque
alias
ex
se
res
auget
alitque
,
deminui
debet
,
recreari
,
cum
recipit
res
.

Again, now look at This, which round, above,
Contains the whole earth in its one embrace:
If from itself it procreates all things-
As some men tell- and takes them to itself
When once destroyed, entirely must it be
Of mortal birth and body; for whate'er
From out itself giveth to other things
Increase and food, the same perforce must be
Minished, and then recruited when it takes
Things back into itself.
141
Praeterea
si
nulla
fuit
genitalis
origo

terrarum
et
caeli
semperque
aeterna
fuere
,
cur
supera
bellum
Thebanum
et
funera
Troiae

non
alias
alii
quoque
res
cecinere
poëtae
?
quo
tot
facta
virum
totiens
cecidere
neque
usquam

aeternis
famae
monimentis
insita
florent
?
verum
,
ut
opinor
,
habet
novitatem
summa
recensque

naturast
mundi
neque
pridem
exordia
cepit
.
quare
etiam
quaedam
nunc
artes
expoliuntur
,
nunc
etiam
augescunt
;
nunc
addita
navigiis
sunt

multa
,
modo
organici
melicos
peperere
sonores
,
denique
natura
haec
rerum
ratioque
repertast

nuper
,
et
hanc
primus
cum
primis
ipse
repertus

nunc
ego
sum
in
patrias
qui
possim
vertere
voces
.
Quod
si
forte
fuisse
ante
hac
eadem
omnia
credis
,
sed
periise
hominum
torrenti
saecla
vapore
,
aut
cecidisse
urbis
magno
vexamine
mundi
,
aut
ex
imbribus
adsiduis
exisse
rapaces

per
terras
amnes
atque
oppida
coperuisse
.
tanto
quique
magis
victus
fateare
necessest

exitium
quoque
terrarum
caelique
futurum
;
nam
cum
res
tantis
morbis
tantisque
periclis

temptarentur
,
ibi
si
tristior
incubuisset

causa
,
darent
late
cladem
magnasque
ruinas
.
nec
ratione
alia
mortales
esse
videmur
,
inter
nos
nisi
quod
morbis
aegrescimus
isdem

atque
illi
quos
a
vita
natura
removit
.

Besides all this,
If there had been no origin-in-birth
Of lands and sky, and they had ever been
The everlasting, why, ere Theban war
And obsequies of Troy, have other bards
Not also chanted other high affairs?
Whither have sunk so oft so many deeds
Of heroes? Why do those deeds live no more,
Ingrafted in eternal monuments
Of glory? Verily, I guess, because
The Sum is new, and of a recent date
The nature of our universe, and had
Not long ago its own exordium.
Wherefore, even now some arts are being still
Refined, still increased: now unto ships
Is being added many a new device;
And but the other day musician-folk
Gave birth to melic sounds of organing;
And, then, this nature, this account of things
Hath been discovered latterly, and I
Myself have been discovered only now,
As first among the first, able to turn
The same into ancestral Roman speech.
Yet if, percase, thou deemest that ere this
Existed all things even the same, but that
Perished the cycles of the human race
In fiery exhalations, or cities fell
By some tremendous quaking of the world,
Or rivers in fury, after constant rains,
Had plunged forth across the lands of earth
And whelmed the towns- then, all the more must thou
Confess, defeated by the argument,
That there shall be annihilation too
Of lands and sky. For at a time when things
Were being taxed by maladies so great,
And so great perils, if some cause more fell
Had then assailed them, far and wide they would
Have gone to disaster and supreme collapse.
And by no other reasoning are we
Seen to be mortal, save that all of us
Sicken in turn with those same maladies
With which have sickened in the past those men
Whom nature hath removed from life.
142
Praeterea
quae
cumque
manent
aeterna
necessust

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
inane
est
,
quod
manet
intactum
neque
ab
ictu
fungitur
hilum
,
aut
etiam
quia
nulla
loci
sit
copia
circum
,
quo
quasi
res
possint
discedere
dissoluique
,
sicut
summarum
summa
est
aeterna
,
neque
extra

qui
locus
est
quo
dissiliant
neque
corpora
sunt
quae

possint
incidere
et
valida
dissolvere
plaga
.
at
neque
,
uti
docui
,
solido
cum
corpore
mundi

naturast
,
quoniam
admixtumst
in
rebus
inane
,
nec
tamen
est
ut
inane
,
neque
autem
corpora
desunt
,
ex
infinito
quae
possint
forte
coorta

corruere
hanc
rerum
violento
turbine
summam

aut
aliam
quamvis
cladem
inportare
pericli
,
nec
porro
natura
loci
spatiumque
profundi

deficit
,
exspargi
quo
possint
moenia
mundi
,
aut
alia
quavis
possunt
vi
pulsa
perire
.
haut
igitur
leti
praeclusa
est
ianua
caelo

nec
soli
terraeque
neque
altis
aequoris
undis
,
sed
patet
immani
et
vasto
respectat
hiatu
.
quare
etiam
nativa
necessumst
confiteare

haec
eadem
;
neque
enim
,
mortali
corpore
quae
sunt
,
ex
infinito
iam
tempore
adhuc
potuissent

inmensi
validas
aevi
contemnere
vires
.

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.
But not of solid body, as I've shown,
Exists the nature of the world, because
In things is intermingled there a void;
Nor is the world yet as the void, nor are,
Moreover, bodies lacking which, percase,
Rising from out the infinite, can fell
With fury-whirlwinds all this sum of things,
Or bring upon them other cataclysm
Of peril strange; and yonder, too, abides
The infinite space and the profound abyss-
Whereinto, lo, the ramparts of the world
Can yet be shivered. Or some other power
Can pound upon them till they perish all.
Thus is the door of doom, O nowise barred
Against the sky, against the sun and earth
And deep-sea waters, but wide open stands
And gloats upon them, monstrous and agape.
Wherefore, again, 'tis needful to confess
That these same things are born in time; for things
Which are of mortal body could indeed
Never from infinite past until to-day
Have spurned the multitudinous assaults
Of the immeasurable aeons old.
143
Denique
tantopere
inter
se
cum
maxima
mundi

pugnent
membra
,
pio
nequaquam
concita
bello
,
nonne
vides
aliquam
longi
certaminis
ollis

posse
dari
finem
,
vel
cum
sol
et
vapor
omnis

omnibus
epotis
umoribus
exsuperarint
?
quod
facere
intendunt
,
neque
adhuc
conata
patrantur
;
tantum
suppeditant
amnes
ultraque
minantur

omnia
diluviare
ex
alto
gurgite
ponti
:
ne
quiquam
,
quoniam
verrentes
aequora
venti

deminuunt
radiisque
retexens
aetherius
sol
,
et
siccare
prius
confidunt
omnia
posse

quam
liquor
incepti
possit
contingere
finem
.
tantum
spirantes
aequo
certamine
bellum

magnis
de
rebus
cernere
certant
,
cum
semel
interea
fuerit
superantior
ignis

et
semel
,
ut
fama
est
,
umor
regnarit
in
arvis
.
ignis
enim
superavit
et
ambiens
multa
perussit
,
avia
cum
Phaethonta
rapax
vis
solis
equorum

aethere
raptavit
toto
terrasque
per
omnis
.
at
pater
omnipotens
ira
tum
percitus
acri

magnanimum
Phaethonta
repenti
fulminis
ictu

deturbavit
equis
in
terram
,
Solque
cadenti

obvius
aeternam
succepit
lampada
mundi

disiectosque
redegit
equos
iunxitque
trementis
,
inde
suum
per
iter
recreavit
cuncta
gubernans
,
scilicet
ut
veteres
Graium
cecinere
poëtae
.
quod
procul
a
vera
nimis
est
ratione
repulsum
.
ignis
enim
superare
potest
ubi
materiai

ex
infinito
sunt
corpora
plura
coorta
;
inde
cadunt
vires
aliqua
ratione
revictae
,
aut
pereunt
res
exustae
torrentibus
auris
.
umor
item
quondam
coepit
superare
coortus
,
ut
fama
est
,
hominum
vitas
quando
obruit
undis
;
inde
ubi
vis
aliqua
ratione
aversa
recessit
,
ex
infinito
fuerat
quae
cumque
coorta
,
constiterunt
imbres
et
flumina
vim
minuerunt
.

Again, since battle so fiercely one with other
The four most mighty members the world,
Aroused in an all unholy war,
Seest not that there may be for them an end
Of the long strife?- Or when the skiey sun
And all the heat have won dominion o'er
The sucked-up waters all?- And this they try
Still to accomplish, though as yet they fail,-
For so aboundingly the streams supply
New store of waters that 'tis rather they
Who menace the world with inundations vast
From forth the unplumbed chasms of the sea.
But vain- since winds (that over-sweep amain)
And skiey sun (that with his rays dissolves)
Do minish the level seas and trust their power
To dry up all, before the waters can
Arrive at the end of their endeavouring.
Breathing such vasty warfare, they contend
In balanced strife the one with other still
Concerning mighty issues,- though indeed
The fire was once the more victorious,
And once- as goes the tale- the water won
A kingdom in the fields. For fire o'ermastered
And licked up many things and burnt away,
What time the impetuous horses of the Sun
Snatched Phaethon headlong from his skiey road
Down the whole ether and over all the lands.
But the omnipotent Father in keen wrath
Then with the sudden smite of thunderbolt
Did hurl the mighty-minded hero off
Those horses to the earth. And Sol, his sire,
Meeting him as he fell, caught up in hand
The ever-blazing lampion of the world,
And drave together the pell-mell horses there
And yoked them all a-tremble, and amain,
Steering them over along their own old road,
Restored the cosmos,- as forsooth we hear
From songs of ancient poets of the Greeks-
A tale too far away from truth, meseems.
For fire can win when from the infinite
Has risen a larger throng of particles
Of fiery stuff; and then its powers succumb,
Somehow subdued again, or else at last
It shrivels in torrid atmospheres the world.
And whilom water too began to win-
As goes the story- when it overwhelmed
The lives of men with billows; and thereafter,
When all that force of water-stuff which forth
From out the infinite had risen up
Did now retire, as somehow turned aside,
The rain-storms stopped, and streams their fury checked.
144
Sed
quibus
ille
modis
coniectus
materiai

fundarit
terram
et
caelum
pontique
profunda
,
solis
lunai
cursus
,
ex
ordine
ponam
.
nam
certe
neque
consilio
primordia
rerum

ordine
se
suo
quaeque
sagaci
mente
locarunt

nec
quos
quaeque
darent
motus
pepigere
profecto
;
sed
quia
multa
modis
multis
primordia
rerum

ex
infinito
iam
tempore
percita
plagis

ponderibusque
suis
consuerunt
concita
ferri

omnimodisque
coire
atque
omnia
pertemptare
,
quae
cumque
inter
se
possent
congressa
creare
,
propterea
fit
uti
magnum
volgata
per
aevom

omnigenus
coetus
et
motus
experiundo

tandem
conveniant
ea
quae
coniecta
repente

magnarum
rerum
fiunt
exordia
saepe
,
terrai
maris
et
caeli
generisque
animantum
.
FORMATION OF THE WORLD AND ASTRONOMICAL QUESTIONS
But in what modes that conflux of first-stuff
Did found the multitudinous universe
Of earth, and sky, and the unfathomed deeps
Of ocean, and courses of the sun and moon,
I'll now in order tell. For of a truth
Neither by counsel did the primal germs
'Stablish themselves, as by keen act of mind,
Each in its proper place; nor did they make,
Forsooth, a compact how each germ should move;
But, lo, because primordials of things,
Many in many modes, astir by blows
From immemorial aeons, in motion too
By their own weights, have evermore been wont
To be so borne along and in all modes
To meet together and to try all sorts
Which, by combining one with other, they
Are powerful to create: because of this
It comes to pass that those primordials,
Diffused far and wide through mighty aeons,
The while they unions try, and motions too,
Of every kind, meet at the last amain,
And so become oft the commencements fit
Of mighty things- earth, sea, and sky, and race
Of living creatures.