De Rerum Natura
Lucretius
Lucretius. De Rerum Natura. William Ellery Leonard. E. P. Dutton. 1916.
- When this
- Thou well hast noted, thou canst render count
- Unto thyself and others why it is
- Along the lonely places that the rocks
- Give back like shapes of words in order like,
- When search we after comrades wandering
- Among the shady mountains, and aloud
- Call unto them, the scattered. I have seen
- Spots that gave back even voices six or seven
- For one thrown forth- for so the very hills,
- Dashing them back against the hills, kept on
- With their reverberations. And these spots
- The neighbouring country-side doth feign to be
- Haunts of the goat-foot satyrs and the nymphs;
- And tells ye there be fauns, by whose night noise
- And antic revels yonder they declare
- The voiceless silences are broken oft,
- And tones of strings are made and wailings sweet
- Which the pipe, beat by players' finger-tips,
- Pours out; and far and wide the farmer-race
- Begins to hear, when, shaking the garmentings
- Of pine upon his half-beast head, god-Pan
- With puckered lip oft runneth o'er and o'er
- The open reeds,- lest flute should cease to pour
- The woodland music! Other prodigies
- And wonders of this ilk they love to tell,
- Lest they be thought to dwell in lonely spots
- And even by gods deserted. This is why
- They boast of marvels in their story-tellings;
- Or by some other reason are led on-
- Greedy, as all mankind hath ever been,
- To prattle fables into ears.
- Again,
- One need not wonder how it comes about
- That through those places (through which eyes cannot
- View objects manifest) sounds yet may pass
- And assail the ears. For often we observe
- People conversing, though the doors be closed;
- No marvel either, since all voice unharmed
- Can wind through bended apertures of things,
- While idol-films decline to- for they're rent,
- Unless along straight apertures they swim,
- Like those in glass, through which all images
- Do fly across. And yet this voice itself,
- In passing through shut chambers of a house,
- Is dulled, and in a jumble enters ears,
- And sound we seem to hear far more than words.
- Moreover, a voice is into all directions
- Divided up, since off from one another
- New voices are engendered, when one voice
- Hath once leapt forth, outstarting into many-
- As oft a spark of fire is wont to sprinkle
- Itself into its several fires. And so,
- Voices do fill those places hid behind,
- Which all are in a hubbub round about,
- Astir with sound. But idol-films do tend,
- As once sent forth, in straight directions all;
- Wherefore one can inside a wall see naught,
- Yet catch the voices from beyond the same.
- Nor tongue and palate, whereby we flavour feel,
- Present more problems for more work of thought.
- Firstly, we feel a flavour in the mouth,
- When forth we squeeze it, in chewing up our food,-
- As any one perchance begins to squeeze
- With hand and dry a sponge with water soaked.
- Next, all which forth we squeeze is spread about
- Along the pores and intertwined paths
- Of the loose-textured tongue. And so, when smooth
- The bodies of the oozy flavour, then
- Delightfully they touch, delightfully
- They treat all spots, around the wet and trickling
- Enclosures of the tongue. And contrariwise,
- They sting and pain the sense with their assault,
- According as with roughness they're supplied.
- Next, only up to palate is the pleasure
- Coming from flavour; for in truth when down
- 'Thas plunged along the throat, no pleasure is,
- Whilst into all the frame it spreads around;
- Nor aught it matters with what food is fed
- The body, if only what thou take thou canst
- Distribute well digested to the frame
- And keep the stomach in a moist career.
- Now, how it is we see some food for some,
- Others for others....
- . . . . . .
- I will unfold, or wherefore what to some
- Is foul and bitter, yet the same to others
- Can seem delectable to eat,- why here
- So great the distance and the difference is
- That what is food to one to some becomes
- Fierce poison, as a certain snake there is
- Which, touched by spittle of a man, will waste
- And end itself by gnawing up its coil.
- Again, fierce poison is the hellebore
- To us, but puts the fat on goats and quails.
- That thou mayst know by what devices this
- Is brought about, in chief thou must recall
- What we have said before, that seeds are kept
- Commixed in things in divers modes. Again,
- As all the breathing creatures which take food
- Are outwardly unlike, and outer cut
- And contour of their members bounds them round,
- Each differing kind by kind, they thus consist
- Of seeds of varying shape. And furthermore,
- Since seeds do differ, divers too must be
- The interstices and paths (which we do call
- The apertures) in all the members, even
- In mouth and palate too. Thus some must be
- More small or yet more large, three-cornered some
- And others squared, and many others round,
- And certain of them many-angled too
- In many modes. For, as the combination
- And motion of their divers shapes demand,
- The shapes of apertures must be diverse
- And paths must vary according to their walls
- That bound them. Hence when what is sweet to some,
- Becomes to others bitter, for him to whom
- 'Tis sweet, the smoothest particles must needs
- Have entered caressingly the palate's pores.
- And, contrariwise, with those to whom that sweet
- Is sour within the mouth, beyond a doubt
- The rough and barbed particles have got
- Into the narrows of the apertures.
- Now easy it is from these affairs to know
- Whatever...
- . . . . . .
- Indeed, where one from o'er-abundant bile
- Is stricken with fever, or in other wise
- Feels the roused violence of some malady,
- There the whole frame is now upset, and there
- All the positions of the seeds are changed,-
- So that the bodies which before were fit
- To cause the savour, now are fit no more,
- And now more apt are others which be able
- To get within the pores and gender sour.
- Both sorts, in sooth, are intermixed in honey-
- What oft we've proved above to thee before.
- Now come, and I will indicate what wise
- Impact of odour on the nostrils touches.
- And first, 'tis needful there be many things
- From whence the streaming flow of varied odours
- May roll along, and we're constrained to think
- They stream and dart and sprinkle themselves about
- Impartially. But for some breathing creatures
- One odour is more apt, to others another-
- Because of differing forms of seeds and pores.
- Thus on and on along the zephyrs bees
- Are led by odour of honey, vultures too
- By carcasses. Again, the forward power
- Of scent in dogs doth lead the hunter on
- Whithersoever the splay-foot of wild beast
- Hath hastened its career; and the white goose,
- The saviour of the Roman citadel,
- Forescents afar the odour of mankind.
- Thus, diversly to divers ones is given
- Peculiar smell that leadeth each along
- To his own food or makes him start aback
- From loathsome poison, and in this wise are
- The generations of the wild preserved.
- Yet is this pungence not alone in odours
- Or in the class of flavours; but, likewise,
- The look of things and hues agree not all
- So well with senses unto all, but that
- Some unto some will be, to gaze upon,
- More keen and painful. Lo, the raving lions,
- They dare not face and gaze upon the cock
- Who's wont with wings to flap away the night
- From off the stage, and call the beaming morn
- With clarion voice- and lions straightway thus
- Bethink themselves of flight, because, ye see,
- Within the body of the cocks there be
- Some certain seeds, which, into lions' eyes
- Injected, bore into the pupils deep
- And yield such piercing pain they can't hold out
- Against the cocks, however fierce they be-
- Whilst yet these seeds can't hurt our gaze the least,
- Either because they do not penetrate,
- Or since they have free exit from the eyes
- As soon as penetrating, so that thus
- They cannot hurt our eyes in any part
- By there remaining.
- To speak once more of odour;
- Whatever assail the nostrils, some can travel
- A longer way than others. None of them,
- However, 's borne so far as sound or voice-
- While I omit all mention of such things
- As hit the eyesight and assail the vision.
- For slowly on a wandering course it comes
- And perishes sooner, by degrees absorbed
- Easily into all the winds of air;-
- And first, because from deep inside the thing
- It is discharged with labour (for the fact
- That every object, when 'tis shivered, ground,
- Or crumbled by the fire, will smell the stronger
- Is sign that odours flow and part away
- From inner regions of the things). And next,
- Thou mayest see that odour is create
- Of larger primal germs than voice, because
- It enters not through stony walls, wherethrough
- Unfailingly the voice and sound are borne;
- Wherefore, besides, thou wilt observe 'tis not
- So easy to trace out in whatso place
- The smelling object is. For, dallying on
- Along the winds, the particles cool off,
- And then the scurrying messengers of things
- Arrive our senses, when no longer hot.
- So dogs oft wander astray, and hunt the scent.
- Now mark, and hear what objects move the mind,
- And learn, in few, whence unto intellect
- Do come what come. And first I tell thee this:
- That many images of objects rove
- In many modes to every region round-
- So thin that easily the one with other,
- When once they meet, uniteth in mid-air,
- Like gossamer or gold-leaf. For, indeed,
- Far thinner are they in their fabric than
- Those images which take a hold on eyes
- And smite the vision, since through body's pores
- They penetrate, and inwardly stir up
- The subtle nature of mind and smite the sense.
- Thus, Centaurs and the limbs of Scyllas, thus
- The Cerberus-visages of dogs we see,
- And images of people gone before-
- Dead men whose bones earth bosomed long ago;
- Because the images of every kind
- Are everywhere about us borne- in part
- Those which are gendered in the very air
- Of own accord, in part those others which
- From divers things do part away, and those
- Which are compounded, made from out their shapes.
- For soothly from no living Centaur is
- That phantom gendered, since no breed of beast
- Like him was ever; but, when images
- Of horse and man by chance have come together,
- They easily cohere, as aforesaid,
- At once, through subtle nature and fabric thin.
- In the same fashion others of this ilk
- Created are. And when they're quickly borne
- In their exceeding lightness, easily
- (As earlier I showed) one subtle image,
- Compounded, moves by its one blow the mind,
- Itself so subtle and so strangely quick.
- That these things come to pass as I record,
- From this thou easily canst understand:
- So far as one is unto other like,
- Seeing with mind as well as with the eyes
- Must come to pass in fashion not unlike.
- Well, now, since I have shown that I perceive
- Haply a lion through those idol-films
- Such as assail my eyes, 'tis thine to know
- Also the mind is in like manner moved,
- And sees, nor more nor less than eyes do see
- (Except that it perceives more subtle films)
- The lion and aught else through idol-films.
- And when the sleep has overset our frame,
- The mind's intelligence is now awake,
- Still for no other reason, save that these-
- The self-same films as when we are awake-
- Assail our minds, to such degree indeed
- That we do seem to see for sure the man
- Whom, void of life, now death and earth have gained
- Dominion over. And nature forces this
- To come to pass because the body's senses
- Are resting, thwarted through the members all,
- Unable now to conquer false with true;
- And memory lies prone and languishes
- In slumber, nor protests that he, the man
- Whom the mind feigns to see alive, long since
- Hath been the gain of death and dissolution.
- And further, 'tis no marvel idols move
- And toss their arms and other members round
- In rhythmic time- and often in men's sleeps
- It haps an image this is seen to do;
- In sooth, when perishes the former image,
- And other is gendered of another pose,
- That former seemeth to have changed its gestures.
- Of course the change must be conceived as speedy;
- So great the swiftness and so great the store
- Of idol-things, and (in an instant brief
- As mind can mark) so great, again, the store
- Of separate idol-parts to bring supplies.
- It happens also that there is supplied
- Sometimes an image not of kind the same;
- But what before was woman, now at hand
- Is seen to stand there, altered into male;
- Or other visage, other age succeeds;
- But slumber and oblivion take care
- That we shall feel no wonder at the thing.
- And much in these affairs demands inquiry,
- And much, illumination- if we crave
- With plainness to exhibit facts. And first,
- Why doth the mind of one to whom the whim
- To think has come behold forthwith that thing?
- Or do the idols watch upon our will,
- And doth an image unto us occur,
- Directly we desire- if heart prefer
- The sea, the land, or after all the sky?
- Assemblies of the citizens, parades,
- Banquets, and battles, these and all doth she,
- Nature, create and furnish at our word?-
- Maugre the fact that in same place and spot
- Another's mind is meditating things
- All far unlike. And what, again, of this:
- When we in sleep behold the idols step,
- In measure, forward, moving supple limbs,
- Whilst forth they put each supple arm in turn
- With speedy motion, and with eyeing heads
- Repeat the movement, as the foot keeps time?
- Forsooth, the idols they are steeped in art,
- And wander to and fro well taught indeed,-
- Thus to be able in the time of night
- To make such games! Or will the truth be this:
- Because in one least moment that we mark-
- That is, the uttering of a single sound-
- There lurk yet many moments, which the reason
- Discovers to exist, therefore it comes
- That, in a moment how so brief ye will,
- The divers idols are hard by, and ready
- Each in its place diverse? So great the swiftness,
- So great, again, the store of idol-things,
- And so, when perishes the former image,
- And other is gendered of another pose,
- The former seemeth to have changed its gestures.
- And since they be so tenuous, mind can mark
- Sharply alone the ones it strains to see;
- And thus the rest do perish one and all,
- Save those for which the mind prepares itself.
- Further, it doth prepare itself indeed,
- And hopes to see what follows after each-
- Hence this result. For hast thou not observed
- How eyes, essaying to perceive the fine,
- Will strain in preparation, otherwise
- Unable sharply to perceive at all?
- Yet know thou canst that, even in objects plain,
- If thou attendest not, 'tis just the same
- As if 'twere all the time removed and far.
- What marvel, then, that mind doth lose the rest,
- Save those to which 'thas given up itself?
- So 'tis that we conjecture from small signs
- Things wide and weighty, and involve ourselves
- In snarls of self-deceit.
- In these affairs
- We crave that thou wilt passionately flee
- The one offence, and anxiously wilt shun
- The error of presuming the clear lights
- Of eyes created were that we might see;
- Or thighs and knees, aprop upon the feet,
- Thuswise can bended be, that we might step
- With goodly strides ahead; or forearms joined
- Unto the sturdy uppers, or serving hands
- On either side were given, that we might do
- Life's own demands. All such interpretation
- Is aft-for-fore with inverse reasoning,
- Since naught is born in body so that we
- May use the same, but birth engenders use:
- No seeing ere the lights of eyes were born,
- No speaking ere the tongue created was;
- But origin of tongue came long before
- Discourse of words, and ears created were
- Much earlier than any sound was heard;
- And all the members, so meseems, were there
- Before they got their use: and therefore, they
- Could not be gendered for the sake of use.
- But contrariwise, contending in the fight
- With hand to hand, and rending of the joints,
- And fouling of the limbs with gore, was there,
- O long before the gleaming spears ere flew;
- And nature prompted man to shun a wound,
- Before the left arm by the aid of art
- Opposed the shielding targe. And, verily,
- Yielding the weary body to repose,
- Far ancienter than cushions of soft beds,
- And quenching thirst is earlier than cups.
- These objects, therefore, which for use and life
- Have been devised, can be conceived as found
- For sake of using. But apart from such
- Are all which first were born and afterwards
- Gave knowledge of their own utility-
- Chief in which sort we note the senses, limbs:
- Wherefore, again, 'tis quite beyond thy power
- To hold that these could thus have been create
- For office of utility.
- Likewise,
- 'Tis nothing strange that all the breathing creatures
- Seek, even by nature of their frame, their food.
- Yes, since I've taught thee that from off the things
- Stream and depart innumerable bodies
- In modes innumerable too; but most
- Must be the bodies streaming from the living-
- Which bodies, vexed by motion evermore,
- Are through the mouth exhaled innumerable,
- When weary creatures pant, or through the sweat
- Squeezed forth innumerable from deep within.
- Thus body rarefies, so undermined
- In all its nature, and pain attends its state.
- And so the food is taken to underprop
- The tottering joints, and by its interfusion
- To re-create their powers, and there stop up
- The longing, open-mouthed through limbs and veins,
- For eating. And the moist no less departs
- Into all regions that demand the moist;
- And many heaped-up particles of hot,
- Which cause such burnings in these bellies of ours,
- The liquid on arriving dissipates
- And quenches like a fire, that parching heat
- No longer now can scorch the frame. And so,
- Thou seest how panting thirst is washed away
- From off our body, how the hunger-pang
- It, too, appeased.
- Now, how it comes that we,
- Whene'er we wish, can step with strides ahead,
- And how 'tis given to move our limbs about,
- And what device is wont to push ahead
- This the big load of our corporeal frame,
- I'll say to thee- do thou attend what's said.
- I say that first some idol-films of walking
- Into our mind do fall and smite the mind,
- As said before. Thereafter will arises;
- For no one starts to do a thing, before
- The intellect previsions what it wills;
- And what it there pre-visioneth depends
- On what that image is. When, therefore, mind
- Doth so bestir itself that it doth will
- To go and step along, it strikes at once
- That energy of soul that's sown about
- In all the body through the limbs and frame-
- And this is easy of performance, since
- The soul is close conjoined with the mind.
- Next, soul in turn strikes body, and by degrees
- Thus the whole mass is pushed along and moved.
- Then too the body rarefies, and air,
- Forsooth as ever of such nimbleness,
- Comes on and penetrates aboundingly
- Through opened pores, and thus is sprinkled round
- Unto all smallest places in our frame.
- Thus then by these twain factors, severally,
- Body is borne like ship with oars and wind.
- Nor yet in these affairs is aught for wonder
- That particles so fine can whirl around
- So great a body and turn this weight of ours;
- For wind, so tenuous with its subtle body,
- Yet pushes, driving on the mighty ship
- Of mighty bulk; one hand directs the same,
- Whatever its momentum, and one helm
- Whirls it around, whither ye please; and loads,
- Many and huge, are moved and hoisted high
- By enginery of pulley-blocks and wheels,
- With but light strain.
- Now, by what modes this sleep
- Pours through our members waters of repose
- And frees the breast from cares of mind, I'll tell
- In verses sweeter than they many are;
- Even as the swan's slight note is better far
- Than that dispersed clamour of the cranes
- Among the southwind's aery clouds. Do thou
- Give me sharp ears and a sagacious mind,-
- That thou mayst not deny the things to be
- Whereof I'm speaking, nor depart away
- With bosom scorning these the spoken truths,
- Thyself at fault unable to perceive.
- Sleep chiefly comes when energy of soul
- Hath now been scattered through the frame, and part
- Expelled abroad and gone away, and part
- Crammed back and settling deep within the frame-
- Whereafter then our loosened members droop.
- For doubt is none that by the work of soul
- Exist in us this sense, and when by slumber
- That sense is thwarted, we are bound to think
- The soul confounded and expelled abroad-
- Yet not entirely, else the frame would lie
- Drenched in the everlasting cold of death.
- In sooth, where no one part of soul remained
- Lurking among the members, even as fire
- Lurks buried under many ashes, whence
- Could sense amain rekindled be in members,
- As flame can rise anew from unseen fire?
- By what devices this strange state and new
- May be occasioned, and by what the soul
- Can be confounded and the frame grow faint,
- I will untangle: see to it, thou, that I
- Pour forth my words not unto empty winds.
- In first place, body on its outer parts-
- Since these are touched by neighbouring aery gusts-
- Must there be thumped and strook by blows of air
- Repeatedly. And therefore almost all
- Are covered either with hides, or else with shells,
- Or with the horny callus, or with bark.
- Yet this same air lashes their inner parts,
- When creatures draw a breath or blow it out.
- Wherefore, since body thus is flogged alike
- Upon the inside and the out, and blows
- Come in upon us through the little pores
- Even inward to our body's primal parts
- And primal elements, there comes to pass
- By slow degrees, along our members then,
- A kind of overthrow; for then confounded
- Are those arrangements of the primal germs
- Of body and of mind. It comes to pass
- That next a part of soul's expelled abroad,
- A part retreateth in recesses hid,
- A part, too, scattered all about the frame,
- Cannot become united nor engage
- In interchange of motion. Nature now
- So hedges off approaches and the paths;
- And thus the sense, its motions all deranged,
- Retires down deep within; and since there's naught,
- As 'twere, to prop the frame, the body weakens,
- And all the members languish, and the arms
- And eyelids fall, and, as ye lie abed,
- Even there the houghs will sag and loose their powers.
- Again, sleep follows after food, because
- The food produces same result as air,
- Whilst being scattered round through all the veins;
- And much the heaviest is that slumber which,
- Full or fatigued, thou takest; since 'tis then
- That the most bodies disarrange themselves,
- Bruised by labours hard. And in same wise,
- This three-fold change: a forcing of the soul
- Down deeper, more a casting-forth of it,
- A moving more divided in its parts
- And scattered more.
- And to whate'er pursuit
- A man most clings absorbed, or what the affairs
- On which we theretofore have tarried much,
- And mind hath strained upon the more, we seem
- In sleep not rarely to go at the same.
- The lawyers seem to plead and cite decrees,
- Commanders they to fight and go at frays,
- Sailors to live in combat with the winds,
- And we ourselves indeed to make this book,
- And still to seek the nature of the world
- And set it down, when once discovered, here
- In these my country's leaves. Thus all pursuits,
- All arts in general seem in sleeps to mock
- And master the minds of men. And whosoever
- Day after day for long to games have given
- Attention undivided, still they keep
- (As oft we note), even when they've ceased to grasp
- Those games with their own senses, open paths
- Within the mind wherethrough the idol-films
- Of just those games can come. And thus it is
- For many a day thereafter those appear
- Floating before the eyes, that even awake
- They think they view the dancers moving round
- Their supple limbs, and catch with both the ears
- The liquid song of harp and speaking chords,
- And view the same assembly on the seats,
- And manifold bright glories of the stage-
- So great the influence of pursuit and zest,
- And of the affairs wherein 'thas been the wont
- Of men to be engaged-nor only men,
- But soothly all the animals. Behold,
- Thou'lt see the sturdy horses, though outstretched,
- Yet sweating in their sleep, and panting ever,
- And straining utmost strength, as if for prize,
- As if, with barriers opened now...
- And hounds of huntsmen oft in soft repose
- Yet toss asudden all their legs about,
- And growl and bark, and with their nostrils sniff
- The winds again, again, as though indeed
- They'd caught the scented foot-prints of wild beasts,
- And, even when wakened, often they pursue
- The phantom images of stags, as though
- They did perceive them fleeing on before,
- Until the illusion's shaken off and dogs
- Come to themselves again. And fawning breed
- Of house-bred whelps do feel the sudden urge
- To shake their bodies and start from off the ground,
- As if beholding stranger-visages.
- And ever the fiercer be the stock, the more
- In sleep the same is ever bound to rage.
- But flee the divers tribes of birds and vex
- With sudden wings by night the groves of gods,
- When in their gentle slumbers they have dreamed
- Of hawks in chase, aswooping on for fight.
- Again, the minds of mortals which perform
- With mighty motions mighty enterprises,
- Often in sleep will do and dare the same
- In manner like. Kings take the towns by storm,
- Succumb to capture, battle on the field,
- Raise a wild cry as if their throats were cut
- Even then and there. And many wrestle on
- And groan with pains, and fill all regions round
- With mighty cries and wild, as if then gnawed
- By fangs of panther or of lion fierce.
- Many amid their slumbers talk about
- Their mighty enterprises, and have often
- Enough become the proof of their own crimes.
- Many meet death; many, as if headlong
- From lofty mountains tumbling down to earth
- With all their frame, are frenzied in their fright;
- And after sleep, as if still mad in mind,
- They scarce come to, confounded as they are
- By ferment of their frame. The thirsty man,
- Likewise, he sits beside delightful spring
- Or river and gulpeth down with gaping throat
- Nigh the whole stream. And oft the innocent young,
- By sleep o'ermastered, think they lift their dress
- By pail or public jordan and then void
- The water filtered down their frame entire
- And drench the Babylonian coverlets,
- Magnificently bright. Again, those males
- Into the surging channels of whose years
- Now first has passed the seed (engendered
- Within their members by the ripened days)
- Are in their sleep confronted from without
- By idol-images of some fair form-
- Tidings of glorious face and lovely bloom,
- Which stir and goad the regions turgid now
- With seed abundant; so that, as it were
- With all the matter acted duly out,
- They pour the billows of a potent stream
- And stain their garment.
- And as said before,
- That seed is roused in us when once ripe age
- Has made our body strong...
- As divers causes give to divers things
- Impulse and irritation, so one force
- In human kind rouses the human seed
- To spurt from man. As soon as ever it issues,
- Forced from its first abodes, it passes down
- In the whole body through the limbs and frame,
- Meeting in certain regions of our thews,
- And stirs amain the genitals of man.
- The goaded regions swell with seed, and then
- Comes the delight to dart the same at what
- The mad desire so yearns, and body seeks
- That object, whence the mind by love is pierced.
- For well-nigh each man falleth toward his wound,
- And our blood spurts even toward the spot from whence
- The stroke wherewith we are strook, and if indeed
- The foe be close, the red jet reaches him.
- Thus, one who gets a stroke from Venus' shafts-
- Whether a boy with limbs effeminate
- Assault him, or a woman darting love
- From all her body- that one strains to get
- Even to the thing whereby he's hit, and longs
- To join with it and cast into its frame
- The fluid drawn even from within its own.
- For the mute craving doth presage delight.
- This craving 'tis that's Venus unto us:
- From this, engender all the lures of love,
- From this, O first hath into human hearts
- Trickled that drop of joyance which ere long
- Is by chill care succeeded. Since, indeed,
- Though she thou lovest now be far away,
- Yet idol-images of her are near
- And the sweet name is floating in thy ear.
- But it behooves to flee those images;
- And scare afar whatever feeds thy love;
- And turn elsewhere thy mind; and vent the sperm,
- Within thee gathered, into sundry bodies,
- Nor, with thy thoughts still busied with one love,
- Keep it for one delight, and so store up
- Care for thyself and pain inevitable.
- For, lo, the ulcer just by nourishing
- Grows to more life with deep inveteracy,
- And day by day the fury swells aflame,
- And the woe waxes heavier day by day-
- Unless thou dost destroy even by new blows
- The former wounds of love, and curest them
- While yet they're fresh, by wandering freely round
- After the freely-wandering Venus, or
- Canst lead elsewhere the tumults of thy mind.
- Nor doth that man who keeps away from love
- Yet lack the fruits of Venus; rather takes
- Those pleasures which are free of penalties.
- For the delights of Venus, verily,
- Are more unmixed for mortals sane-of-soul
- Than for those sick-at-heart with love-pining.
- Yea, in the very moment of possessing,
- Surges the heat of lovers to and fro,
- Restive, uncertain; and they cannot fix
- On what to first enjoy with eyes and hands.
- The parts they sought for, those they squeeze so tight,
- And pain the creature's body, close their teeth
- Often against her lips, and smite with kiss
- Mouth into mouth,- because this same delight
- Is not unmixed; and underneath are stings
- Which goad a man to hurt the very thing,
- Whate'er it be, from whence arise for him
- Those germs of madness. But with gentle touch
- Venus subdues the pangs in midst of love,
- And the admixture of a fondling joy
- Doth curb the bites of passion. For they hope
- That by the very body whence they caught
- The heats of love their flames can be put out.
- But nature protests 'tis all quite otherwise;
- For this same love it is the one sole thing
- Of which, the more we have, the fiercer burns
- The breast with fell desire. For food and drink
- Are taken within our members; and, since they
- Can stop up certain parts, thus, easily
- Desire of water is glutted and of bread.
- But, lo, from human face and lovely bloom
- Naught penetrates our frame to be enjoyed
- Save flimsy idol-images and vain-
- A sorry hope which oft the winds disperse.
- As when the thirsty man in slumber seeks
- To drink, and water ne'er is granted him
- Wherewith to quench the heat within his members,
- But after idols of the liquids strives
- And toils in vain, and thirsts even whilst he gulps
- In middle of the torrent, thus in love
- Venus deludes with idol-images
- The lovers. Nor they cannot sate their lust
- By merely gazing on the bodies, nor
- They cannot with their palms and fingers rub
- Aught from each tender limb, the while they stray
- Uncertain over all the body. Then,
- At last, with members intertwined, when they
- Enjoy the flower of their age, when now
- Their bodies have sweet presage of keen joys,
- And Venus is about to sow the fields
- Of woman, greedily their frames they lock,
- And mingle the slaver of their mouths, and breathe
- Into each other, pressing teeth on mouths-
- Yet to no purpose, since they're powerless
- To rub off aught, or penetrate and pass
- With body entire into body- for oft
- They seem to strive and struggle thus to do;
- So eagerly they cling in Venus' bonds,
- Whilst melt away their members, overcome
- By violence of delight. But when at last
- Lust, gathered in the thews, hath spent itself,
- There come a brief pause in the raging heat-
- But then a madness just the same returns
- And that old fury visits them again,
- When once again they seek and crave to reach
- They know not what, all powerless to find
- The artifice to subjugate the bane.
- In such uncertain state they waste away
- With unseen wound.
- To which be added too,
- They squander powers and with the travail wane;
- Be added too, they spend their futile years
- Under another's beck and call; their duties
- Neglected languish and their honest name
- Reeleth sick, sick; and meantime their estates
- Are lost in Babylonian tapestries;
- And unguents and dainty Sicyonian shoes
- Laugh on her feet; and (as ye may be sure)
- Big emeralds of green light are set in gold;
- And rich sea-purple dress by constant wear
- Grows shabby and all soaked with Venus' sweat;
- And the well-earned ancestral property
- Becometh head-bands, coifs, and many a time
- The cloaks, or garments Alidensian
- Or of the Cean isle. And banquets, set
- With rarest cloth and viands, are prepared-
- And games of chance, and many a drinking cup,
- And unguents, crowns and garlands. All in vain,
- Since from amid the well-spring of delights
- Bubbles some drop of bitter to torment
- Among the very flowers- when haply mind
- Gnaws into self, now stricken with remorse
- For slothful years and ruin in baudels,
- Or else because she's left him all in doubt
- By launching some sly word, which still like fire
- Lives wildly, cleaving to his eager heart;
- Or else because he thinks she darts her eyes
- Too much about and gazes at another,-
- And in her face sees traces of a laugh.
- These ills are found in prospering love and true;
- But in crossed love and helpless there be such
- As through shut eyelids thou canst still take in-
- Uncounted ills; so that 'tis better far
- To watch beforehand, in the way I've shown,
- And guard against enticements. For to shun
- A fall into the hunting-snares of love
- Is not so hard, as to get out again,
- When tangled in the very nets, and burst
- The stoutly-knotted cords of Aphrodite.
- Yet even when there enmeshed with tangled feet,
- Still canst thou scape the danger-lest indeed
- Thou standest in the way of thine own good,
- And overlookest first all blemishes
- Of mind and body of thy much preferred,
- Desirable dame. For so men do,
- Eyeless with passion, and assign to them
- Graces not theirs in fact. And thus we see
- Creatures in many a wise crooked and ugly
- The prosperous sweethearts in a high esteem;
- And lovers gird each other and advise
- To placate Venus, since their friends are smit
- With a base passion- miserable dupes
- Who seldom mark their own worst bane of all.
- The black-skinned girl is "tawny like the honey";
- The filthy and the fetid's "negligee";
- The cat-eyed she's "a little Pallas," she;
- The sinewy and wizened's "a gazelle";
- The pudgy and the pigmy is "piquant,
- One of the Graces sure"; the big and bulky
- O she's "an Admiration, imposante";
- The stuttering and tongue-tied "sweetly lisps";
- The mute girl's "modest"; and the garrulous,
- The spiteful spit-fire, is "a sparkling wit";
- And she who scarcely lives for scrawniness
- Becomes "a slender darling"; "delicate"
- Is she who's nearly dead of coughing-fit;
- The pursy female with protuberant breasts
- She is "like Ceres when the goddess gave
- Young Bacchus suck"; the pug-nosed lady-love
- "A Satyress, a feminine Silenus";
- The blubber-lipped is "all one luscious kiss"-
- A weary while it were to tell the whole.
- But let her face possess what charm ye will,
- Let Venus' glory rise from all her limbs,-
- Forsooth there still are others; and forsooth
- We lived before without her; and forsooth
- She does the same things- and we know she does-
- All, as the ugly creature, and she scents,
- Yes she, her wretched self with vile perfumes;
- Whom even her handmaids flee and giggle at
- Behind her back. But he, the lover, in tears
- Because shut out, covers her threshold o'er
- Often with flowers and garlands, and anoints
- Her haughty door-posts with the marjoram,
- And prints, poor fellow, kisses on the doors-
- Admitted at last, if haply but one whiff
- Got to him on approaching, he would seek
- Decent excuses to go out forthwith;
- And his lament, long pondered, then would fall
- Down at his heels; and there he'd damn himself
- For his fatuity, observing how
- He had assigned to that same lady more-
- Than it is proper to concede to mortals.
- And these our Venuses are 'ware of this.
- Wherefore the more are they at pains to hide
- All the-behind-the-scenes of life from those
- Whom they desire to keep in bonds of love-
- In vain, since ne'ertheless thou canst by thought
- Drag all the matter forth into the light
- And well search out the cause of all these smiles;
- And if of graceful mind she be and kind,
- Do thou, in thy turn, overlook the same,
- And thus allow for poor mortality.
- Nor sighs the woman always with feigned love,
- Who links her body round man's body locked
- And holds him fast, making his kisses wet
- With lips sucked into lips; for oft she acts
- Even from desire, and, seeking mutual joys,
- Incites him there to run love's race-course through.
- Nor otherwise can cattle, birds, wild beasts,
- And sheep and mares submit unto the males,
- Except that their own nature is in heat,
- And burns abounding and with gladness takes
- Once more the Venus of the mounting males.
- And seest thou not how those whom mutual pleasure
- Hath bound are tortured in their common bonds?
- How often in the cross-roads dogs that pant
- To get apart strain eagerly asunder
- With utmost might?- When all the while they're fast
- In the stout links of Venus. But they'd ne'er
- So pull, except they knew those mutual joys-
- So powerful to cast them unto snares
- And hold them bound. Wherefore again, again,
- Even as I say, there is a joint delight.
- And when perchance, in mingling seed with his,
- The female hath o'erpowered the force of male
- And by a sudden fling hath seized it fast,
- Then are the offspring, more from mothers' seed,
- More like their mothers; as, from fathers' seed,
- They're like to fathers. But whom seest to be
- Partakers of each shape, one equal blend
- Of parents' features, these are generate
- From fathers' body and from mothers' blood,
- When mutual and harmonious heat hath dashed
- Together seeds, aroused along their frames
- By Venus' goads, and neither of the twain
- Mastereth or is mastered. Happens too
- That sometimes offspring can to being come
- In likeness of their grandsires, and bring back
- Often the shapes of grandsires' sires, because
- Their parents in their bodies oft retain
- Concealed many primal germs, commixed
- In many modes, which, starting with the stock,
- Sire handeth down to son, himself a sire;
- Whence Venus by a variable chance
- Engenders shapes, and diversely brings back
- Ancestral features, voices too, and hair.
- A female generation rises forth
- From seed paternal, and from mother's body
- Exist created males: since sex proceeds
- No more from singleness of seed than faces
- Or bodies or limbs of ours: for every birth
- Is from a twofold seed; and what's created
- Hath, of that parent which it is more like,
- More than its equal share; as thou canst mark,-
- Whether the breed be male or female stock.
- Nor do the powers divine grudge any man
- The fruits of his seed-sowing, so that never
- He be called "father" by sweet children his,
- And end his days in sterile love forever.
- What many men suppose; and gloomily
- They sprinkle the altars with abundant blood,
- And make the high platforms odorous with burnt gifts,
- To render big by plenteous seed their wives-
- And plague in vain godheads and sacred lots.
- For sterile are these men by seed too thick,
- Or else by far too watery and thin.
- Because the thin is powerless to cleave
- Fast to the proper places, straightaway
- It trickles from them, and, returned again,
- Retires abortively. And then since seed
- More gross and solid than will suit is spent
- By some men, either it flies not forth amain
- With spurt prolonged enough, or else it fails
- To enter suitably the proper places,
- Or, having entered, the seed is weakly mixed
- With seed of the woman: harmonies of Venus
- Are seen to matter vastly here; and some
- Impregnate some more readily, and from some
- Some women conceive more readily and become
- Pregnant. And many women, sterile before
- In several marriage-beds, have yet thereafter
- Obtained the mates from whom they could conceive
- The baby-boys, and with sweet progeny
- Grow rich. And even for husbands (whose own wives,
- Although of fertile wombs, have borne for them
- No babies in the house) are also found
- Concordant natures so that they at last
- Can bulwark their old age with goodly sons.
- A matter of great moment 'tis in truth,
- That seeds may mingle readily with seeds
- Suited for procreation, and that thick
- Should mix with fluid seeds, with thick the fluid.
- And in this business 'tis of some import
- Upon what diet life is nourished:
- For some foods thicken seeds within our members,
- And others thin them out and waste away.
- And in what modes the fond delight itself
- Is carried on- this too importeth vastly.
- For commonly 'tis thought that wives conceive
- More readily in manner of wild-beasts,
- After the custom of the four-foot breeds,
- Because so postured, with the breasts beneath
- And buttocks then upreared, the seeds can take
- Their proper places. Nor is need the least
- For wives to use the motions of blandishment;
- For thus the woman hinders and resists
- Her own conception, if too joyously
- Herself she treats the Venus of the man
- With haunches heaving, and with all her bosom
- Now yielding like the billows of the sea-
- Aye, from the ploughshare's even course and track
- She throws the furrow, and from proper places
- Deflects the spurt of seed. And courtesans
- Are thuswise wont to move for their own ends,
- To keep from pregnancy and lying in,
- And all the while to render Venus more
- A pleasure for the men- the which meseems
- Our wives have never need of.