De Rerum Natura
Lucretius
Lucretius. De Rerum Natura. William Ellery Leonard. E. P. Dutton. 1916.
- And when that wind
- Hath splintered that cloud, then down there cleaves forthwith
- Yon fiery coil of flame which still we call,
- Even with our fathers' word, a thunderbolt.
- The same thing haps toward every other side
- Whither that force hath swept. It happens, too,
- That sometimes force of wind, though hurtled forth
- Without all fire, yet in its voyage through space
- Igniteth, whilst it comes along, along,-
- Losing some larger bodies which cannot
- Pass, like the others, through the bulks of air,-
- And, scraping together out of air itself
- Some smaller bodies, carries them along,
- And these, commingling, by their flight make fire:
- Much in the manner as oft a leaden ball
- Grows hot upon its aery course, the while
- It loseth many bodies of stark cold
- And taketh into itself along the air
- New particles of fire. It happens, too,
- That force of blow itself arouses fire,
- When force of wind, a-cold and hurtled forth
- Without all fire, hath strook somewhere amain-
- No marvel, because, when with terrific stroke
- 'Thas smitten, the elements of fiery-stuff
- Can stream together from out the very wind
- And, simultaneously, from out that thing
- Which then and there receives the stroke: as flies
- The fire when with the steel we hack the stone;
- Nor yet, because the force of steel's a-cold,
- Rush the less speedily together there
- Under the stroke its seeds of radiance hot.
- And therefore, thuswise must an object too
- Be kindled by a thunderbolt, if haply
- 'Thas been adapt and suited to the flames.
- Yet force of wind must not be rashly deemed
- As altogether and entirely cold-
- That force which is discharged from on high
- With such stupendous power; but if 'tis not
- Upon its course already kindled with fire,
- It yet arriveth warmed and mixed with heat.
- And, now, the speed and stroke of thunderbolt
- Is so tremendous, and with glide so swift
- Those thunderbolts rush on and down, because
- Their roused force itself collects itself
- First always in the clouds, and then prepares
- For the huge effort of their going-forth;
- Next, when the cloud no longer can retain
- The increment of their fierce impetus,
- Their force is pressed out, and therefore flies
- With impetus so wondrous, like to shots
- Hurled from the powerful Roman catapults.
- Note, too, this force consists of elements
- Both small and smooth, nor is there aught that can
- With ease resist such nature. For it darts
- Between and enters through the pores of things;
- And so it never falters in delay
- Despite innumerable collisions, but
- Flies shooting onward with a swift elan.
- Next, since by nature always every weight
- Bears downward, doubled is the swiftness then
- And that elan is still more wild and dread,
- When, verily, to weight are added blows,
- So that more madly and more fiercely then
- The thunderbolt shakes into shivers all
- That blocks its path, following on its way.
- Then, too, because it comes along, along
- With one continuing elan, it must
- Take on velocity anew, anew,
- Which still increases as it goes, and ever
- Augments the bolt's vast powers and to the blow
- Gives larger vigour; for it forces all,
- All of the thunder's seeds of fire, to sweep
- In a straight line unto one place, as 'twere,-
- Casting them one by other, as they roll,
- Into that onward course. Again, perchance,
- In coming along, it pulls from out the air
- Some certain bodies, which by their own blows
- Enkindle its velocity. And, lo,
- It comes through objects leaving them unharmed,
- It goes through many things and leaves them whole,
- Because the liquid fire flieth along
- Athrough their pores. And much it does transfix,
- When these primordial atoms of the bolt
- Have fallen upon the atoms of these things
- Precisely where the intertwined atoms
- Are held together. And, further, easily
- Brass it unbinds and quickly fuseth gold,
- Because its force is so minutely made
- Of tiny parts and elements so smooth
- That easily they wind their way within,
- And, when once in, quickly unbind all knots
- And loosen all the bonds of union there.
- And most in autumn is shaken the house of heaven,
- The house so studded with the glittering stars,
- And the whole earth around- most too in spring
- When flowery times unfold themselves: for, lo,
- In the cold season is there lack of fire,
- And winds are scanty in the hot, and clouds
- Have not so dense a bulk. But when, indeed,
- The seasons of heaven are betwixt these twain,
- The divers causes of the thunderbolt
- Then all concur; for then both cold and heat
- Are mixed in the cross-seas of the year,
- So that a discord rises among things
- And air in vast tumultuosity
- Billows, infuriate with the fires and winds-
- Of which the both are needed by the cloud
- For fabrication of the thunderbolt.
- For the first part of heat and last of cold
- Is the time of spring; wherefore must things unlike
- Do battle one with other, and, when mixed,
- Tumultuously rage. And when rolls round
- The latest heat mixed with the earliest chill-
- The time which bears the name of autumn- then
- Likewise fierce cold-spells wrestle with fierce heats.
- On this account these seasons of the year
- Are nominated "cross-seas."- And no marvel
- If in those times the thunderbolts prevail
- And storms are roused turbulent in heaven,
- Since then both sides in dubious warfare rage
- Tumultuously, the one with flames, the other
- With winds and with waters mixed with winds.
- This, this it is, O Memmius, to see through
- The very nature of fire-fraught thunderbolt;
- O this it is to mark by what blind force
- It maketh each effect, and not, O not
- To unwind Etrurian scrolls oracular,
- Inquiring tokens of occult will of gods,
- Even as to whence the flying flame hath come,
- Or to which half of heaven it turns, or how
- Through walled places it hath wound its way,
- Or, after proving its dominion there,
- How it hath speeded forth from thence amain,
- Or what the thunderstroke portends of ill
- From out high heaven. But if Jupiter
- And other gods shake those refulgent vaults
- With dread reverberations and hurl fire
- Whither it pleases each, why smite they not
- Mortals of reckless and revolting crimes,
- That such may pant from a transpierced breast
- Forth flames of the red levin- unto men
- A drastic lesson?- why is rather he-
- O he self-conscious of no foul offence-
- Involved in flames, though innocent, and clasped
- Up-caught in skiey whirlwind and in fire?
- Nay, why, then, aim they at eternal wastes,
- And spend themselves in vain?- perchance, even so
- To exercise their arms and strengthen shoulders?
- Why suffer they the Father's javelin
- To be so blunted on the earth? And why
- Doth he himself allow it, nor spare the same
- Even for his enemies? O why most oft
- Aims he at lofty places? Why behold we
- Marks of his lightnings most on mountain tops?
- Then for what reason shoots he at the sea?-
- What sacrilege have waves and bulk of brine
- And floating fields of foam been guilty of?
- Besides, if 'tis his will that we beware
- Against the lightning-stroke, why feareth he
- To grant us power for to behold the shot?
- And, contrariwise, if wills he to o'erwhelm us,
- Quite off our guard, with fire, why thunders he
- Off in yon quarter, so that we may shun?
- Why rouseth he beforehand darkling air
- And the far din and rumblings? And O how
- Canst thou believe he shoots at one same time
- Into diverse directions? Or darest thou
- Contend that never hath it come to pass
- That divers strokes have happened at one time?
- But oft and often hath it come to pass,
- And often still it must, that, even as showers
- And rains o'er many regions fall, so too
- Dart many thunderbolts at one same time.
- Again, why never hurtles Jupiter
- A bolt upon the lands nor pours abroad
- Clap upon clap, when skies are cloudless all?
- Or, say, doth he, so soon as ever the clouds
- Have come thereunder, then into the same
- Descend in person, that from thence he may
- Near-by decide upon the stroke of shaft?
- And, lastly, why, with devastating bolt
- Shakes he asunder holy shrines of gods
- And his own thrones of splendour, and to-breaks
- The well-wrought idols of divinities,
- And robs of glory his own images
- By wound of violence?
- But to return apace,
- Easy it is from these same facts to know
- In just what wise those things (which from their sort
- The Greeks have named "bellows") do come down,
- Discharged from on high, upon the seas.
- For it haps that sometimes from the sky descends
- Upon the seas a column, as if pushed,
- Round which the surges seethe, tremendously
- Aroused by puffing gusts; and whatso'er
- Of ships are caught within that tumult then
- Come into extreme peril, dashed along.
- This haps when sometimes wind's aroused force
- Can't burst the cloud it tries to, but down-weighs
- That cloud, until 'tis like a column from sky
- Upon the seas pushed downward- gradually,
- As if a Somewhat from on high were shoved
- By fist and nether thrust of arm, and lengthened
- Far to the waves. And when the force of wind
- Hath rived this cloud, from out the cloud it rushes
- Down on the seas, and starts among the waves
- A wondrous seething, for the eddying whirl
- Descends and downward draws along with it
- That cloud of ductile body. And soon as ever
- 'Thas shoved unto the levels of the main
- That laden cloud, the whirl suddenly then
- Plunges its whole self into the waters there
- And rouses all the sea with monstrous roar,
- Constraining it to seethe. It happens too
- That very vortex of the wind involves
- Itself in clouds, scraping from out the air
- The seeds of cloud, and counterfeits, as 'twere,
- The "bellows" pushed from heaven. And when this shape
- Hath dropped upon the lands and burst apart,
- It belches forth immeasurable might
- Of whirlwind and of blast. Yet since 'tis formed
- At most but rarely, and on land the hills
- Must block its way, 'tis seen more oft out there
- On the broad prospect of the level main
- Along the free horizons.
- Into being
- The clouds condense, when in this upper space
- Of the high heaven have gathered suddenly,
- As round they flew, unnumbered particles-
- World's rougher ones, which can, though interlinked
- With scanty couplings, yet be fastened firm,
- The one on other caught. These particles
- First cause small clouds to form; and, thereupon,
- These catch the one on other and swarm in a flock
- And grow by their conjoining, and by winds
- Are borne along, along, until collects
- The tempest fury. Happens, too, the nearer
- The mountain summits neighbour to the sky,
- The more unceasingly their far crags smoke
- With the thick darkness of swart cloud, because
- When first the mists do form, ere ever the eyes
- Can there behold them (tenuous as they be),
- The carrier-winds will drive them up and on
- Unto the topmost summits of the mountain;
- And then at last it happens, when they be
- In vaster throng upgathered, that they can
- By this very condensation lie revealed,
- And that at same time they are seen to surge
- From very vertex of the mountain up
- Into far ether. For very fact and feeling,
- As we up-climb high mountains, proveth clear
- That windy are those upward regions free.
- Besides, the clothes hung-out along the shore,
- When in they take the clinging moisture, prove
- That nature lifts from over all the sea
- Unnumbered particles. Whereby the more
- 'Tis manifest that many particles
- Even from the salt upheavings of the main
- Can rise together to augment the bulk
- Of massed clouds. For moistures in these twain
- Are near akin. Besides, from out all rivers,
- As well as from the land itself, we see
- Up-rising mists and steam, which like a breath
- Are forced out from them and borne aloft,
- To curtain heaven with their murk, and make,
- By slow foregathering, the skiey clouds.
- For, in addition, lo, the heat on high
- Of constellated ether burdens down
- Upon them, and by sort of condensation
- Weaveth beneath the azure firmament
- The reek of darkling cloud. It happens, too,
- That hither to the skies from the Beyond
- Do come those particles which make the clouds
- And flying thunderheads. For I have taught
- That this their number is innumerable
- And infinite the sum of the Abyss,
- And I have shown with what stupendous speed
- Those bodies fly and how they're wont to pass
- Amain through incommunicable space.
- Therefore, 'tis not exceeding strange, if oft
- In little time tempest and darkness cover
- With bulking thunderheads hanging on high
- The oceans and the lands, since everywhere
- Through all the narrow tubes of yonder ether,
- Yea, so to speak, through all the breathing-holes
- Of the great upper-world encompassing,
- There be for the primordial elements
- Exits and entrances.
- Now come, and how
- The rainy moisture thickens into being
- In the lofty clouds, and how upon the lands
- 'Tis then discharged in down-pour of large showers,
- I will unfold. And first triumphantly
- Will I persuade thee that up-rise together,
- With clouds themselves, full many seeds of water
- From out all things, and that they both increase-
- Both clouds and water which is in the clouds-
- In like proportion, as our frames increase
- In like proportion with our blood, as well
- As sweat or any moisture in our members.
- Besides, the clouds take in from time to time
- Much moisture risen from the broad marine,-
- Whilst the winds bear them o'er the mighty sea,
- Like hanging fleeces of white wool. Thuswise,
- Even from all rivers is there lifted up
- Moisture into the clouds. And when therein
- The seeds of water so many in many ways
- Have come together, augmented from all sides,
- The close-jammed clouds then struggle to discharge
- Their rain-storms for a two-fold reason: lo,
- The wind's force crowds them, and the very excess
- Of storm-clouds (massed in a vaster throng)
- Giveth an urge and pressure from above
- And makes the rains out-pour. Besides when, too,
- The clouds are winnowed by the winds, or scattered
- Smitten on top by heat of sun, they send
- Their rainy moisture, and distil their drops,
- Even as the wax, by fiery warmth on top,
- Wasteth and liquefies abundantly.
- But comes the violence of the bigger rains
- When violently the clouds are weighted down
- Both by their cumulated mass and by
- The onset of the wind. And rains are wont
- To endure awhile and to abide for long,
- When many seeds of waters are aroused,
- And clouds on clouds and racks on racks outstream
- In piled layers and are borne along
- From every quarter, and when all the earth
- Smoking exhales her moisture. At such a time
- When sun with beams amid the tempest-murk
- Hath shone against the showers of black rains,
- Then in the swart clouds there emerges bright
- The radiance of the bow.
- And as to things
- Not mentioned here which of themselves do grow
- Or of themselves are gendered, and all things
- Which in the clouds condense to being- all,
- Snow and the winds, hail and the hoar-frosts chill,
- And freezing, mighty force- of lakes and pools
- The mighty hardener, and mighty check
- Which in the winter curbeth everywhere
- The rivers as they go- 'tis easy still,
- Soon to discover and with mind to see
- How they all happen, whereby gendered,
- When once thou well hast understood just what
- Functions have been vouchsafed from of old
- Unto the procreant atoms of the world.
- Now come, and what the law of earthquakes is
- Hearken, and first of all take care to know
- That the under-earth, like to the earth around us,
- Is full of windy caverns all about;
- And many a pool and many a grim abyss
- She bears within her bosom, ay, and cliffs
- And jagged scarps; and many a river, hid
- Beneath her chine, rolls rapidly along
- Its billows and plunging boulders. For clear fact
- Requires that earth must be in every part
- Alike in constitution. Therefore, earth,
- With these things underneath affixed and set,
- Trembleth above, jarred by big down-tumblings,
- When time hath undermined the huge caves,
- The subterranean. Yea, whole mountains fall,
- And instantly from spot of that big jar
- There quiver the tremors far and wide abroad.
- And with good reason: since houses on the street
- Begin to quake throughout, when jarred by a cart
- Of no large weight; and, too, the furniture
- Within the house up-bounds, when a paving-block
- Gives either iron rim of the wheels a jolt.
- It happens, too, when some prodigious bulk
- Of age-worn soil is rolled from mountain slopes
- Into tremendous pools of water dark,
- That the reeling land itself is rocked about
- By the water's undulations; as a basin
- Sometimes won't come to rest until the fluid
- Within it ceases to be rocked about
- In random undulations.
- And besides,
- When subterranean winds, up-gathered there
- In the hollow deeps, bulk forward from one spot,
- And press with the big urge of mighty powers
- Against the lofty grottos, then the earth
- Bulks to that quarter whither push amain
- The headlong winds. Then all the builded houses
- Above ground- and the more, the higher up-reared
- Unto the sky- lean ominously, careening
- Into the same direction; and the beams,
- Wrenched forward, over-hang, ready to go.
- Yet dread men to believe that there awaits
- The nature of the mighty world a time
- Of doom and cataclysm, albeit they see
- So great a bulk of lands to bulge and break!
- And lest the winds blew back again, no force
- Could rein things in nor hold from sure career
- On to disaster. But now because those winds
- Blow back and forth in alternation strong,
- And, so to say, rallying charge again,
- And then repulsed retreat, on this account
- Earth oftener threatens than she brings to pass
- Collapses dire. For to one side she leans,
- Then back she sways; and after tottering
- Forward, recovers then her seats of poise.
- Thus, this is why whole houses rock, the roofs
- More than the middle stories, middle more
- Than lowest, and the lowest least of all.