De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

Lucretius. De Rerum Natura. William Ellery Leonard. E. P. Dutton. 1916.

  1. Thus, when from deep within our frame we force
  2. These voices, and at mouth expel them forth,
  3. The mobile tongue, artificer of words,
  4. Makes them articulate, and too the lips
  5. By their formations share in shaping them.
  6. Hence when the space is short from starting-point
  7. To where that voice arrives, the very words
  8. Must too be plainly heard, distinctly marked.
  9. For then the voice conserves its own formation,
  10. Conserves its shape. But if the space between
  11. Be longer than is fit, the words must be
  12. Through the much air confounded, and the voice
  13. Disordered in its flight across the winds-
  14. And so it haps, that thou canst sound perceive,
  15. Yet not determine what the words may mean;
  16. To such degree confounded and encumbered
  17. The voice approaches us. Again, one word,
  18. Sent from the crier's mouth, may rouse all ears
  19. Among the populace. And thus one voice
  20. Scatters asunder into many voices,
  21. Since it divides itself for separate ears,
  22. Imprinting form of word and a clear tone.
  23. But whatso part of voices fails to hit
  24. The ears themselves perishes, borne beyond,
  25. Idly diffused among the winds. A part,
  26. Beating on solid porticoes, tossed back
  27. Returns a sound; and sometimes mocks the ear
  28. With a mere phantom of a word.
  1. When this
  2. Thou well hast noted, thou canst render count
  3. Unto thyself and others why it is
  4. Along the lonely places that the rocks
  5. Give back like shapes of words in order like,
  6. When search we after comrades wandering
  7. Among the shady mountains, and aloud
  8. Call unto them, the scattered. I have seen
  9. Spots that gave back even voices six or seven
  10. For one thrown forth- for so the very hills,
  11. Dashing them back against the hills, kept on
  12. With their reverberations. And these spots
  13. The neighbouring country-side doth feign to be
  14. Haunts of the goat-foot satyrs and the nymphs;
  15. And tells ye there be fauns, by whose night noise
  16. And antic revels yonder they declare
  17. The voiceless silences are broken oft,
  18. And tones of strings are made and wailings sweet
  19. Which the pipe, beat by players' finger-tips,
  20. Pours out; and far and wide the farmer-race
  21. Begins to hear, when, shaking the garmentings
  22. Of pine upon his half-beast head, god-Pan
  23. With puckered lip oft runneth o'er and o'er
  24. The open reeds,- lest flute should cease to pour
  25. The woodland music! Other prodigies
  26. And wonders of this ilk they love to tell,
  27. Lest they be thought to dwell in lonely spots
  28. And even by gods deserted. This is why
  29. They boast of marvels in their story-tellings;
  30. Or by some other reason are led on-
  31. Greedy, as all mankind hath ever been,
  32. To prattle fables into ears.
  1. Again,
  2. One need not wonder how it comes about
  3. That through those places (through which eyes cannot
  4. View objects manifest) sounds yet may pass
  5. And assail the ears. For often we observe
  6. People conversing, though the doors be closed;
  7. No marvel either, since all voice unharmed
  8. Can wind through bended apertures of things,
  9. While idol-films decline to- for they're rent,
  10. Unless along straight apertures they swim,
  11. Like those in glass, through which all images
  12. Do fly across. And yet this voice itself,
  13. In passing through shut chambers of a house,
  14. Is dulled, and in a jumble enters ears,
  15. And sound we seem to hear far more than words.
  16. Moreover, a voice is into all directions
  17. Divided up, since off from one another
  18. New voices are engendered, when one voice
  19. Hath once leapt forth, outstarting into many-
  20. As oft a spark of fire is wont to sprinkle
  21. Itself into its several fires. And so,
  22. Voices do fill those places hid behind,
  23. Which all are in a hubbub round about,
  24. Astir with sound. But idol-films do tend,
  25. As once sent forth, in straight directions all;
  26. Wherefore one can inside a wall see naught,
  27. Yet catch the voices from beyond the same.
  1. Nor tongue and palate, whereby we flavour feel,
  2. Present more problems for more work of thought.
  3. Firstly, we feel a flavour in the mouth,
  4. When forth we squeeze it, in chewing up our food,-
  5. As any one perchance begins to squeeze
  6. With hand and dry a sponge with water soaked.
  7. Next, all which forth we squeeze is spread about
  8. Along the pores and intertwined paths
  9. Of the loose-textured tongue. And so, when smooth
  10. The bodies of the oozy flavour, then
  11. Delightfully they touch, delightfully
  12. They treat all spots, around the wet and trickling
  13. Enclosures of the tongue. And contrariwise,
  14. They sting and pain the sense with their assault,
  15. According as with roughness they're supplied.
  16. Next, only up to palate is the pleasure
  17. Coming from flavour; for in truth when down
  18. 'Thas plunged along the throat, no pleasure is,
  19. Whilst into all the frame it spreads around;
  20. Nor aught it matters with what food is fed
  21. The body, if only what thou take thou canst
  22. Distribute well digested to the frame
  23. And keep the stomach in a moist career.
  24. Now, how it is we see some food for some,
  25. Others for others....
  26. . . . . . .
  27. I will unfold, or wherefore what to some
  28. Is foul and bitter, yet the same to others
  29. Can seem delectable to eat,- why here
  30. So great the distance and the difference is
  31. That what is food to one to some becomes
  32. Fierce poison, as a certain snake there is
  33. Which, touched by spittle of a man, will waste
  34. And end itself by gnawing up its coil.
  35. Again, fierce poison is the hellebore
  36. To us, but puts the fat on goats and quails.
  37. That thou mayst know by what devices this
  38. Is brought about, in chief thou must recall
  39. What we have said before, that seeds are kept
  40. Commixed in things in divers modes. Again,
  41. As all the breathing creatures which take food
  42. Are outwardly unlike, and outer cut
  43. And contour of their members bounds them round,
  44. Each differing kind by kind, they thus consist
  45. Of seeds of varying shape. And furthermore,
  46. Since seeds do differ, divers too must be
  47. The interstices and paths (which we do call
  48. The apertures) in all the members, even
  49. In mouth and palate too. Thus some must be
  50. More small or yet more large, three-cornered some
  51. And others squared, and many others round,
  52. And certain of them many-angled too
  53. In many modes. For, as the combination
  54. And motion of their divers shapes demand,
  55. The shapes of apertures must be diverse
  56. And paths must vary according to their walls
  57. That bound them. Hence when what is sweet to some,
  58. Becomes to others bitter, for him to whom
  59. 'Tis sweet, the smoothest particles must needs
  60. Have entered caressingly the palate's pores.
  61. And, contrariwise, with those to whom that sweet
  62. Is sour within the mouth, beyond a doubt
  63. The rough and barbed particles have got
  64. Into the narrows of the apertures.
  65. Now easy it is from these affairs to know
  66. Whatever...
  67. . . . . . .
  68. Indeed, where one from o'er-abundant bile
  69. Is stricken with fever, or in other wise
  70. Feels the roused violence of some malady,
  71. There the whole frame is now upset, and there
  72. All the positions of the seeds are changed,-
  73. So that the bodies which before were fit
  74. To cause the savour, now are fit no more,
  75. And now more apt are others which be able
  76. To get within the pores and gender sour.
  77. Both sorts, in sooth, are intermixed in honey-
  78. What oft we've proved above to thee before.
  1. Now come, and I will indicate what wise
  2. Impact of odour on the nostrils touches.
  3. And first, 'tis needful there be many things
  4. From whence the streaming flow of varied odours
  5. May roll along, and we're constrained to think
  6. They stream and dart and sprinkle themselves about
  7. Impartially. But for some breathing creatures
  8. One odour is more apt, to others another-
  9. Because of differing forms of seeds and pores.
  10. Thus on and on along the zephyrs bees
  11. Are led by odour of honey, vultures too
  12. By carcasses. Again, the forward power
  13. Of scent in dogs doth lead the hunter on
  14. Whithersoever the splay-foot of wild beast
  15. Hath hastened its career; and the white goose,
  16. The saviour of the Roman citadel,
  17. Forescents afar the odour of mankind.
  18. Thus, diversly to divers ones is given
  19. Peculiar smell that leadeth each along
  20. To his own food or makes him start aback
  21. From loathsome poison, and in this wise are
  22. The generations of the wild preserved.
  23. Yet is this pungence not alone in odours
  24. Or in the class of flavours; but, likewise,
  25. The look of things and hues agree not all
  26. So well with senses unto all, but that
  27. Some unto some will be, to gaze upon,
  28. More keen and painful. Lo, the raving lions,
  29. They dare not face and gaze upon the cock
  30. Who's wont with wings to flap away the night
  31. From off the stage, and call the beaming morn
  32. With clarion voice- and lions straightway thus
  33. Bethink themselves of flight, because, ye see,
  34. Within the body of the cocks there be
  35. Some certain seeds, which, into lions' eyes
  36. Injected, bore into the pupils deep
  37. And yield such piercing pain they can't hold out
  38. Against the cocks, however fierce they be-
  39. Whilst yet these seeds can't hurt our gaze the least,
  40. Either because they do not penetrate,
  41. Or since they have free exit from the eyes
  42. As soon as penetrating, so that thus
  43. They cannot hurt our eyes in any part
  44. By there remaining.
  45. To speak once more of odour;
  46. Whatever assail the nostrils, some can travel
  47. A longer way than others. None of them,
  48. However, 's borne so far as sound or voice-
  49. While I omit all mention of such things
  50. As hit the eyesight and assail the vision.
  51. For slowly on a wandering course it comes
  52. And perishes sooner, by degrees absorbed
  53. Easily into all the winds of air;-
  54. And first, because from deep inside the thing
  55. It is discharged with labour (for the fact
  56. That every object, when 'tis shivered, ground,
  57. Or crumbled by the fire, will smell the stronger
  58. Is sign that odours flow and part away
  59. From inner regions of the things). And next,
  60. Thou mayest see that odour is create
  61. Of larger primal germs than voice, because
  62. It enters not through stony walls, wherethrough
  63. Unfailingly the voice and sound are borne;
  64. Wherefore, besides, thou wilt observe 'tis not
  65. So easy to trace out in whatso place
  66. The smelling object is. For, dallying on
  67. Along the winds, the particles cool off,
  68. And then the scurrying messengers of things
  69. Arrive our senses, when no longer hot.
  70. So dogs oft wander astray, and hunt the scent.
  1. Now mark, and hear what objects move the mind,
  2. And learn, in few, whence unto intellect
  3. Do come what come. And first I tell thee this:
  4. That many images of objects rove
  5. In many modes to every region round-
  6. So thin that easily the one with other,
  7. When once they meet, uniteth in mid-air,
  8. Like gossamer or gold-leaf. For, indeed,
  9. Far thinner are they in their fabric than
  10. Those images which take a hold on eyes
  11. And smite the vision, since through body's pores
  12. They penetrate, and inwardly stir up
  13. The subtle nature of mind and smite the sense.
  14. Thus, Centaurs and the limbs of Scyllas, thus
  15. The Cerberus-visages of dogs we see,
  16. And images of people gone before-
  17. Dead men whose bones earth bosomed long ago;
  18. Because the images of every kind
  19. Are everywhere about us borne- in part
  20. Those which are gendered in the very air
  21. Of own accord, in part those others which
  22. From divers things do part away, and those
  23. Which are compounded, made from out their shapes.
  24. For soothly from no living Centaur is
  25. That phantom gendered, since no breed of beast
  26. Like him was ever; but, when images
  27. Of horse and man by chance have come together,
  28. They easily cohere, as aforesaid,
  29. At once, through subtle nature and fabric thin.
  30. In the same fashion others of this ilk
  31. Created are. And when they're quickly borne
  32. In their exceeding lightness, easily
  33. (As earlier I showed) one subtle image,
  34. Compounded, moves by its one blow the mind,
  35. Itself so subtle and so strangely quick.
  36. That these things come to pass as I record,
  37. From this thou easily canst understand:
  38. So far as one is unto other like,
  39. Seeing with mind as well as with the eyes
  40. Must come to pass in fashion not unlike.
  41. Well, now, since I have shown that I perceive
  42. Haply a lion through those idol-films
  43. Such as assail my eyes, 'tis thine to know
  44. Also the mind is in like manner moved,
  45. And sees, nor more nor less than eyes do see
  46. (Except that it perceives more subtle films)
  47. The lion and aught else through idol-films.
  48. And when the sleep has overset our frame,
  49. The mind's intelligence is now awake,
  50. Still for no other reason, save that these-
  51. The self-same films as when we are awake-
  52. Assail our minds, to such degree indeed
  53. That we do seem to see for sure the man
  54. Whom, void of life, now death and earth have gained
  55. Dominion over. And nature forces this
  56. To come to pass because the body's senses
  57. Are resting, thwarted through the members all,
  58. Unable now to conquer false with true;
  59. And memory lies prone and languishes
  60. In slumber, nor protests that he, the man
  61. Whom the mind feigns to see alive, long since
  62. Hath been the gain of death and dissolution.
  63. And further, 'tis no marvel idols move
  64. And toss their arms and other members round
  65. In rhythmic time- and often in men's sleeps
  66. It haps an image this is seen to do;
  67. In sooth, when perishes the former image,
  68. And other is gendered of another pose,
  69. That former seemeth to have changed its gestures.
  70. Of course the change must be conceived as speedy;
  71. So great the swiftness and so great the store
  72. Of idol-things, and (in an instant brief
  73. As mind can mark) so great, again, the store
  74. Of separate idol-parts to bring supplies.
  75. It happens also that there is supplied
  76. Sometimes an image not of kind the same;
  77. But what before was woman, now at hand
  78. Is seen to stand there, altered into male;
  79. Or other visage, other age succeeds;
  80. But slumber and oblivion take care
  81. That we shall feel no wonder at the thing.