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De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)
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De Rerum Natura

Author: Lucretius
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
1
Liber
Primus

Aeneadum
genetrix
,
hominum
divomque
voluptas
,
alma
Venus
,
caeli
subter
labentia
signa

quae
mare
navigerum
,
quae
terras
frugiferentis

concelebras
,
per
te
quoniam
genus
omne
animantum

concipitur
visitque
exortum
lumina
solis
:
te
,
dea
,
te
fugiunt
venti
,
te
nubila
caeli

adventumque
tuum
,
tibi
suavis
daedala
tellus

summittit
flores
,
tibi
rident
aequora
ponti

placatumque
nitet
diffuso
lumine
caelum
.
nam
simul
ac
species
patefactast
verna
diei

et
reserata
viget
genitabilis
aura
favoni
,
aeriae
primum
volucris
te
,
diva
,
tuumque

significant
initum
perculsae
corda
tua
vi
.
inde
ferae
pecudes
persultant
pabula
laeta

et
rapidos
tranant
amnis
:
ita
capta
lepore

te
sequitur
cupide
quo
quamque
inducere
pergis
.
denique
per
maria
ac
montis
fluviosque
rapacis

frondiferasque
domos
avium
camposque
virentis

omnibus
incutiens
blandum
per
pectora
amorem

efficis
ut
cupide
generatim
saecla
propagent
.
quae
quoniam
rerum
naturam
sola
gubernas

nec
sine
te
quicquam
dias
in
luminis
oras

exoritur
neque
fit
laetum
neque
amabile
quicquam
,
te
sociam
studeo
scribendis
versibus
esse
,
quos
ego
de
rerum
natura
pangere
conor

Memmiadae
nostro
,
quem
tu
,
dea
,
tempore
in
omni

omnibus
ornatum
voluisti
excellere
rebus
.
quo
magis
aeternum
da
dictis
,
diva
,
leporem
.
effice
ut
interea
fera
moenera
militiai

per
maria
ac
terras
omnis
sopita
quiescant
;
nam
tu
sola
potes
tranquilla
pace
iuvare

mortalis
,
quoniam
belli
fera
moenera
Mavors

armipotens
regit
,
in
gremium
qui
saepe
tuum
se

reiicit
aeterno
devictus
vulnere
amoris
,
atque
ita
suspiciens
tereti
cervice
reposta

pascit
amore
avidos
inhians
in
te
,
dea
,
visus

eque
tuo
pendet
resupini
spiritus
ore
.
hunc
tu
,
diva
,
tuo
recubantem
corpore
sancto

circum
fusa
super
,
suavis
ex
ore
loquellas

funde
petens
placidam
Romanis
,
incluta
,
pacem
;
nam
neque
nos
agere
hoc
patriai
tempore
iniquo

possumus
aequo
animo
nec
Memmi
clara
propago

talibus
in
rebus
communi
desse
saluti
.
omnis
enim
per
se
divum
natura
necessest

immortali
aevo
summa
cum
pace
fruatur

semota
ab
nostris
rebus
seiunctaque
longe
;
nam
privata
dolore
omni
,
privata
periclis
,
ipsa
suis
pollens
opibus
,
nihil
indiga
nostri
,
nec
bene
promeritis
capitur
nec
tangitur
ira
.

BOOK I
PROEM
Mother of Rome, delight of Gods and men,
Dear Venus that beneath the gliding stars
Makest to teem the many-voyaged main
And fruitful lands- for all of living things
Through thee alone are evermore conceived,
Through thee are risen to visit the great sun-
Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on,
Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away,
For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers,
For thee waters of the unvexed deep
Smile, and the hollows of the serene sky
Glow with diffused radiance for thee!
For soon as comes the springtime face of day,
And procreant gales blow from the West unbarred,
First fowls of air, smit to the heart by thee,
Foretoken thy approach, O thou Divine,
And leap the wild herds round the happy fields
Or swim the bounding torrents. Thus amain,
Seized with the spell, all creatures follow thee
Whithersoever thou walkest forth to lead,
And thence through seas and mountains and swift streams,
Through leafy homes of birds and greening plains,
Kindling the lure of love in every breast,
Thou bringest the eternal generations forth,
Kind after kind. And since 'tis thou alone
Guidest the Cosmos, and without thee naught
Is risen to reach the shining shores of light,
Nor aught of joyful or of lovely born,
Thee do I crave co-partner in that verse
Which I presume on Nature to compose
For Memmius mine, whom thou hast willed to be
Peerless in every grace at every hour-
Wherefore indeed, Divine one, give my words
Immortal charm. Lull to a timely rest
O'er sea and land the savage works of war,
For thou alone hast power with public peace
To aid mortality; since he who rules
The savage works of battle, puissant Mars,
How often to thy bosom flings his strength
O'ermastered by the eternal wound of love-
And there, with eyes and full throat backward thrown,
Gazing, my Goddess, open-mouthed at thee,
Pastures on love his greedy sight, his breath
Hanging upon thy lips. Him thus reclined
Fill with thy holy body, round, above!
Pour from those lips soft syllables to win
Peace for the Romans, glorious Lady, peace!
For in a season troublous to the state
Neither may I attend this task of mine
With thought untroubled, nor mid such events
The illustrious scion of the Memmian house
Neglect the civic cause.
2
Quod
super
est
,
vacuas
auris
animumque
sagacem

semotum
a
curis
adhibe
veram
ad
rationem
,
ne
mea
dona
tibi
studio
disposta
fideli
,
intellecta
prius
quam
sint
,
contempta
relinquas
.
nam
tibi
de
summa
caeli
ratione
deumque

disserere
incipiam
et
rerum
primordia
pandam
,
unde
omnis
natura
creet
res
,
auctet
alatque
,
quove
eadem
rursum
natura
perempta
resolvat
,
quae
nos
materiem
et
genitalia
corpora
rebus

reddunda
in
ratione
vocare
et
semina
rerum

appellare
suemus
et
haec
eadem
usurpare

corpora
prima
,
quod
ex
illis
sunt
omnia
primis
.

And for the rest, summon to judgments true,
Unbusied ears and singleness of mind
Withdrawn from cares; lest these my gifts, arranged
For thee with eager service, thou disdain
Before thou comprehendest: since for thee
I prove the supreme law of Gods and sky,
And the primordial germs of things unfold,
Whence Nature all creates, and multiplies
And fosters all, and whither she resolves
Each in the end when each is overthrown.
This ultimate stock we have devised to name
Procreant atoms, matter, seeds of things,
Or primal bodies, as primal to the world.
3
Humana
ante
oculos
foede
cum
vita
iaceret

in
terris
oppressa
gravi
sub
religione
,
quae
caput
a
caeli
regionibus
ostendebat

horribili
super
aspectu
mortalibus
instans
,
primum
Graius
homo
mortalis
tollere
contra

est
oculos
ausus
primusque
obsistere
contra
;
quem
neque
fama
deum
nec
fulmina
nec
minitanti

murmure
compressit
caelum
,
sed
eo
magis
acrem

inritat
animi
virtutem
,
effringere
ut
arta

naturae
primus
portarum
claustra
cupiret
.
ergo
vivida
vis
animi
pervicit
et
extra

processit
longe
flammantia
moenia
mundi

atque
omne
immensum
peragravit
mente
animoque
,
unde
refert
nobis
victor
quid
possit
oriri
,
quid
nequeat
,
finita
potestas
denique
cuique

qua
nam
sit
ratione
atque
alte
terminus
haerens
.
quare
religio
pedibus
subiecta
vicissim

opteritur
,
nos
exaequat
victoria
caelo
.

Whilst human kind
Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed
Before all eyes beneath Religion- who
Would show her head along the region skies,
Glowering on mortals with her hideous face-
A Greek it was who first opposing dared
Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand,
Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's stroke
Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky
Abashed; but rather chafed to angry zest
His dauntless heart to be the first to rend
The crossbars at the gates of Nature old.
And thus his will and hardy wisdom won;
And forward thus he fared afar, beyond
The flaming ramparts of the world, until
He wandered the unmeasurable All.
Whence he to us, a conqueror, reports
What things can rise to being, what cannot,
And by what law to each its scope prescribed,
Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time.
Wherefore Religion now is under foot,
And us his victory now exalts to heaven.
4
Illud
in
his
rebus
vereor
,
ne
forte
rearis

impia
te
rationis
inire
elementa
viamque

indugredi
sceleris
.
quod
contra
saepius
illa

religio
peperit
scelerosa
atque
impia
facta
.
Aulide
quo
pacto
Triviai
virginis
aram

Iphianassai
turparunt
sanguine
foede

ductores
Danaum
delecti
,
prima
virorum
.
cui
simul
infula
virgineos
circum
data
comptus

ex
utraque
pari
malarum
parte
profusast
,
et
maestum
simul
ante
aras
adstare
parentem

sensit
et
hunc
propter
ferrum
celare
ministros

aspectuque
suo
lacrimas
effundere
civis
,
muta
metu
terram
genibus
summissa
petebat
.
nec
miserae
prodesse
in
tali
tempore
quibat
,
quod
patrio
princeps
donarat
nomine
regem
;
nam
sublata
virum
manibus
tremibundaque
ad
aras

deductast
,
non
ut
sollemni
more
sacrorum

perfecto
posset
claro
comitari
Hymenaeo
,
sed
casta
inceste
nubendi
tempore
in
ipso

hostia
concideret
mactatu
maesta
parentis
,
exitus
ut
classi
felix
faustusque
daretur
.
tantum
religio
potuit
suadere
malorum
.

I fear perhaps thou deemest that we fare
An impious road to realms of thought profane;
But 'tis that same religion oftener far
Hath bred the foul impieties of men:
As once at Aulis, the elected chiefs,
Foremost of heroes, Danaan counsellors,
Defiled Diana's altar, virgin queen,
With Agamemnon's daughter, foully slain.
She felt the chaplet round her maiden locks
And fillets, fluttering down on either cheek,
And at the altar marked her grieving sire,
The priests beside him who concealed the knife,
And all the folk in tears at sight of her.
With a dumb terror and a sinking knee
She dropped; nor might avail her now that first
'Twas she who gave the king a father's name.
They raised her up, they bore the trembling girl
On to the altar- hither led not now
With solemn rites and hymeneal choir,
But sinless woman, sinfully foredone,
A parent felled her on her bridal day,
Making his child a sacrificial beast
To give the ships auspicious winds for Troy:
Such are the crimes to which Religion leads.
5
Tutemet
a
nobis
iam
quovis
tempore
vatum

terriloquis
victus
dictis
desciscere
quaeres
.
quippe
etenim
quam
multa
tibi
iam
fingere
possunt

somnia
,
quae
vitae
rationes
vertere
possint

fortunasque
tuas
omnis
turbare
timore
!
et
merito
;
nam
si
certam
finem
esse
viderent

aerumnarum
homines
,
aliqua
ratione
valerent

religionibus
atque
minis
obsistere
vatum
.
nunc
ratio
nulla
est
restandi
,
nulla
facultas
,
aeternas
quoniam
poenas
in
morte
timendum
.
ignoratur
enim
quae
sit
natura
animai
,
nata
sit
an
contra
nascentibus
insinuetur

et
simul
intereat
nobiscum
morte
dirempta

an
tenebras
Orci
visat
vastasque
lacunas

an
pecudes
alias
divinitus
insinuet
se
,
Ennius
ut
noster
cecinit
,
qui
primus
amoeno

detulit
ex
Helicone
perenni
fronde
coronam
,
per
gentis
Italas
hominum
quae
clara
clueret
;
etsi
praeterea
tamen
esse
Acherusia
templa

Ennius
aeternis
exponit
versibus
edens
,
quo
neque
permaneant
animae
neque
corpora
nostra
,
sed
quaedam
simulacra
modis
pallentia
miris
;
unde
sibi
exortam
semper
florentis
Homeri

commemorat
speciem
lacrimas
effundere
salsas

coepisse
et
rerum
naturam
expandere
dictis
.
qua
propter
bene
cum
superis
de
rebus
habenda

nobis
est
ratio
,
solis
lunaeque
meatus

qua
fiant
ratione
,
et
qua
vi
quaeque
gerantur

in
terris
,
tunc
cum
primis
ratione
sagaci

unde
anima
atque
animi
constet
natura
videndum
,
et
quae
res
nobis
vigilantibus
obvia
mentes

terrificet
morbo
adfectis
somnoque
sepultis
,
cernere
uti
videamur
eos
audireque
coram
,
morte
obita
quorum
tellus
amplectitur
ossa
.

And there shall come the time when even thou,
Forced by the soothsayer's terror-tales, shalt seek
To break from us. Ah, many a dream even now
Can they concoct to rout thy plans of life,
And trouble all thy fortunes with base fears.
I own with reason: for, if men but knew
Some fixed end to ills, they would be strong
By some device unconquered to withstand
Religions and the menacings of seers.
But now nor skill nor instrument is theirs,
Since men must dread eternal pains in death.
For what the soul may be they do not know,
Whether 'tis born, or enter in at birth,
And whether, snatched by death, it die with us,
Or visit the shadows and the vasty caves
Of Orcus, or by some divine decree
Enter the brute herds, as our Ennius sang,
Who first from lovely Helicon brought down
A laurel wreath of bright perennial leaves,
Renowned forever among the Italian clans.
Yet Ennius too in everlasting verse
Proclaims those vaults of Acheron to be,
Though thence, he said, nor souls nor bodies fare,
But only phantom figures, strangely wan,
And tells how once from out those regions rose
Old Homer's ghost to him and shed salt tears
And with his words unfolded Nature's source.
Then be it ours with steady mind to clasp
The purport of the skies- the law behind
The wandering courses of the sun and moon;
To scan the powers that speed all life below;
But most to see with reasonable eyes
Of what the mind, of what the soul is made,
And what it is so terrible that breaks
On us asleep, or waking in disease,
Until we seem to mark and hear at hand
Dead men whose bones earth bosomed long ago.
6
Nec
me
animi
fallit
Graiorum
obscura
reperta

difficile
inlustrare
Latinis
versibus
esse
,
multa
novis
verbis
praesertim
cum
sit
agendum

propter
egestatem
linguae
et
rerum
novitatem
;
sed
tua
me
virtus
tamen
et
sperata
voluptas

suavis
amicitiae
quemvis
efferre
laborem

suadet
et
inducit
noctes
vigilare
serenas

quaerentem
dictis
quibus
et
quo
carmine
demum

clara
tuae
possim
praepandere
lumina
menti
,
res
quibus
occultas
penitus
convisere
possis
.

I know how hard it is in Latian verse
To tell the dark discoveries of the Greeks,
Chiefly because our pauper-speech must find
Strange terms to fit the strangeness of the thing;
Yet worth of thine and the expected joy
Of thy sweet friendship do persuade me on
To bear all toil and wake the clear nights through,
Seeking with what of words and what of song
I may at last most gloriously uncloud
For thee the light beyond, wherewith to view
The core of being at the centre hid.
7
hunc
igitur
terrorem
animi
tenebrasque
necessest

non
radii
solis
neque
lucida
tela
diei

discutiant
,
sed
naturae
species
ratioque
.
Principium
cuius
hinc
nobis
exordia
sumet
,
nullam
rem
e
nihilo
gigni
divinitus
umquam
.
quippe
ita
formido
mortalis
continet
omnis
,
quod
multa
in
terris
fieri
caeloque
tuentur
,
quorum
operum
causas
nulla
ratione
videre

possunt
ac
fieri
divino
numine
rentur
.
quas
ob
res
ubi
viderimus
nil
posse
creari

de
nihilo
,
tum
quod
sequimur
iam
rectius
inde

perspiciemus
,
et
unde
queat
res
quaeque
creari

et
quo
quaeque
modo
fiant
opera
sine
divom
.
Nam
si
de
nihilo
fierent
,
ex
omnibus
rebus

omne
genus
nasci
posset
,
nil
semine
egeret
.
e
mare
primum
homines
,
e
terra
posset
oriri

squamigerum
genus
et
volucres
erumpere
caelo
;
armenta
atque
aliae
pecudes
,
genus
omne
ferarum
,
incerto
partu
culta
ac
deserta
tenerent
.
nec
fructus
idem
arboribus
constare
solerent
,
sed
mutarentur
,
ferre
omnes
omnia
possent
.
quippe
ubi
non
essent
genitalia
corpora
cuique
,
qui
posset
mater
rebus
consistere
certa
?
at
nunc
seminibus
quia
certis
quaeque
creantur
,
inde
enascitur
atque
oras
in
luminis
exit
,
materies
ubi
inest
cuiusque
et
corpora
prima
;
atque
hac
re
nequeunt
ex
omnibus
omnia
gigni
,
quod
certis
in
rebus
inest
secreta
facultas
.
Praeterea
cur
vere
rosam
,
frumenta
calore
,
vites
autumno
fundi
suadente
videmus
,
si
non
,
certa
suo
quia
tempore
semina
rerum

cum
confluxerunt
,
patefit
quod
cumque
creatur
,
dum
tempestates
adsunt
et
vivida
tellus

tuto
res
teneras
effert
in
luminis
oras
?
quod
si
de
nihilo
fierent
,
subito
exorerentur

incerto
spatio
atque
alienis
partibus
anni
,
quippe
ubi
nulla
forent
primordia
,
quae
genitali

concilio
possent
arceri
tempore
iniquo
.

SUBSTANCE IS ETERNAL
This terror, then, this darkness of the mind,
Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,
Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse,
But only Nature's aspect and her law,
Which, teaching us, hath this exordium:
Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.
Fear holds dominion over mortality
Only because, seeing in land and sky
So much the cause whereof no wise they know,
Men think Divinities are working there.
Meantime, when once we know from nothing still
Nothing can be create, we shall divine
More clearly what we seek: those elements
From which alone all things created are,
And how accomplished by no tool of Gods.
Suppose all sprang from all things: any kind
Might take its origin from any thing,
No fixed seed required. Men from the sea
Might rise, and from the land the scaly breed,
And, fowl full fledged come bursting from the sky;
The horned cattle, the herds and all the wild
Would haunt with varying offspring tilth and waste;
Nor would the same fruits keep their olden trees,
But each might grow from any stock or limb
By chance and change. Indeed, and were there not
For each its procreant atoms, could things have
Each its unalterable mother old?
But, since produced from fixed seeds are all,
Each birth goes forth upon the shores of light
From its own stuff, from its own primal bodies.
And all from all cannot become, because
In each resides a secret power its own.
Again, why see we lavished o'er the lands
At spring the rose, at summer heat the corn,
The vines that mellow when the autumn lures,
If not because the fixed seeds of things
At their own season must together stream,
And new creations only be revealed
When the due times arrive and pregnant earth
Safely may give unto the shores of light
Her tender progenies? But if from naught
Were their becoming, they would spring abroad
Suddenly, unforeseen, in alien months,
With no primordial germs, to be preserved
From procreant unions at an adverse hour.
8
Nec
porro
augendis
rebus
spatio
foret
usus

seminis
ad
coitum
,
si
e
nilo
crescere
possent
;
nam
fierent
iuvenes
subito
ex
infantibus
parvis

e
terraque
exorta
repente
arbusta
salirent
.
quorum
nil
fieri
manifestum
est
,
omnia
quando

paulatim
crescunt
,
ut
par
est
semine
certo
,
crescentesque
genus
servant
;
ut
noscere
possis

quicque
sua
de
materia
grandescere
alique
.
Huc
accedit
uti
sine
certis
imbribus
anni

laetificos
nequeat
fetus
submittere
tellus

nec
porro
secreta
cibo
natura
animantum

propagare
genus
possit
vitamque
tueri
;
ut
potius
multis
communia
corpora
rebus

multa
putes
esse
,
ut
verbis
elementa
videmus
,
quam
sine
principiis
ullam
rem
existere
posse
.
Denique
cur
homines
tantos
natura
parare

non
potuit
,
pedibus
qui
pontum
per
vada
possent

transire
et
magnos
manibus
divellere
montis

multaque
vivendo
vitalia
vincere
saecla
,
si
non
,
materies
quia
rebus
reddita
certast

gignundis
,
e
qua
constat
quid
possit
oriri
?

Nor on the mingling of the living seeds
Would space be needed for the growth of things
Were life an increment of nothing: then
The tiny babe forthwith would walk a man,
And from the turf would leap a branching tree-
Wonders unheard of; for, by Nature, each
Slowly increases from its lawful seed,
And through that increase shall conserve its kind.
Whence take the proof that things enlarge and feed
From out their proper matter. Thus it comes
That earth, without her seasons of fixed rains,
Could bear no produce such as makes us glad,
And whatsoever lives, if shut from food,
Prolongs its kind and guards its life no more.
Thus easier 'tis to hold that many things
Have primal bodies in common (as we see
The single letters common to many words)
Than aught exists without its origins.
Moreover, why should Nature not prepare
Men of a bulk to ford the seas afoot,
Or rend the mighty mountains with their hands,
Or conquer Time with length of days, if not
Because for all begotten things abides
The changeless stuff, and what from that may spring
Is fixed forevermore? Lastly we see
How far the tilled surpass the fields untilled
And to the labour of our hands return
Their more abounding crops; there are indeed
Within the earth primordial germs of things,
Which, as the ploughshare turns the fruitful clods
And kneads the mould, we quicken into birth.
Else would ye mark, without all toil of ours,
Spontaneous generations, fairer forms.