De Rerum Natura |
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
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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 .
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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. |
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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 .
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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. |
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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 .
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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. |
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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 .
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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. |
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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 .
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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. |
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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 .
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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. |
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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 .
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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. |
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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 ?
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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. |