De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)

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	De Rerum Natura Author: Lucretius	Translator: William Ellery Leonard
145	Nec nimio solis maior rota nec minor ardor esse potest , nostris quam sensibus esse videtur . nam quibus e spatiis cumque ignes lumina possunt adiicere et calidum membris adflare vaporem , nil magnis intervallis de corpore libant flammarum , nihil ad speciem est contractior ignis . proinde , calor quoniam solis lumenque profusum perveniunt nostros ad sensus et loca fulgent , forma quoque hinc solis debet filumque videri , nil adeo ut possis plus aut minus addere vere . lunaque sive notho fertur loca lumine lustrans , sive suam proprio iactat de corpore lucem , quidquid id est , nihilo fertur maiore figura quam , nostris oculis qua cernimus , esse videtur . nam prius omnia , quae longe semota tuemur aëra per multum , specie confusa videntur quam minui filum . quapropter luna necesse est , quandoquidem claram speciem certamque figuram praebet , ut est oris extremis cumque notata , quanta quoquest , tanta hinc nobis videatur in alto . postremo quos cumque vides hinc aetheris ignes , scire licet perquam pauxillo posse minores esse vel exigua maioris parte brevique . quandoquidem quos cumque in terris cernimus , dum tremor clarus dum cernitur ardor eorum , perparvom quiddam inter dum mutare videntur alteram utram in partem filum , quo longius absunt .	Nor can the sun's wheel larger be by much Nor its own blaze much less than either seems Unto our senses. For from whatso spaces Fires have the power on us to cast their beams And blow their scorching exhalations forth Against our members, those same distances Take nothing by those intervals away From bulk of flames; and to the sight the fire Is nothing shrunken. Therefore, since the heat And the outpoured light of skiey sun Arrive our senses and caress our limbs, Form too and bigness of the sun must look Even here from earth just as they really be, So that thou canst scarce nothing take or add. And whether the journeying moon illuminate The regions round with bastard beams, or throw From off her proper body her own light,- Whichever it be, she journeys with a form Naught larger than the form doth seem to be Which we with eyes of ours perceive. For all The far removed objects of our gaze Seem through much air confused in their look Ere minished in their bigness. Wherefore, moon, Since she presents bright look and clear-cut form, May there on high by us on earth be seen Just as she is with extreme bounds defined, And just of the size. And lastly, whatso fires Of ether thou from earth beholdest, these Thou mayst consider as possibly of size The least bit less, or larger by a hair Than they appear- since whatso fires we view Here in the lands of earth are seen to change From time to time their size to less or more Only the least, when more or less away, So long as still they bicker clear, and still Their glow's perceived.
146	Illud item non est mirandum , qua ratione tantulus ille queat tantum sol mittere lumen , quod maria ac terras omnis caelumque rigando compleat et calido perfundat cuncta vapore . nam licet hinc mundi patefactum totius unum largifluum fontem scatere atque erumpere lumen , ex omni mundo quia sic elementa vaporis undique conveniunt et sic coniectus eorum confluit , ex uno capite hic ut profluat ardor . nonne vides etiam quam late parvus aquai prata riget fons inter dum campisque redundet ? est etiam quoque uti non magno solis ab igni aëra percipiat calidis fervoribus ardor , opportunus ita est si forte et idoneus aër , ut queat accendi parvis ardoribus ictus ; quod genus inter dum segetes stipulamque videmus accidere ex una scintilla incendia passim . forsitan et rosea sol alte lampade lucens possideat multum caecis fervoribus ignem circum se , nullo qui sit fulgore notatus , aestifer ut tantum radiorum exaugeat ictum .	Nor need there be for men Astonishment that yonder sun so small Can yet send forth so great a light as fills Oceans and all the lands and sky aflood, And with its fiery exhalations steeps The world at large. For it may be, indeed, That one vast-flowing well-spring of the whole Wide world from here hath opened and out-gushed, And shot its light abroad; because thuswise The elements of fiery exhalations From all the world around together come, And thuswise flow into a bulk so big That from one single fountain-head may stream This heat and light. And seest thou not, indeed, How widely one small water-spring may wet The meadow-lands at times and flood the fields? 'Tis even possible, besides, that heat From forth the sun's own fire, albeit that fire Be not a great, may permeate the air With the fierce hot- if but, perchance, the air Be of condition and so tempered then As to be kindled, even when beat upon Only by little particles of heat- Just as we sometimes see the standing grain Or stubble straw in conflagration all From one lone spark. And possibly the sun, Agleam on high with rosy lampion, Possesses about him with invisible heats A plenteous fire, by no effulgence marked, So that he maketh, he, the Fraught-with-fire, Increase to such degree the force of rays.
147	Nec ratio solis simplex recta patescit , quo pacto aestivis e partibus aegocerotis brumalis adeat flexus atque inde revertens canceris ut vertat metas ad solstitialis , lunaque mensibus id spatium videatur obire , annua sol in quo consumit tempora cursu . non , inquam , simplex his rebus reddita causast . nam fieri vel cum primis id posse videtur , Democriti quod sancta viri sententia ponit , quanto quaeque magis sint terram sidera propter , tanto posse minus cum caeli turbine ferri ; evanescere enim rapidas illius et acris imminui supter viris , ideoque relinqui paulatim solem cum posterioribus signis , inferior multo quod sit quam fervida signa . et magis hoc lunam : quanto demissior eius cursus abest procul a caelo terrisque propinquat , tanto posse minus cum signis tendere cursum . flaccidiore etiam quanto iam turbine fertur inferior quam sol , tanto magis omnia signa hanc adipiscuntur circum praeterque feruntur . propterea fit ut haec ad signum quodque reverti mobilius videatur , ad hanc quia signa revisunt . fit quoque ut e mundi transversis partibus aër alternis certo fluere alter tempore possit , qui queat aestivis solem detrudere signis brumalis usque ad flexus gelidumque rigorem , et qui reiciat gelidis a frigoris umbris aestiferas usque in partis et fervida signa . et ratione pari lunam stellasque putandumst , quae volvunt magnos in magnis orbibus annos , aëribus posse alternis e partibus ire . nonne vides etiam diversis nubila ventis diversas ire in partis inferna supernis ? qui minus illa queant per magnos aetheris orbis aestibus inter se diversis sidera ferri ?	Nor is there one sure cause revealed to men How the sun journeys from his summer haunts On to the mid-most winter turning-points In Capricorn, the thence reverting veers Back to solstitial goals of Cancer; nor How 'tis the moon is seen each month to cross That very distance which in traversing The sun consumes the measure of a year. I say, no one clear reason hath been given For these affairs. Yet chief in likelihood Seemeth the doctrine which the holy thought Of great Democritus lays down: that ever The nearer the constellations be to earth The less can they by whirling of the sky Be borne along, because those skiey powers Of speed aloft do vanish and decrease In under-regions, and the sun is thus Left by degrees behind amongst those signs That follow after, since the sun he lies Far down below the starry signs that blaze; And the moon lags even tardier than the sun: In just so far as is her course removed From upper heaven and nigh unto the lands, In just so far she fails to keep the pace With starry signs above; for just so far As feebler is the whirl that bears her on, (Being, indeed, still lower than the sun), In just so far do all the starry signs, Circling around, o'ertake her and o'erpass. Therefore it happens that the moon appears More swiftly to return to any sign Along the Zodiac, than doth the sun, Because those signs do visit her again More swiftly than they visit the great sun. It can be also that two streams of air Alternately at fixed periods Blow out from transverse regions of the world, Of which the one may thrust the sun away From summer-signs to mid-most winter goals And rigors of the cold, and the other then May cast him back from icy shades of chill Even to the heat-fraught regions and the signs That blaze along the Zodiac. So, too, We must suppose the moon and all the stars, Which through the mighty and sidereal years Roll round in mighty orbits, may be sped By streams of air from regions alternate. Seest thou not also how the clouds be sped By contrary winds to regions contrary, The lower clouds diversely from the upper? Then, why may yonder stars in ether there Along their mighty orbits not be borne By currents opposite the one to other?
148	At nox obruit ingenti caligine terras , aut ubi de longo cursu sol ultima caeli impulit atque suos efflavit languidus ignis concussos itere et labefactos aëre multo , aut quia sub terras cursum convortere cogit vis eadem , supra quae terras pertulit orbem . Tempore item certo roseam Matuta per oras aetheris auroram differt et lumina pandit , aut quia sol idem , sub terras ille revertens , anticipat caelum radiis accendere temptans , aut quia conveniunt ignes et semina multa confluere ardoris consuerunt tempore certo , quae faciunt solis nova semper lumina gigni ; quod genus Idaeis fama est e montibus altis dispersos ignis orienti lumine cerni , inde coire globum quasi in unum et conficere orbem . nec tamen illud in his rebus mirabile debet esse , quod haec ignis tam certo tempore possint semina confluere et solis reparare nitorem . multa videmus enim , certo quae tempore fiunt omnibus in rebus . florescunt tempore certo arbusta et certo dimittunt tempore florem . nec minus in certo dentes cadere imperat aetas tempore et inpubem molli pubescere veste et pariter mollem malis demittere barbam . fulmina postremo nix imbres nubila venti non nimis incertis fiunt in partibus anni . namque ubi sic fuerunt causarum exordia prima atque ita res mundi cecidere ab origine prima , conseque quoque iam redeunt ex ordine certo .	But night o'erwhelms the lands with vasty murk Either when sun, after his diurnal course, Hath walked the ultimate regions of the sky And wearily hath panted forth his fires, Shivered by their long journeying and wasted By traversing the multitudinous air, Or else because the self-same force that drave His orb along above the lands compels Him then to turn his course beneath the lands. Matuta also at a fixed hour Spreadeth the roseate morning out along The coasts of heaven and deploys the light, Either because the self-same sun, returning Under the lands, aspires to seize the sky, Striving to set it blazing with his rays Ere he himself appear, or else because Fires then will congregate and many seeds Of heat are wont, even at a fixed time, To stream together- gendering evermore New suns and light. Just so the story goes That from the Idaean mountain-tops are seen Dispersed fires upon the break of day Which thence combine, as 'twere, into one ball And form an orb. Nor yet in these affairs Is aught for wonder that these seeds of fire Can thus together stream at time so fixed And shape anew the splendour of the sun. For many facts we see which come to pass At fixed time in all things: burgeon shrubs At fixed time, and at a fixed time They cast their flowers; and Eld commands the teeth, At time as surely fixed, to drop away, And Youth commands the growing boy to bloom With the soft down and let from both his cheeks The soft beard fall. And lastly, thunder-bolts, Snow, rains, clouds, winds, at seasons of the year Nowise unfixed, all do come to pass. For where, even from their old primordial start Causes have ever worked in such a way, And where, even from the world's first origin, Thuswise have things befallen, so even now After a fixed order they come round In sequence also.
149	Crescere itemque dies licet et tabescere noctes , et minui luces , cum sumant augmina noctis , aut quia sol idem sub terras atque superne imparibus currens amfractibus aetheris oras partit et in partis non aequas dividit orbem , et quod ab alterutra detraxit parte , reponit eius in adversa tanto plus parte relatus , donec ad id signum caeli pervenit , ubi anni nodus nocturnas exaequat lucibus umbras ; nam medio cursu flatus aquilonis et austri distinet aequato caelum discrimine metas propter signiferi posituram totius orbis , annua sol in quo concludit tempora serpens , obliquo terras et caelum lumine lustrans , ut ratio declarat eorum qui loca caeli omnia dispositis signis ornata notarunt . aut quia crassior est certis in partibus aër , sub terris ideo tremulum iubar haesitat ignis nec penetrare potest facile atque emergere ad ortus ; propterea noctes hiberno tempore longae cessant , dum veniat radiatum insigne diei . aut etiam , quia sic alternis partibus anni tardius et citius consuerunt confluere ignes , qui faciunt solem certa de surgere parte , propterea fit uti videantur dicere verum .	Likewise, days may wax Whilst the nights wane, and daylight minished be Whilst nights do take their augmentations, Either because the self-same sun, coursing Under the lands and over in two arcs, A longer and a briefer, doth dispart The coasts of ether and divides in twain His orbit all unequally, and adds, As round he's borne, unto the one half there As much as from the other half he's ta'en, Until he then arrives that sign of heaven Where the year's node renders the shades of night Equal unto the periods of light. For when the sun is midway on his course Between the blasts of northwind and of south, Heaven keeps his two goals parted equally, By virtue of the fixed position old Of the whole starry Zodiac, through which That sun, in winding onward, takes a year, Illumining the sky and all the lands With oblique light- as men declare to us Who by their diagrams have charted well Those regions of the sky which be adorned With the arranged signs of Zodiac. Or else, because in certain parts the air Under the lands is denser, the tremulous Bright beams of fire do waver tardily, Nor easily can penetrate that air Nor yet emerge unto their rising-place: For this it is that nights in winter time Do linger long, ere comes the many-rayed Round Badge of the day. Or else because, as said, In alternating seasons of the year Fires, now more quick, and now more slow, are wont To stream together,- the fires which make the sun To rise in some one spot- therefore it is That those men seem to speak the truth [who hold A new sun is with each new daybreak born].
150	Luna potest solis radiis percussa nitere inque dies magis lumen convertere nobis ad speciem , quantum solis secedit ab orbi , donique eum contra pleno bene lumine fulsit atque oriens obitus eius super edita vidit ; inde minutatim retro quasi condere lumen debet item , quanto propius iam solis ad ignem labitur ex alia signorum parte per orbem ; ut faciunt , lunam qui fingunt esse pilai consimilem cursusque viam sub sole tenere . est etiam quare proprio cum lumine possit volvier et varias splendoris reddere formas ; corpus enim licet esse aliud , quod fertur et una labitur omnimodis occursans officiensque , nec potis est cerni , quia cassum lumine fertur . versarique potest , globus ut , si forte , pilai dimidia ex parti candenti lumine tinctus , versandoque globum variantis edere formas , donique eam partem , quae cumque est ignibus aucta , ad speciem vertit nobis oculosque patentis ; inde minutatim retro contorquet et aufert luciferam partem glomeraminis atque pilai ; ut Babylonica Chaldaeum doctrina refutans astrologorum artem contra convincere tendit , proinde quasi id fieri nequeat quod pugnat uterque aut minus hoc illo sit cur amplectier ausis . denique cur nequeat semper nova luna creari ordine formarum certo certisque figuris inque dies privos aborisci quaeque creata atque alia illius reparari in parte locoque , difficilest ratione docere et vincere verbis , ordine cum tam certo multa creari . it Ver et Venus et Veneris praenuntius ante pennatus graditur , Zephyri vestigia propter Flora quibus mater praespargens ante viai cuncta coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet . inde loci sequitur Calor aridus et comes una pulverulenta Ceres etesia flabra aquilonum . inde Autumnus adit , graditur simul Euhius Euan . inde aliae tempestates ventique secuntur , altitonans Volturnus et Auster fulmine pollens . tandem Bruma nives adfert pigrumque rigorem reddit . Hiemps sequitur crepitans hanc dentibus algu . quo minus est mirum , si certo tempore luna gignitur et certo deletur tempore rusus , cum fieri possint tam certo tempore multa .	The moon she possibly doth shine because Strook by the rays of sun, and day by day May turn unto our gaze her light, the more She doth recede from orb of sun, until, Facing him opposite across the world, She hath with full effulgence gleamed abroad, And, at her rising as she soars above, Hath there observed his setting; thence likewise She needs must hide, as 'twere, her light behind By slow degrees, the nearer now she glides, Along the circle of the Zodiac, From her far place toward fires of yonder sun,- As those men hold who feign the moon to be Just like a ball and to pursue a course Betwixt the sun and earth. There is, again, Some reason to suppose that moon may roll With light her very own, and thus display The varied shapes of her resplendence there. For near her is, percase, another body, Invisible, because devoid of light, Borne on and gliding all along with her, Which in three modes may block and blot her disk. Again, she may revolve upon herself, Like to a ball's sphere- if perchance that be- One half of her dyed o'er with glowing light, And by the revolution of that sphere She may beget for us her varying shapes, Until she turns that fiery part of her Full to the sight and open eyes of men; Thence by slow stages round and back she whirls, Withdrawing thus the luminiferous part Of her sphered mass and ball, as, verily, The Babylonian doctrine of Chaldees, Refuting the art of Greek astrologers, Labours, in opposition, to prove sure- As if, forsooth, the thing for which each fights, Might not alike be true,- or aught there were Wherefore thou mightest risk embracing one More than the other notion. Then, again, Why a new moon might not forevermore Created be with fixed successions there Of shapes and with configurations fixed, And why each day that bright created moon Might not miscarry and another be, In its stead and place, engendered anew, 'Tis hard to show by reason, or by words To prove absurd- since, lo, so many things Can be create with fixed successions: Spring-time and Venus come, and Venus' boy, The winged harbinger, steps on before, And hard on Zephyr's foot-prints Mother Flora, Sprinkling the ways before them, filleth all With colours and with odours excellent; Whereafter follows arid Heat, and he Companioned is by Ceres, dusty one, And by the Etesian Breezes of the north; Then cometh Autumn on, and with him steps Lord Bacchus, and then other Seasons too And other Winds do follow- the high roar Of great Volturnus, and the Southwind strong With thunder-bolts. At last earth's Shortest-Day Bears on to men the snows and brings again The numbing cold. And Winter follows her, His teeth with chills a-chatter. Therefore, 'tis The less a marvel, if at fixed time A moon is thus begotten and again At fixed time destroyed, since things so many Can come to being thus at fixed time. Likewise, the sun's eclipses and the moon's Far occultations rightly thou mayst deem
151	Solis item quoque defectus lunaeque latebras pluribus e causis fieri tibi posse putandumst . nam cur luna queat terram secludere solis lumine et a terris altum caput obstruere ei , obiciens caecum radiis ardentibus orbem , tempore eodem aliut facere id non posse putetur corpus , quod cassum labatur lumine semper ? solque suos etiam dimittere languidus ignis tempore cur certo nequeat recreareque lumen , cum loca praeteriit flammis infesta per auras , quae faciunt ignis interstingui atque perire ? et cur terra queat lunam spoliare vicissim lumine et oppressum solem super ipsa tenere , menstrua dum rigidas coni perlabitur umbras , tempore eodem aliud nequeat succurrere lunae corpus vel supra solis perlabier orbem , quod radios inter rumpat lumenque profusum ? et tamen ipsa suo si fulget luna nitore , cur nequeat certa mundi languescere parte , dum loca luminibus propriis inimica per exit ? .	As due to several causes. For, indeed, Why should the moon be able to shut out Earth from the light of sun, and on the side To earthward thrust her high head under sun, Opposing dark orb to his glowing beams- And yet, at same time, one suppose the effect Could not result from some one other body Which glides devoid of light forevermore? Again, why could not sun, in weakened state, At fixed time for-lose his fires, and then, When he has passed on along the air Beyond the regions, hostile to his flames, That quench and kill his fires, why could not he Renew his light? And why should earth in turn Have power to rob the moon of light, and there, Herself on high, keep the sun hid beneath, Whilst the moon glideth in her monthly course Athrough the rigid shadows of the cone?- And yet, at same time, some one other body Not have the power to under-pass the moon, Or glide along above the orb of sun, Breaking his rays and outspread light asunder? And still, if moon herself refulgent be With her own sheen, why could she not at times In some one quarter of the mighty world Grow weak and weary, whilst she passeth through Regions unfriendly to the beams her own?
152	Quod superest , quoniam magni per caerula mundi qua fieri quicquid posset ratione resolvi , solis uti varios cursus lunaeque meatus noscere possemus quae vis et causa cieret , quove modo offecto lumine obire et neque opinantis tenebris obducere terras , cum quasi conivent et aperto lumine rursum omnia convisunt clara loca candida luce , nunc redeo ad mundi novitatem et mollia terrae arva , novo fetu quid primum in luminis oras tollere et incertis crerint committere ventis . Principio genus herbarum viridemque nitorem terra dedit circum collis camposque per omnis , florida fulserunt viridanti prata colore , arboribusque datumst variis exinde per auras crescendi magnum inmissis certamen habenis . ut pluma atque pili primum saetaeque creantur quadripedum membris et corpore pennipotentum , sic nova tum tellus herbas virgultaque primum sustulit , inde loci mortalia saecla creavit multa modis multis varia ratione coorta . nam neque de caelo cecidisse animalia possunt , nec terrestria de salsis exisse lacunis . linquitur ut merito maternum nomen adepta terra sit , e terra quoniam sunt cuncta creata . multaque nunc etiam existunt animalia terris imbribus et calido solis concreta vapore ; quo minus est mirum , si tum sunt plura coorta et maiora , nova tellure atque aethere adulta . principio genus alituum variaeque volucres ova relinquebant exclusae tempore verno , folliculos ut nunc teretis aestate cicadae lincunt sponte sua victum vitamque petentes . tum tibi terra dedit primum mortalia saecla . multus enim calor atque umor superabat in arvis . hoc ubi quaeque loci regio opportuna dabatur , crescebant uteri terram radicibus apti ; quos ubi tempore maturo pate fecerat aetas infantum , fugiens umorem aurasque petessens , convertebat ibi natura foramina terrae et sucum venis cogebat fundere apertis consimilem lactis , sicut nunc femina quaeque cum peperit , dulci repletur lacte , quod omnis impetus in mammas convertitur ille alimenti . terra cibum pueris , vestem vapor , herba cubile praebebat multa et molli lanugine abundans . at novitas mundi nec frigora dura ciebat nec nimios aestus nec magnis viribus auras . omnia enim pariter crescunt et robora sumunt .	ORIGINS OF VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE And now to what remains!- Since I've resolved By what arrangements all things come to pass Through the blue regions of the mighty world,- How we can know what energy and cause Started the various courses of the sun And the moon's goings, and by what far means They can succumb, the while with thwarted light, And veil with shade the unsuspecting lands, When, as it were, they blink, and then again With open eye survey all regions wide, Resplendent with white radiance- I do now Return unto the world's primeval age And tell what first the soft young fields of earth With earliest parturition had decreed To raise in air unto the shores of light And to entrust unto the wayward winds. In the beginning, earth gave forth, around The hills and over all the length of plains, The race of grasses and the shining green; The flowery meadows sparkled all aglow With greening colour, and thereafter, lo, Unto the divers kinds of trees was given An emulous impulse mightily to shoot, With a free rein, aloft into the air. As feathers and hairs and bristles are begot The first on members of the four-foot breeds And on the bodies of the strong-y-winged, Thus then the new Earth first of all put forth Grasses and shrubs, and afterward begat The mortal generations, there upsprung- Innumerable in modes innumerable- After diverging fashions. For from sky These breathing-creatures never can have dropped, Nor the land-dwellers ever have come up Out of sea-pools of salt. How true remains, How merited is that adopted name Of earth- "The Mother!"- since from out the earth Are all begotten. And even now arise From out the loams how many living things- Concreted by the rains and heat of the sun. Wherefore 'tis less a marvel, if they sprang In Long Ago more many, and more big, Matured of those days in the fresh young years Of earth and ether. First of all, the race Of the winged ones and parti-coloured birds, Hatched out in spring-time, left their eggs behind; As now-a-days in summer tree-crickets Do leave their shiny husks of own accord, Seeking their food and living. Then it was This earth of thine first gave unto the day The mortal generations; for prevailed Among the fields abounding hot and wet. And hence, where any fitting spot was given, There 'gan to grow womb-cavities, by roots Affixed to earth. And when in ripened time The age of the young within (that sought the air And fled earth's damps) had burst these wombs, O then Would Nature thither turn the pores of earth And make her spurt from open veins a juice Like unto milk; even as a woman now Is filled, at child-bearing, with the sweet milk, Because all that swift stream of aliment Is thither turned unto the mother-breasts. There earth would furnish to the children food; Warmth was their swaddling cloth, the grass their bed Abounding in soft down. Earth's newness then Would rouse no dour spells of the bitter cold, Nor extreme heats nor winds of mighty powers- For all things grow and gather strength through time In like proportions; and then earth was young.