LUCRETIUS (Titus Lucretius Carus, c. 99 - c. 55 B.C.E.)

Selections from Titi Lucretii Cari De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of the Universe)

Hymn to Venus

Titi Lucretii Cari De Rerum Natura, Bk. i. vv. 1-48

Goddess! in whom our Rome is proud to trace

Nursing Mother of an Imperial race;

Who ’neath the constellations, as they range,

Heav’n’s standard-bearers, in soft interchange

Of night’s watches, rulest how, when, and where.                        5

In Ocean’s finny depths, in upper air,

And teeming soil, Life, urgent to be born,

Shall at thy smile burst forth to greet the morn,

All without thee was gusty darkness;

then

A sudden rapture stirs in Gods and Men!                                10

Thou comest! Winds fall; the sky no more low’rs:

Earth embroiders herself with fragrant flow’rs;

Billows that had been rolling mountains high,

Ripple laughter to greet a sapphire sky.

Wherever thou art is spring; thine the key                                15

That sets the prisoned wanton west-wind free

To beat time to thy approach; and note how

Birds, thy heralds, by fits skim to and fro;

While, more fiercely-smitten, herds that had been

Content to graze their pastures rich and green,                        20

Toss hoofs and horns, breast headlong streams; and where

It pleases Thee follow, whitherso’er!

Venus, all provident, and kind, and wise,

Nought in sea, torrent, hill escapes thy eyes;

No green plain, no tree that invites a nest.                                25

With soothing touch in every breathing breast

Thou layest seed of love, yet with such skill,

A forethought so unerring, and a will

So tenderly sure, that never a spark

Strays from its order, but knows each its mark;                        30

Kind choosing kind, species species, race race,

Till Being grows, age to age, in emulous grace!

Alone thou steerest Nature on her course!

Failing Thee, lost the aye marshalling force

To wash blind atoms on the shores of Light,                        35

Where each shall take up Life in its due right,

To use it at its best, and for the best,

Joy for itself, harmony for the rest?

A theme, which it might well have seemed in vain

To attempt with powers of mortal brain;                                40

Then least, when Rome—how lately!—claimed of all

Her children service at the trumpet’s call.

Ev’n still she aches with pangs that she has borne,

Glooming dumbly with fear they may return.

But, Goddess, I trust! greatly dare to ask:                                45

“Shed thy eternal charm upon my task:

Bid warfare cease; uplift thy sovereign hand;

And blissful Peace will brood o’er sea and land.

What can resist Thee?

Mars with his alarms?

Where lies the God but in thy lovely arms?                        50

Slender throat thrown back, see, his hungry eyes

Feed upon thine with ever fresh surprise!

Queen, he is thine; wound deeply as thou wilt;

Sweeter smart than all the blood he has spilt!

Cling round him; fold in thy divine embrace;                        55

Lift tow’rds his the appeal of thy bright face;

Whisper love’s little nothings, till deep calm

Steep his whole being in a honeyed balm;

And he forget ’twas his murderous car

Spread frenzy through our streets of civil War!”                        60

But the fever has abated; so long

As it is stayed, I will resume my song;—

The more gladly if it be heard by One

Whom Venus willed long back a Paragon,

Adorned with all the gifts that mortal man                                65

Has owed her since Humanity began.

A Memmius is by that illustrious name

Pledged not to stand aloof from Rome aflame;

And thou didst thy part; but, the crisis past,

Thou now, my Lord and Friend, art free at last.                        70

Yet weigh all well;

I have toiled hard to learn,

And with pains equal held it my concern,

When I myself was satisfied, to find

Means to pass truths into another mind.

No less a duty, if thou undertake,                                        75

Wilt thou betray, if thou should then forsake!

Away with mean cares; give, if aught, thy whole—

The sum of Reason—that which makes the Soul!

Philosophy

Bk. ii. vv. 1-60

“Listen! the waves hiss, and loud the winds roar!

See! a ship drifts on a lee shore!

“Help!” No help; a whole crew on the beach dead.

Alas poor souls! I sleep on a good bed.

And lo! two hosts in line of battle drawn.                                5

Thousands will not wake at next dawn!

To be killed, or kill—life or death for those—

I wonder which; happy I cannot lose!”

Count not men Molochs that with passive eyes,

They witness neighbours’ agonies.                                        10

Bodily ills all; how should bodies care

For others’ ills? Each has its own to bear.

Easily flow our tears when others weep;

As easily we fall asleep;

When Havoc stalks abroad, content we see                        15

Other flesh in pain from which ours is free!

Let flesh be flesh; we by rough ways and bleak

Will climb up to the mountain peak;

And entering through guarded ramparts there

Find peace from flesh in temples stately, fair;                        20

Work of wise builders, where a welcome waits,

With keys to life, within the gates.

That riddle many have tried, and not guessed;

They wander, spirit in flesh; nowhere rest.

Spirit trumpets down from tower, spire and hall;                        25

They cannot hearken to the call.

Smothered in that they worship—wealth, power, birth—

Dream they are growing wings, and rot on earth!

Self-courted woes, suicide of the brain,

Dark chos’n for light, tortures in vain                                30

Endured; this particle of life we have—

A spark at best—o’erdriven to the grave!

All but to pamper bodies, that, so long

As they are painless, hale, and strong,

Are warranted by Nature, watch-dog kind,                                35

To press no further wants upon the Mind.

This commonwealth of limbs, together brought

To be a tenement for Thought,

Asks but to be exempt from fell disease,

Joy in mere breath, and feel itself at ease.                                40

When the lamps’ flame from golden statues gleams,

Do the lights vie with the sun’s beams?

Must music to stir hearts to leap and bound,

From frescoed walls and fretted roofs resound?

Or if some time hot fever racks the head,                                45

Are you, tossing on a sick bed,

Easier at all that you chance to lie

On cedarn couch purple with Tyrian dye?

Know you not, wastrels, that what Mind you give

To flesh you steal from power to live?                                50

The spirit is the root of life; thereby

We live; and if we starve it, then we die.

When spirit-comrades by cool brook recline,

Beneath the shade of beech or pine,

They reckon not which the rich, and which the poor.                55

Nor envious, nor jealous of neighbours’ store.

Enough to feel the warm blood answering

The joyousness of the sweet Spring:

While the soft turf, to offer greetings due,

Dresses itself in flow’rs of ev’ry hue.                                60

Sense feels the charm, and Nature all approves;

While spirit talks with spirit, as it loves.

Ah! know how nought to flesh itself the whole

You sell life for; how hateful to the soul!

Source: The Project Gutenberg eBook of Virgil & Lucretius, by William Stebbing (translator), Longman, 1917

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Release Date: September 27, 2021 [eBook #66399]