Lucretius: DE RERVM NATVRA LIBRI SEX

E tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen
qui primus potuisti inlustrans commoda vitae,
te sequor, o Graiae gentis decus, inque tuis nunc
ficta pedum pono pressis vestigia signis,
non ita certandi cupidus quam propter amorem
quod te imitari aveo; quid enim contendat hirundo
cycnis, aut quid nam tremulis facere artubus haedi
consimile in cursu possint et fortis equi vis?
tu, pater, es rerum inventor, tu patria nobis
suppeditas praecepta, tuisque ex, inclute, chartis,
floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant,
omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta,
aurea, perpetua semper dignissima vita.
nam simul ac ratio tua coepit vociferari
naturam rerum divina mente coorta
diffugiunt animi terrores, moenia mundi
discedunt.

Out of such darknesses to raise up so bright a light,
you who first were able, illuminating the benefits of life,
I follow you, O glory of the Graian race, and now in your
imprinted signs I place, with pressed steps, the fashioned footprints of my feet,
not so desirous of contending as, because of love,
that I long to imitate you; for what could a swallow
contend with swans, or what, pray, could kids with trembling limbs
do like in the course, to match the force of a strong horse?
you, father, are the inventor of things; you supply to us
paternal precepts; and from your papers, illustrious one,
as bees in flowery glades sip all things,
so we likewise graze upon all your golden sayings—
golden, ever most worthy of perpetual life.
for as soon as your Reason began to cry aloud
the nature of things, arisen by a divine mind,
the terrors of the mind scatter, the walls of the world
draw apart.

totum video per inane geri res.
apparet divum numen sedesque quietae,
quas neque concutiunt venti nec nubila nimbis
aspergunt neque nix acri concreta pruina
cana cadens violat semper[que] innubilus aether
integit et large diffuso lumine ridet:
omnia suppeditat porro natura neque ulla
res animi pacem delibat tempore in ullo.
at contra nusquam apparent Acherusia templa,
nec tellus obstat quin omnia dispiciantur,
sub pedibus quae cumque infra per inane geruntur.

I see that all things are carried on through the void.
the numen of the gods appears and the serene seats,
which neither do winds shake nor do clouds besprinkle with storm-showers,
nor does snow, white, compacted with keen hoar-frost,
falling, violate them, and the ever cloudless aether
covers and smiles with light poured widely:
furthermore nature supplies all things, and no
thing at any time nibbles at the peace of the mind.
but on the contrary nowhere do the Acherusian temples appear,
nor does the earth hinder but that all things be discerned,
whatever beneath our feet are carried below through the void.

his ibi me rebus quaedam divina voluptas
percipit atque horror, quod sic natura tua vi
tam manifesta patens ex omni parte retecta est.
Et quoniam docui, cunctarum exordia rerum
qualia sint et quam variis distantia formis
sponte sua volitent aeterno percita motu,
quove modo possint res ex his quaeque creari,
hasce secundum res animi natura videtur
atque animae claranda meis iam versibus esse
et metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agendus,
funditus humanam qui vitam turbat ab imo
omnia suffundens mortis nigrore neque ullam
esse voluptatem liquidam puramque relinquit.
nam quod saepe homines morbos magis esse timendos
infamemque ferunt vitam quam Tartara leti
et se scire animi naturam sanguinis esse,
aut etiam venti, si fert ita forte voluntas,
nec prosum quicquam nostrae rationis egere,
hinc licet advertas animum magis omnia laudis
iactari causa quam quod res ipsa probetur.

At these things there, a certain divine delight seizes me and an awe, because thus nature, by your force, has been so manifest, lying open, uncovered from every part.
And since I have taught what the beginnings of all things are and how, differing in various forms, they fly of their own accord, impelled by eternal motion,
and by what mode things can be created each from these,
in sequence to these, the nature of the mind and of the soul seems now to have to be made clear by my verses,
and that fear of Acheron must be driven headlong out,
which from the very bottom utterly disturbs human life, suffusing all things with the blackness of death, and leaves not any pleasure liquid and pure.
For whereas men often assert that diseases and a infamous life are more to be feared than the Tartarus of death,
and that they know the nature of the mind to be of blood,
or even of wind, if by chance their will so carries,
and that they have no need whatsoever of our reasoning,
from this you may turn your mind to observe that all these things are tossed about rather for the sake of vaunting praise than because the thing itself is approved.

extorres idem patria longeque fugati
conspectu ex hominum, foedati crimine turpi,
omnibus aerumnis adfecti denique vivunt,
et quo cumque tamen miseri venere parentant
et nigras mactant pecudes et manibus divis
inferias mittunt multoque in rebus acerbis
acrius advertunt animos ad religionem.
quo magis in dubiis hominem spectare periclis
convenit adversisque in rebus noscere qui sit;
nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo
eliciuntur [et] eripitur persona manet res.
denique avarities et honorum caeca cupido,
quae miseros homines cogunt transcendere fines
iuris et inter dum socios scelerum atque ministros
noctes atque dies niti praestante labore
ad summas emergere opes, haec vulnera vitae
non minimam partem mortis formidine aluntur.

banished likewise from their fatherland and driven far in flight
from the sight of men, defiled with a foul crime,
afflicted at last with all hardships they live, and wherever, however,
the wretches have come, they propitiate, and they slaughter black cattle,
and they send funeral-offerings to the gods below with their hands, and amid affairs most bitter
they turn their minds much more keenly to religion.
wherefore the more it befits to observe a man in doubtful dangers
and to learn in adverse matters who he is;
for then at last true voices are drawn out from the bottom of the breast,
[and] the mask is snatched off and the reality remains.
finally, avarice and the blind desire of honors,
which compel wretched men to overstep the bounds
of right and sometimes to be comrades and ministers of crimes,
to strive nights and days with preeminent toil
to emerge to the highest wealth—these wounds of life
are fed in no small part by the dread of death.

turpis enim ferme contemptus et acris egestas
semota ab dulci vita stabilique videtur
et quasi iam leti portas cunctarier ante;
unde homines dum se falso terrore coacti
effugisse volunt longe longeque remosse,
sanguine civili rem conflant divitiasque
conduplicant avidi, caedem caede accumulantes,
crudeles gaudent in tristi funere fratris
et consanguineum mensas odere timentque.
consimili ratione ab eodem saepe timore
macerat invidia ante oculos illum esse potentem,
illum aspectari, claro qui incedit honore,
ipsi se in tenebris volvi caenoque queruntur.
intereunt partim statuarum et nominis ergo.

for foul contempt and sharp indigence, set apart from a sweet and stable life, seems as it were to hesitate already before the gates of death; whence men, while under a false terror they are compelled and wish to have escaped and to have driven it far, far back, out of civil blood they fuse the affair and, greedy, they double their riches, piling slaughter on slaughter; cruel, they rejoice at a brother’s sad funeral, and they hate and fear the tables of a consanguine kinsman.
by a similar reasoning from this same fear oftentimes envy macerates them that that man is powerful before their eyes, that that man is gazed upon, who goes forth in clear honor, while they complain that they themselves roll in darkness and in mire.
some perish for the sake of statues and of a name.

et saepe usque adeo, mortis formidine, vitae
percipit humanos odium lucisque videndae,
ut sibi consciscant maerenti pectore letum
obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem:
hunc vexare pudorem, hunc vincula amicitiai
rumpere et in summa pietate evertere suadet:
nam iam saepe homines patriam carosque parentis
prodiderunt vitare Acherusia templa petentes.
nam vel uti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis
in tenebris metuunt, sic nos in luce timemus
inter dum, nihilo quae sunt metuenda magis quam
quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura.
hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest
non radii solis neque lucida tela diei
discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.

and often to such a degree, by the dread of death, there seizes
men a hatred of life and of beholding the light,
that they resolve upon death for themselves with a grieving breast,
forgetful that this fear is the fountain of cares:
this harasses modesty, this urges to break the bonds of friendship
and to overthrow even in the highest piety:
for already often men have betrayed their fatherland and dear parents,
seeking to avoid life and to make for the Acherusian temples.
for just as boys tremble and in blind
darkness fear everything, so we in the light fear
at times things which are by no whit more to be feared than
those which boys in the dark shudder at and imagine will be.
therefore this terror and the darkness of mind it is necessary
not for the rays of the sun nor the bright darts of day
to scatter, but the aspect and reason of nature.

Primum animum dico, mentem quem saepe vocamus,
in quo consilium vitae regimenque locatum est,
esse hominis partem nihilo minus ac manus et pes
atque oculei partes animantis totius extant.
* * *
sensum animi certa non esse in parte locatum,
verum habitum quendam vitalem corporis esse,
harmoniam Grai quam dicunt, quod faciat nos
vivere cum sensu, nulla cum in parte siet mens;
ut bona saepe valetudo cum dicitur esse
corporis, et non est tamen haec pars ulla valentis,
sic animi sensum non certa parte reponunt;
magno opere in quo mi diversi errare videntur.
Saepe itaque, in promptu corpus quod cernitur, aegret,
cum tamen ex alia laetamur parte latenti;
et retro fit ubi contra sit saepe vicissim,
cum miser ex animo laetatur corpore toto;
non alio pacto quam si, pes cum dolet aegri,
in nullo caput interea sit forte dolore.

First I declare the mind, which we often call the mind,
in which the counsel of life and the regimen has been placed,
to be a part of a human no less than hand and foot,
and the eyes stand forth as parts of the whole living creature.
* * *
that the sense of the mind is not located in any fixed part,
but is a certain vital habit of the body,
harmony, as the Greeks call it, which makes us
live with sensation, though in no part there be mind;
as good health is often said to be
of the body, and yet this is no part of the one being well,
so they do not place the sense of the mind in any fixed part;
in which, to me, these diverse men seem to err greatly.
Therefore often, the body, which is in plain view, is sick,
while yet we rejoice from another hidden part;
and conversely it happens that the opposite is often the case,
when, though wretched in soul, one rejoices in the whole body;
in no other way than if, when the foot of the sick man hurts,
meanwhile the head by chance is in no pain.

    Praeterea molli cum somno dedita membra
effusumque iacet sine sensu corpus honustum,
est aliud tamen in nobis quod tempore in illo
multimodis agitatur et omnis accipit in se
laetitiae motus et curas cordis inanis.
    Nunc animam quoque ut in membris cognoscere possis
esse neque harmonia corpus sentire solere,
principio fit uti detracto corpore multo
saepe tamen nobis in membris vita moretur.
    Atque eadem rursum, cum corpora pauca caloris
diffugere forasque per os est editus aër,
deserit extemplo venas atque ossa relinquit;
noscere ut hinc possis non aequas omnia partis
corpora habere neque ex aequo fulcire salutem,
sed magis haec, venti quae sunt calidique vaporis
semina, curare in membris ut vita moretur.

    Moreover, when the limbs are given over to gentle sleep,
and the body lies poured-out, weighed down, without sense,
yet there is another thing in us which at that time
is agitated in many modes and takes into itself all
the motions of joy and the cares of the empty heart.
    Now, that you may be able to recognize that the soul too is in the members,
and that the body is not wont to feel by harmony,
in the first place it happens that, much of the body having been withdrawn,
yet often life lingers in our members.
    And likewise in reverse, when a few bodies of heat
have fled and air has been sent outwards through the mouth,
it deserts the veins at once and leaves the bones;
so that from this you may know that not all parts possess bodies equally
nor support health on equal terms,
but rather that these seeds of wind and warm vapor
have more charge, in the members, that life should linger.

est igitur calor ac ventus vitalis in ipso
corpore, qui nobis moribundos deserit artus.
quapropter quoniam est animi natura reperta
atque animae quasi pars hominis, redde harmoniai
nomen, ad organicos alto delatum Heliconi,
sive aliunde ipsi porro traxere et in illam
transtulerunt, proprio quae tum res nomine egebat.
quidquid [id] est, habeant: tu cetera percipe dicta.

there is therefore heat and vital breath in the body itself,
which deserts our limbs as they are dying.
wherefore, since the nature of mind has been discovered,
and the soul as, so to speak, a part of the human being, restore to harmonia
its name, delivered to the musicians from high Helicon,
or else they themselves drew it from elsewhere and transferred it to that
thing, which at that time was lacking its own proper name.
whatever [it] is, let them have it: do you take in the rest of the words.

Nunc animum atque animam dico coniuncta teneri
inter se atque unam naturam conficere ex se,
sed caput esse quasi et dominari in corpore toto
consilium, quod nos animum mentemque vocamus.
idque situm media regione in pectoris haeret.
hic exultat enim pavor ac metus, haec loca circum
laetitiae mulcent: hic ergo mens animusquest.

Now I say that the animus and the anima are held joined
among themselves and make one nature out of themselves,
but that there is, as it were, a head and it dominates in the whole body—
the counsel, which we call the animus and the mind.
And this, situated in the middle region, clings in the breast.
Here, indeed, panic and fear exult; around these places
joys soothe: here, therefore, is the mind-and-spirit.

cetera pars animae per totum dissita corpus
paret et ad numen mentis momenque movetur.
idque sibi solum per se sapit et sibi gaudet,
cum neque res animam neque corpus commovet una.
et quasi, cum caput aut oculus temptante dolore
laeditur in nobis, non omni concruciamur
corpore, sic animus nonnumquam laeditur ipse
laetitiaque viget, cum cetera pars animai
per membra atque artus nulla novitate cietur;
verum ubi vementi magis est commota metu mens,
consentire animam totam per membra videmus
sudoresque ita palloremque existere toto
corpore et infringi linguam vocemque aboriri,
caligare oculos, sonere auris, succidere artus,
denique concidere ex animi terrore videmus
saepe homines; facile ut quivis hinc noscere possit
esse animam cum animo coniunctam, quae cum animi [vi]
percussa est, exim corpus propellit et icit.

the remaining part of the soul, dispersed through the whole body,
obeys and is moved at the nod and impulse of the mind.
and that alone by itself is wise for itself and rejoices for itself,
when neither any external thing moves the soul nor the body at the same time.
and just as, when the head or the eye is wounded in us by probing pain,
we are not racked in the whole body,
so the mind is sometimes itself hurt
and flourishes with joy, while the remaining part of the soul
through the limbs and joints is stirred by no new disturbance;
but when the mind is more strongly agitated by vehement fear,
we see the whole soul be in accord through the members,
and sweats and pallor arise over the whole
body, and the tongue be weakened and the voice die away,
the eyes grow dim, the ears ring, the limbs give way;
finally, we see men often collapse from the terror of the mind,
so that anyone can easily from this come to know
that the soul is conjoined with the mind; which, when it has been struck by the mind’s [force],
then drives and smites the body forward.

Haec eadem ratio naturam animi atque animai
corpoream docet esse; ubi enim propellere membra,
corripere ex somno corpus mutareque vultum
atque hominem totum regere ac versare videtur,
quorum nil fieri sine tactu posse videmus
nec tactum porro sine corpore, nonne fatendumst
corporea natura animum constare animamque?
praeterea pariter fungi cum corpore et una
consentire animum nobis in corpore cernis.
si minus offendit vitam vis horrida teli
ossibus ac nervis disclusis intus adacta,
at tamen insequitur languor terraeque petitus
suavis et in terra mentis qui gignitur aestus
inter dumque quasi exsurgendi incerta voluntas.

This same reasoning teaches that the nature of the mind and of the soul is corporeal; for when it seems to propel the limbs,
to snatch the body from sleep and to change the visage,
and to rule and turn the whole man,
of which we see that none can be done without touch,
nor, furthermore, touch without body—must it not be confessed
that the mind and the soul consist of a corporeal nature?
moreover, you discern that the mind performs equally with the body and together
consents with it in the body.
if the dreadful force of a weapon, driven within with bones and sinews sundered,
less offends life,
yet nevertheless languor follows and a sweet seeking of the earth,
and the surge of the mind which is begotten on the ground,
and, meanwhile, as it were, an uncertain will of rising up.

ergo corpoream naturam animi esse necessest,
corporeis quoniam telis ictuque laborat.
Is tibi nunc animus quali sit corpore et unde
constiterit pergam rationem reddere dictis.
principio esse aio persuptilem atque minutis
perquam corporibus factum constare.

therefore it is necessary that the nature of the mind be corporeal,
since it labors under bodily missiles and blows.
This mind for you, of what sort of body it is and whence
it has been constituted, I shall proceed to render an account in words.
to begin with I affirm it to be very subtile and to consist
of exceedingly minute bodies.

id ita esse
hinc licet advertas animum, ut pernoscere possis.
Nil adeo fieri celeri ratione videtur,
quam si mens fieri proponit et inchoat ipsa;
ocius ergo animus quam res se perciet ulla,
ante oculos quorum in promptu natura videtur.
at quod mobile tanto operest, constare rutundis
perquam seminibus debet perquamque minutis,
momine uti parvo possint inpulsa moveri.

that this is so
from this you may turn your mind, so that you may thoroughly come to know it.
Nothing seems to be brought to pass by so swift a method
as when the mind proposes that it be done and itself initiates it;
therefore the mind bestirs itself more quickly than any thing,
of those whose nature appears in prompt view before the eyes.
but that which has need to be so mobile must consist of very rotund
and very minute seeds, so that, when impelled, they can be moved
by a small momentum.

namque movetur aqua et tantillo momine flutat,
quippe volubilibus parvisque creata figuris.
at contra mellis constantior est natura
et pigri latices magis et cunctantior actus:
haeret enim inter se magis omnis materiai
copia, ni mirum quia non tam levibus extat
corporibus neque tam suptilibus atque rutundis.
namque papaveris aura potest suspensa levisque
cogere ut ab summo tibi diffluat altus acervus,
at contra lapidum coniectum spicarumque
noenu potest.

for water is moved and with so tiny a momentum ripples,
since it is created by voluble and small figures.
but on the contrary the nature of honey is more constant
and its liquids more sluggish and its motion more delaying:
for all the supply of matter sticks together more among itself,
no wonder, because it does not stand forth in bodies so light
nor so subtle and rotund.
for a breath, suspended and light, can
compel that a lofty heap of poppy-seed flow down for you from the top,
but conversely a congeries of stones and of ears of grain
cannot be made to do so.

igitur parvissima corpora pro quam
et levissima sunt, ita mobilitate fruuntur;
at contra quae cumque magis cum pondere magno
asperaque inveniuntur, eo stabilita magis sunt.
nunc igitur quoniamst animi natura reperta
mobilis egregie, perquam constare necessest
corporibus parvis et levibus atque rutundis.
quae tibi cognita res in multis, o bone, rebus
utilis invenietur et opportuna cluebit.

therefore the very tiniest bodies, in proportion as they are the very lightest, thus they enjoy mobility;
but on the contrary, whatever are found with great weight and rough, by so much they are more stabilized.
now therefore, since the nature of the mind has been found remarkably mobile,
it is very necessary to consist of very small and light and round bodies.
this matter, once known to you, O good man,
will be found useful in many things and will be accounted opportune.

Haec quoque res etiam naturam dedicat eius,
quam tenui constet textura quamque loco se
contineat parvo, si possit conglomerari,
quod simul atque hominem leti secura quies est
indepta atque animi natura animaeque recessit,
nil ibi libatum de toto corpore cernas
ad speciem, nihil ad pondus: mors omnia praestat,
vitalem praeter sensum calidumque vaporem.
ergo animam totam perparvis esse necessest
seminibus nexam per venas viscera nervos,
qua tenus, omnis ubi e toto iam corpore cessit,
extima membrorum circumcaesura tamen se
incolumem praestat nec defit ponderis hilum.
quod genus est, Bacchi cum flos evanuit aut cum
spiritus unguenti suavis diffugit in auras
aut aliquo cum iam sucus de corpore cessit;
nil oculis tamen esse minor res ipsa videtur
propterea neque detractum de pondere quicquam,
ni mirum quia multa minutaque semina sucos
efficiunt et odorem in toto corpore rerum.

This fact too also declares its nature, of what thin texture it consists and in how small a place it keeps itself, if it can be conglomerated, that as soon as a man’s repose secure from death has been obtained and the nature of mind and of soul has withdrawn, you discern that nothing has been nibbled from the whole body in appearance, nothing in weight: death leaves all things, save the vital sense and the warm vapor.
therefore it is necessary that the soul in its entirety be bound of very small seeds through the veins, the viscera, the nerves,
to such an extent that, when it has now retired from the whole body, the outer circum-outline of the limbs nevertheless presents itself unharmed, nor is there lacking a whit of weight.
just as it is when the bloom of Bacchus has vanished or when the breath of sweet unguent has fled into the airs or when by now the juice has withdrawn from some body; yet the thing itself seems in no way smaller to the eyes on that account, nor has anything been subtracted from the weight, no wonder, because many and minute seeds produce the juices and the odor in the whole body of things.

quare etiam atque etiam mentis naturam animaeque
scire licet perquam pauxillis esse creatam
seminibus, quoniam fugiens nil ponderis aufert.
Nec tamen haec simplex nobis natura putanda est.
tenvis enim quaedam moribundos deserit aura
mixta vapore, vapor porro trahit aëra secum;
nec calor est quisquam, cui non sit mixtus et aër;
rara quod eius enim constat natura, necessest
aëris inter eum primordia multa moveri.

wherefore again and again it is permitted to know that the nature of mind and of soul
is fashioned from very minute seeds, since, as it flees, it removes no weight.
Nor, however, must this nature be thought simple.
for a certain thin aura abandons the dying, mingled with vapor; the vapor, moreover, draws air along with it;
nor is there any heat to which air is not mixed;
for since its nature is rarefied, it is necessary
that among its first-beginnings many elements of air be moved.

iam triplex animi est igitur natura reperta;
nec tamen haec sat sunt ad sensum cuncta creandum,
nil horum quoniam recipit mens posse creare
sensiferos motus, quae denique mente volutat.
quarta quoque his igitur quaedam natura necessest
adtribuatur; east omnino nominis expers;
qua neque mobilius quicquam neque tenvius extat
nec magis e parvis et levibus ex elementis;
sensiferos motus quae didit prima per artus.
prima cietur enim, parvis perfecta figuris,
inde calor motus et venti caeca potestas
accipit, inde aër, inde omnia mobilitantur:
concutitur sanguis, tum viscera persentiscunt
omnia, postremis datur ossibus atque medullis
sive voluptas est sive est contrarius ardor.

therefore a triple nature of the mind has now been discovered;
and yet these are not enough to create sense entire,
since the mind admits that none of these can create
sense-bearing motions, which at last it revolves in mind.
a fourth nature therefore also must be assigned to these;
it is altogether nameless;
than which nothing more mobile nor more tenuous exists,
nor more composed out of small and light elements;
which first gives sense-bearing motions through the limbs.
for it is first stirred, perfected with small figures,
then heat and the blind power of winds receives motion,
then air, then all things are set in motion:
the blood is shaken, then the viscera thoroughly perceive
all; at the last it is given to the bones and to the marrows,
whether it is pleasure or the contrary burning.

nec temere huc dolor usque potest penetrare neque acre
permanare malum, quin omnia perturbentur
usque adeo [ut] vitae desit locus atque animai
diffugiant partes per caulas corporis omnis.
sed plerumque fit in summo quasi corpore finis
motibus: hanc ob rem vitam retinere valemus.
Nunc ea quo pacto inter sese mixta quibusque
compta modis vigeant rationem reddere aventem
abstrahit invitum patrii sermonis egestas;
sed tamen, ut potero summatim attingere, tangam.

nor readily can pain penetrate hither so far, nor can sharp
evil permeate, without everything being perturbed
so far [that] there is no place for life and the parts of the soul
scatter through the sluices of the whole body.
but for the most part there is, as it were, an end at the surface of the body
for the motions: for this reason we are able to retain life.
Now, eager to render an account of how these, mixed among themselves and
composed with what modes, thrive, the poverty of our native speech
drags me, unwilling; yet nevertheless, as I shall be able to touch on summarily, I shall touch.

inter enim cursant primordia principiorum
motibus inter se, nihil ut secernier unum
possit nec spatio fieri divisa potestas,
sed quasi multae vis unius corporis extant.
quod genus in quovis animantum viscere volgo
est odor et quidam color et sapor, et tamen ex his
omnibus est unum perfectum corporis augmen,
sic calor atque aër et venti caeca potestas
mixta creant unam naturam et mobilis illa
vis, initum motus ab se quae dividit ollis,
sensifer unde oritur primum per viscera motus.
nam penitus prorsum latet haec natura subestque
nec magis hac infra quicquam est in corpore nostro
atque anima est animae proporro totius ipsa.

for among themselves run the first-beginnings of the principles
in motions among themselves, so that no one thing can be separated,
nor can a divided power be made by space,
but, as it were, there stands forth a manifold force of one body.
just as in any viscus of living creatures, commonly,
there is odor and a certain color and taste, and yet from all these
there is one perfected augmentation of the body,
so heat and air and the blind power of winds,
being mixed, create one nature and that mobile
force, which from itself parcels out to them the inception of motion,
whence the sense-bearing motion first arises through the viscera.
for this nature lies utterly deep within and underlies,
nor is there anything beneath this in our body,
and it is, furthermore, the soul of the whole soul itself.

quod genus in nostris membris et corpore toto
mixta latens animi vis est animaeque potestas,
corporibus quia de parvis paucisque creatast,
sic tibi nominis haec expers vis, facta minutis
corporibus, latet atque animae quasi totius ipsa
proporrost anima et dominatur corpore toto.
consimili ratione necessest ventus et aër
et calor inter se vigeant commixta per artus
atque aliis aliud subsit magis emineatque,
ut quiddam fieri videatur ab omnibus unum,
ni calor ac ventus seorsum seorsumque potestas
aëris interemant sensum diductaque solvant.
est etiam calor ille animo, quem sumit, in ira
cum fervescit et ex oculis micat acrius ardor;
est et frigida multa, comes formidinis, aura,
quae ciet horrorem membris et concitat artus;
est etiam quoque pacati status aëris ille,
pectore tranquillo fit qui voltuque sereno.

Just as in our members and in the whole body
the force of the mind and the power of the soul, commingled and hidden,
because it has been created from small and few bodies,
so for you this nameless force, made from minute
bodies, lies hidden and, as it were, is itself the very soul of the whole soul,
and it dominates the whole body.
By a similar reasoning it is necessary that wind and air
and heat thrive among themselves, commingled through the limbs,
and that in some parts one thing or another underlie more and stand out,
so that something may appear to be made one from all,
unless heat and wind and the force of air, taken separately,
do away with sensation and, drawn apart, dissolve it.
There is also that heat in the mind, which it takes on, in anger,
when it seethes and a keener ardor flashes from the eyes;
there is also much cold air, the companion of fear,
which rouses shivering in the limbs and sets the limbs in motion;
there is also likewise that state of the air at peace,
which comes to be with a tranquil breast and a serene countenance.

sed calidi plus est illis quibus acria corda
iracundaque mens facile effervescit in ira,
quo genere in primis vis est violenta leonum,
pectora qui fremitu rumpunt plerumque gementes
nec capere irarum fluctus in pectore possunt.
at ventosa magis cervorum frigida mens est
et gelidas citius per viscera concitat auras,
quae tremulum faciunt membris existere motum.
at natura boum placido magis aëre vivit
nec nimis irai fax umquam subdita percit
fumida, suffundens caecae caliginis umbra,
nec gelidis torpet telis perfixa pavoris;
interutrasque sitast cervos saevosque leones.

but there is more of the hot in those whose keen hearts
and iracund mind easily effervesces in anger—
of which kind above all is the violent force of lions,
who for the most part, groaning, burst their breasts with roaring
and cannot contain the waves of wrath in the breast.
but the mind of stags is colder and more windy,
and more swiftly it rouses icy breezes through the viscera,
which make a trembling motion arise in the limbs.
but the nature of oxen lives with a more placid air,
nor does the smoky torch of anger, when applied, ever too much strike,
suffusing the shade of blind gloom,
nor does it grow torpid, pierced by the icy darts of fear;
it is set between both, the stags and the savage lions.

sic hominum genus est: quamvis doctrina politos
constituat pariter quosdam, tamen illa relinquit
naturae cuiusque animi vestigia prima.
nec radicitus evelli mala posse putandumst,
quin proclivius hic iras decurrat ad acris,
ille metu citius paulo temptetur, at ille
tertius accipiat quaedam clementius aequo.
inque aliis rebus multis differre necessest
naturas hominum varias moresque sequacis;
quorum ego nunc nequeo caecas exponere causas
nec reperire figurarum tot nomina quot sunt
principiis, unde haec oritur variantia rerum.

so is the race of men: although doctrine may alike constitute certain men polished,
yet it leaves the first vestiges of each mind’s nature.
nor must one think that evils can be torn up by the roots,
but that this man more readily runs down into sharp angers,
that one is a little more quickly assailed by fear, and another,
a third, receives certain things more clemently than is equitable.
and in many other matters it is necessary that the various natures of men differ
and their sequacious mores;
the blind causes of which I cannot now set forth,
nor discover so many names of figures as there are principles
whence this variance of things arises.

illud in his rebus video firmare potesse,
usque adeo naturarum vestigia linqui
parvola, quae nequeat ratio depellere nobis,
ut nihil inpediat dignam dis degere vitam.
Haec igitur natura tenetur corpore ab omni
ipsaque corporis est custos et causa salutis;
nam communibus inter se radicibus haerent
nec sine pernicie divelli posse videntur.
quod genus e thuris glaebis evellere odorem
haud facile est, quin intereat natura quoque eius,
sic animi atque animae naturam corpore toto
extrahere haut facile est, quin omnia dissoluantur.

i see that this can be affirmed in these matters,
that to such an extent the tiny traces of natures are left behind,
little ones, which reason cannot drive away from us,
that nothing hinders the spending of a life worthy of the gods.
therefore this nature is held by the body as a whole,
and itself is the guardian of the body and the cause of its health;
for they cling to one another with common roots,
and seem not able to be torn apart without perdition.
just as from clods of frankincense to pluck out the odor
it is not easy, without its nature also perishing,
so the nature of mind and soul from the whole body
to extract is not easy, without everything being dissolved.

inplexis ita principiis ab origine prima
inter se fiunt consorti praedita vita,
nec sibi quaeque sine alterius vi posse videtur
corporis atque animi seorsum sentire potestas,
sed communibus inter eas conflatur utrimque
motibus accensus nobis per viscera sensus.
Praeterea corpus per se nec gignitur umquam
nec crescit neque post mortem durare videtur.
non enim, ut umor aquae dimittit saepe vaporem,
qui datus est, neque ea causa convellitur ipse,
sed manet incolumis, non, inquam, sic animai
discidium possunt artus perferre relicti,
sed penitus pereunt convulsi conque putrescunt.

interlaced thus in their principles from the first origin,
they become furnished with a consort life among themselves,
nor does the power of body and of mind seem able by itself,
each without the force of the other, to perceive separately;
but from common motions between them on both sides there is fused
a sense kindled for us through the viscera.
Furthermore, the body by itself is never generated,
nor does it grow, nor does it seem to endure after death.
for not, as the moisture of water often lets go the vapor
that has been given off, nor on that account is it itself wrenched apart,
but remains unharmed—not, I say, thus can the limbs left behind
bear the sundering of the soul; rather they utterly perish, convulsed, and rot away together.

ex ineunte aevo sic corporis atque animai
mutua vitalis discunt contagia motus,
maternis etiam membris alvoque reposta,
discidium [ut] nequeat fieri sine peste maloque;
ut videas, quoniam coniunctast causa salutis,
coniunctam quoque naturam consistere eorum.
Quod super est, siquis corpus sentire refutat
atque animam credit permixtam corpore toto
suscipere hunc motum quem sensum nominitamus,
vel manifestas res contra verasque repugnat.
quid sit enim corpus sentire quis adferet umquam,
si non ipsa palam quod res dedit ac docuit nos?

from the dawning age thus the body and the soul
learn the mutual contagions of vital motion,
even when reposed in the maternal members and womb,
so that a sundering cannot occur without pest and ill;
so that you may see, since the cause of health is conjoined,
their nature likewise stands conjoined.
What remains, if anyone refutes that the body feels
and believes that the soul, commixed through the whole body,
takes up this motion which we nominate sensation,
he contends against manifest and true things.
for what “the body to feel” is, who will ever bring forth,
if not that which the thing itself has given and taught us openly?

'at dimissa anima corpus caret undique sensu.'
perdit enim quod non proprium fuit eius in aevo
multaque praeterea perdit quom expellitur aevo.
Dicere porro oculos nullam rem cernere posse,
sed per eos animum ut foribus spectare reclusis,
difficilest, contra cum sensus ducat eorum;
sensus enim trahit atque acies detrudit ad ipsas,
fulgida praesertim cum cernere saepe nequimus,
lumina luminibus quia nobis praepediuntur.
quod foribus non fit; neque enim, qua cernimus ipsi,
ostia suscipiunt ullum reclusa laborem.

'But with the soul dismissed, the body lacks sense on every side.'
for it loses what was not proper to it in its lifetime,
and many things besides it loses when it is expelled from life.
To say, moreover, that the eyes are able to discern no thing,
but that through them the mind looks as through doors flung open,
is difficult, since their sense leads the other way;
for sensation draws and drives the line of sight to the things themselves,
especially when we often cannot discern shining things,
because our lights (eyes) are hampered by lights (glare).
which does not happen with doors; for the doors, through which we ourselves see,
when opened, undertake no labor at all.

praeterea si pro foribus sunt lumina nostra,
iam magis exemptis oculis debere videtur
cernere res animus sublatis postibus ipsis.
Illud in his rebus nequaquam sumere possis,
Democriti quod sancta viri sententia ponit,
corporis atque animi primordia singula primis
adposita alternis, variare ac nectere membra.
nam cum multo sunt animae elementa minora
quam quibus e corpus nobis et viscera constant,
tum numero quoque concedunt et rara per artus
dissita sunt, dum taxat ut hoc promittere possis,
quantula prima queant nobis iniecta ciere
corpora sensiferos motus in corpore, tanta
intervalla tenere exordia prima animai.

moreover, if our lights (eyes) are before the doors,
now it seems that, with the eyes removed, the mind ought all the more
to discern things when the very doorposts are taken away.
This in these matters you could by no means assume,
which the holy judgment of the man Democritus posits,
that the first-beginnings of body and of mind, each singly,
set alternately to the first, vary and weave together the members.
for since the elements of the soul are much smaller
than those by which our body and our viscera are constituted,
then also in number they yield, and through the limbs they are sparse
and scattered—so far, at least, that you can promise this—
that tiny first bodies, cast upon us, are able to stir
in the body sense-bearing motions; so great
intervals do the first beginnings of the soul hold.

nam neque pulveris inter dum sentimus adhaesum
corpore nec membris incussam sidere cretam,
nec nebulam noctu neque arani tenvia fila
obvia sentimus, quando obretimur euntes,
nec supera caput eiusdem cecidisse vietam
vestem nec plumas avium papposque volantis,
qui nimia levitate cadunt plerumque gravatim,
nec repentis itum cuiusvis cumque animantis
sentimus nec priva pedum vestigia quaeque,
corpore quae in nostro culices et cetera ponunt.
usque adeo prius est in nobis multa ciendum
quam primordia sentiscant concussa animai,
semina corporibus nostris inmixta per artus,
et quam in his intervallis tuditantia possint
concursare coire et dissultare vicissim.
Et magis est animus vitai claustra coërcens
et dominantior ad vitam quam vis animai.

for neither do we at times feel dust adhered
to the body nor chalky earth driven upon the limbs from the sky,
nor by night a mist nor the spider’s slender threads
meeting us do we feel, when we blunder into them as we go,
nor that above the head the same creature’s withered garment
has fallen, nor the feathers of birds and the pappus of things flying,
which by excessive lightness for the most part fall, as it were, heavily,
nor do we feel the going of any creeping living thing,
nor each separate footprint of the feet,
which gnats and the rest set upon our body.
so far is it that many things must first be stirred within us
before the first-beginnings of the soul, the seeds mixed through our limbs
in our bodies, sense that they have been shaken,
and before in these intervals the hammering particles can
collide, come together, and leap apart in turn.
And the mind is more restraining the barriers of life
and more predominant toward life than the force of the anima.

nam sine mente animoque nequit residere per artus
temporis exiguam partem pars ulla animai,
sed comes insequitur facile et discedit in auras
et gelidos artus in leti frigore linquit.
at manet in vita cui mens animusque remansit,
quamvis est circum caesis lacer undique membris;
truncus adempta anima circum membrisque remota
vivit et aetherias vitalis suscipit auras;
si non omnimodis, at magna parte animai
privatus, tamen in vita cunctatur et haeret;
ut, lacerato oculo circum si pupula mansit
incolumis, stat cernundi vivata potestas,
dum modo ne totum corrumpas luminis orbem
et circum caedas aciem solamque relinquas;
id quoque enim sine pernicie non fiet eorum.
at si tantula pars oculi media illa peresa est,
occidit extemplo lumen tenebraeque secuntur,
incolumis quamvis alioqui splendidus orbis.

for without mind and spirit no part of the soul can abide through the limbs for even a scant portion of time,
but as a companion it readily follows on and departs into the airs
and leaves the chill limbs in the cold of death.
but he remains in life for whom mind and spirit have remained,
although he is torn all around with limbs cut down on every side;
the trunk, with the surrounding limbs removed, lives, and, life-giving, receives the ethereal airs;
if not in every way, yet deprived of a great part of the soul,
nevertheless he delays and clings in life;
as, if the eye is torn around yet the pupil has remained
unharmed, the power of seeing stands, made alive,
provided only that you do not spoil the whole orb of the light
and cut around the visual edge and leave it alone;
for that too will not come to pass without their ruin.
but if that tiny middle part of the eye is eaten away,
the light dies at once and darkness follows,
although the orb, splendid otherwise, is unharmed.

hoc anima atque animus vincti sunt foedere semper.
Nunc age, nativos animantibus et mortalis
esse animos animasque levis ut noscere possis,
conquisita diu dulcique reperta labore
digna tua pergam disponere carmina vita.
tu fac utrumque uno subiungas nomine eorum
atque animam verbi causa cum dicere pergam,
mortalem esse docens, animum quoque dicere credas,
qua tenus est unum inter se coniunctaque res est.

by this compact the soul and the mind are bound together forever.
Now come, so that you may know that in animate beings the minds and the light souls are native and mortal,
long sought out and found by sweet labor I will proceed to set in order verses worthy of your life.
do you see to it that you subjoin both under one name of theirs, and when I proceed to say “soul” for the sake of the word,
teaching that it is mortal, you are to believe that I say “mind” as well, in so far as it is one thing with it and a conjoined reality.

Principio quoniam tenuem constare minutis
corporibus docui multoque minoribus esse
principiis factam quam liquidus umor aquai
aut nebula aut fumus;Ænam longe mobilitate
praestat et a tenui causa magis icta movetur,
quippe ubi imaginibus fumi nebulaeque movetur;
quod genus in somnis sopiti ubi cernimus alte
exhalare vaporem altaria ferreque fumum;
nam procul haec dubio nobis simulacra gerunturÆ
nunc igitur quoniam quassatis undique vasis
diffluere umorem et laticem discedere cernis,
et nebula ac fumus quoniam discedit in auras,
crede animam quoque diffundi multoque perire
ocius et citius dissolvi in corpora prima,
cum semel ex hominis membris ablata recessit;
quippe etenim corpus, quod vas quasi constitit eius,
cum cohibere nequit conquassatum ex aliqua re
ac rarefactum detracto sanguine venis,
aëre qui credas posse hanc cohiberier ullo,
corpore qui nostro rarus magis incohibens sit?
Praeterea gigni pariter cum corpore et una
crescere sentimus pariterque senescere mentem.
nam vel ut infirmo pueri teneroque vagantur
corpore, sic animi sequitur sententia tenvis.

To begin with, since I have taught that the tenuous consists of minute
bodies and is made from first-beginnings much smaller
than the liquid humor of water or a nebula or fume; for by far in mobility
it excels and by a slight cause is more smitten and moved,
indeed where by the images of smoke and mist it is moved—
such as the kind when, in dreams, as we lie asleep, we behold the altars
exhale vapor and carry fume; for surely these simulacra
are borne to us from afar— now therefore, since with vessels shaken on every side
you see the moisture flow out and the liquid depart,
and since mist and smoke depart into the breezes,
believe that the soul likewise is diffused and by much perishes
more swiftly and more quickly is dissolved into first-bodies,
when once, taken away from a man’s limbs, it has withdrawn;
for indeed the body, which has stood as its vessel as it were,
since it cannot cohibit it when shattered by some thing
and rarefied with the blood drawn off from the veins,
do you think that this can be cohibited by any air,
which, rarer than our body and less confining, is?
Moreover we perceive that the mind is begotten together with the body and together
grows, and equally grows old. For just as boys wander
with a weak and tender body, so too the mind’s sententia is slender.

inde ubi robustis adolevit viribus aetas,
consilium quoque maius et auctior est animi vis.
post ubi iam validis quassatum est viribus aevi
corpus et obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus,
claudicat ingenium, delirat lingua [labat] mens,
omnia deficiunt atque uno tempore desunt.
ergo dissolui quoque convenit omnem animai
naturam, ceu fumus, in altas aëris auras;
quando quidem gigni pariter pariterque videmus
crescere et, [ut] docui, simul aevo fessa fatisci.

thence, when age has grown up with robust forces,
counsel too is greater and the force of mind is more augmented.
after, when now the body has been shaken by the strong forces of age
and the limbs have fallen with blunted powers,
genius limps, the tongue raves, the mind [totters] wavers,
all things fail and at one time are lacking.
therefore it befits that the whole nature of the soul likewise be dissolved,
like smoke, into the high breezes of the air;
since indeed we see it to be begotten together and together to grow,
and, [as] I have taught, at the same time, weary with age, to grow frail.

Huc accedit uti videamus, corpus ut ipsum
suscipere inmanis morbos durumque dolorem,
sic animum curas acris luctumque metumque;
quare participem leti quoque convenit esse.
quin etiam morbis in corporis avius errat
saepe animus; dementit enim deliraque fatur,
inter dumque gravi lethargo fertur in altum
aeternumque soporem oculis nutuque cadenti;
unde neque exaudit voces nec noscere voltus
illorum potis est, ad vitam qui revocantes
circum stant lacrimis rorantes ora genasque.
quare animum quoque dissolui fateare necessest,
quandoquidem penetrant in eum contagia morbi;
nam dolor ac morbus leti fabricator uterquest,
multorum exitio perdocti quod sumus ante.

To this is added that we may see how the body itself
takes on immense morbidities and hard dolor,
so the mind sharp cares and both grief and fear;
wherefore it is fitting that it be a participant in death as well.
nay rather, by diseases of the body the mind often wanders out of the way;
for it goes insane and utters delirious things,
and sometimes by a grave lethargy it is borne into deep
and everlasting sleep, with eyes and nodding falling;
whence it neither hearkens to voices nor is able to know the faces
of those who, recalling to life,
stand around bedewing lips and cheeks with tears.
wherefore you must confess that the mind too is dissolved,
since the contagions of disease penetrate into it;
for pain and disease are each a fabricator of death—
a thing by the destruction of many we have been thoroughly taught before.

[et quoniam mentem sanari corpus ut aegrum
et pariter mentem sanari corpus inani]
denique cor, hominem cum vini vis penetravit
acris et in venas discessit diditus ardor,
consequitur gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur
crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens,
nant oculi, clamor singultus iurgia gliscunt,
et iam cetera de genere hoc quae cumque secuntur,
cur ea sunt, nisi quod vehemens violentia vini
conturbare animam consuevit corpore in ipso?
at quae cumque queunt conturbari inque pediri,
significant, paulo si durior insinuarit
causa, fore ut pereant aevo privata futuro.
Quin etiam subito vi morbi saepe coactus
ante oculos aliquis nostros, ut fulminis ictu,
concidit et spumas agit, ingemit et tremit artus,
desipit, extentat nervos, torquetur, anhelat
inconstanter, et in iactando membra fatigat,
ni mirum quia vis morbi distracta per artus
turbat agens animam, spumans [ut] in aequore salso
ventorum validis fervescunt viribus undae.

[and since the mind is healed like a sick body,
and equally the mind is healed like an emptied body]
finally the heart, when the sharp force of wine has penetrated a man
and the scattered ardor has gone apart into the veins,
a heaviness of the limbs follows, the legs are hampered,
wavering, the tongue grows slow, the mind is drenched,
the eyes swim, clamor, sobbing, quarrels swell,
and now the rest of the things of this sort whatever follow—
why are these so, unless because the vehement violence of wine
is accustomed to confound the soul in the body itself?
but whatever things can be disturbed and impeded
signify that, if a somewhat harder cause should insinuate itself,
they will perish, deprived of a future lifetime.
Nay even, often someone, compelled by the sudden force of disease,
before our eyes, as by a stroke of lightning,
falls and throws forth foam, he groans and his limbs tremble,
he is out of his wits, he strains his sinews, he is twisted, he gasps
fitfully, and in tossing about he wearies his limbs—
no marvel, because the force of the disease, scattered through the limbs,
disturbs, driving the soul, as on the salty sea foaming
the waves boil up by the strong powers of the winds.

exprimitur porro gemitus, quia membra dolore
adficiuntur et omnino quod semina vocis
eliciuntur et ore foras glomerata feruntur
qua quasi consuerunt et sunt munita viai.
desipientia fit, quia vis animi atque animai
conturbatur et, ut docui, divisa seorsum
disiectatur eodem illo distracta veneno.
inde ubi iam morbi reflexit causa, reditque
in latebras acer corrupti corporis umor,
tum quasi vaccillans primum consurgit et omnis
paulatim redit in sensus animamque receptat.

a groan moreover is pressed out, because the limbs are affected by pain and, in general, because the seeds of voice are drawn forth and, massed, are borne out through the mouth by the route where, as it were, they have been accustomed and the ways are furnished.
delirium comes to be, because the force of the mind and of the soul is thrown into disorder and, as I have taught, divided apart, is scattered, torn asunder by that same poison.
then when now the cause of the disease has bent back, and the sharp humor of the corrupted body returns into its hiding-places,
then, as if vacillating, it first rises up, and the whole little by little returns into the senses and takes back the soul.

haec igitur tantis ubi morbis corpore in ipso
iactentur miserisque modis distracta laborent,
cur eadem credis sine corpore in aëre aperto
cum validis ventis aetatem degere posse?
Et quoniam mentem sanari corpus ut aegrum
cernimus et flecti medicina posse videmus,
id quoque praesagit mortalem vivere mentem.
addere enim partis aut ordine traiecere aecumst
aut aliquid prosum de summa detrahere hilum,
commutare animum qui cumque adoritur et infit
aut aliam quamvis naturam flectere quaerit.

therefore, when these things, in such great diseases, are tossed in the body itself and, torn asunder, toil in wretched modes, why do you believe that these same things can pass their lifetime without a body in the open air with strong winds?
And since we discern the mind to be healed, like a sick body, and we see it can be bent by medicine, this too presages that the mind lives as mortal.
for it is equitable either to add parts or to transfer them in order, or to subtract even a whit from the total sum, whoever undertakes and begins to change the mind or seeks to bend any other nature.

at neque transferri sibi partis nec tribui vult
inmortale quod est quicquam neque defluere hilum;
nam quod cumque suis mutatum finibus exit,
continuo hoc mors est illius quod fuit ante.
ergo animus sive aegrescit, mortalia signa
mittit, uti docui, seu flectitur a medicina.
usque adeo falsae rationi vera videtur
res occurrere et effugium praecludere eunti
ancipitique refutatu convincere falsum.

but neither does it wish that parts be transferred to itself nor that anything which is immortal be assigned, nor to flow away a whit;
for whatever, changed, goes forth from its own boundaries,
straightway this is the death of that which it was before.
therefore the mind, whether it falls ill, sends mortal signs,
as I have taught, or is bent by medicine.
to such a degree does the true thing seem to confront false reasoning
and to shut off its escape as it goes, and to convict the falsehood
with a refutation hard to rebut.

Denique saepe hominem paulatim cernimus ire
et membratim vitalem deperdere sensum;
in pedibus primum digitos livescere et unguis,
inde pedes et crura mori, post inde per artus
ire alios tractim gelidi vestigia leti.
scinditur atque animae haec quoniam natura nec uno
tempore sincera existit, mortalis habendast.
quod si forte putas ipsam se posse per artus
introsum trahere et partis conducere in unum
atque ideo cunctis sensum diducere membris,
at locus ille tamen, quo copia tanta animai
cogitur, in sensu debet maiore videri;
qui quoniam nusquamst, ni mirum, ut diximus [ante>,
dilaniata foras dispargitur, interit ergo.

Finally, we often discern a man to go little by little
and to lose the vital sense, limb by limb;
in the feet first the toes and nails to grow livid,
then the feet and shanks to die, after that thereafter through other limbs
the traces of gelid death to go by degrees.
and since this nature of the soul is rent asunder and does not
exist intact at one time, it must be held mortal.
but if perchance you think that it itself can draw itself inward
through the limbs and gather the parts into one,
and therefore to withdraw sense from all the members,
yet that place, where so great a store of soul
is compressed, ought to appear in greater sensation;
which, since it is nowhere, no wonder, as we said [before>,
torn to pieces outward it is scattered—therefore it perishes.

quin etiam si iam libeat concedere falsum
et dare posse animam glomerari in corpore eorum,
lumina qui lincunt moribundi particulatim,
mortalem tamen esse animam fateare necesse
nec refert utrum pereat dispersa per auras
an contracta suis e partibus obbrutescat,
quando hominem totum magis ac magis undique sensus
deficit et vitae minus et minus undique restat.
Et quoniam mens est hominis pars una locoque
fixa manet certo, vel ut aures atque oculi sunt
atque alii sensus qui vitam cumque gubernant,
et vel uti manus atque oculus naresve seorsum
secreta ab nobis nequeunt sentire neque esse,
sed tamen in parvo lincuntur tempore tali,
sic animus per se non quit sine corpore et ipso
esse homine, illius quasi quod vas esse videtur,
sive aliud quid vis potius coniunctius ei
fingere, quandoquidem conexu corpus adhaeret.
Denique corporis atque animi vivata potestas
inter se coniuncta valent vitaque fruuntur;
nec sine corpore enim vitalis edere motus
sola potest animi per se natura nec autem
cassum anima corpus durare et sensibus uti.

nay even if now it should please you to concede something false
and to grant that the soul can be conglomerated within the body of those
who, moribund, leave their lights piecemeal,
yet you must confess that the soul is mortal,
nor does it matter whether it perishes, dispersed through the airs,
or, contracted from its own parts, grows brutish and insensate,
since on every side the senses fail the whole man more and more,
and less and less of life remains on every side.
And since the mind is one part of the human and remains fixed
in a certain place, just as the ears and the eyes are,
and the other senses which in any case govern life,
and just as the hand and the eye or the nostrils, apart,
severed from us, cannot feel nor be,
but yet in such a short time they are left behind,
so the animus by itself cannot, without the body and the man himself,
exist, of which it seems to be, as it were, the vessel;
or if you prefer to fashion something else more conjoined to it,
since by a nexus the body adheres.
Finally, the vivified power of body and of soul,
joined together, is strong and enjoys life;
for neither can the nature of the mind alone by itself produce vital motions
without the body, nor moreover can a body void of soul endure and use the senses.

scilicet avolsus radicibus ut nequit ullam
dispicere ipse oculus rem seorsum corpore toto,
sic anima atque animus per se nil posse videtur.
ni mirum quia [per] venas et viscera mixtim,
per nervos atque ossa tenentur corpore ab omni
nec magnis intervallis primordia possunt
libera dissultare, ideo conclusa moventur
sensiferos motus, quos extra corpus in auras
aëris haut possunt post mortem eiecta moveri
propterea quia non simili ratione tenentur;
corpus enim atque animans erit aër, si cohibere
sese anima atque in eos poterit concludere motus,
quos ante in nervis et in ipso corpore agebat.
quare etiam atque etiam resoluto corporis omni
tegmine et eiectis extra vitalibus auris
dissolui sensus animi fateare necessest
atque animam, quoniam coniunctast causa duobus.

manifestly, just as, torn from its roots, the eye cannot discern
any thing by itself, a thing apart from the whole body,
so the soul and the mind seem able to do nothing by themselves.
no wonder, because [through] the veins and the viscera, mingled,
through the nerves and the bones they are held fast by the body as a whole,
and their first-beginnings cannot leap free across wide intervals;
therefore, being enclosed, they are moved to sense-bearing motions, which outside the body, into the breezes
of the air, when cast out after death, they are by no means able to be moved,
for the reason that they are not held in a like fashion;
for the air would be both body and animate, if the soul could restrain
itself and be able to shut itself into those motions
which before it was driving in the nerves and in the body itself.
wherefore, again and again, when the whole covering of the body has been unloosed
and the life-giving airs cast outside,
you must needs confess that the senses of the mind are dissolved
and the soul as well, since its cause is conjoined of two.

Denique cum corpus nequeat perferre animai
discidium, quin in taetro tabescat odore,
quid dubitas quin ex imo penitusque coorta
emanarit uti fumus diffusa animae vis,
atque ideo tanta mutatum putre ruina
conciderit corpus, penitus quia mota loco sunt
fundamenta foras manant animaeque per artus
perque viarum omnis flexus, in corpore qui sunt,
atque foramina? multimodis ut noscere possis
dispertitam animae naturam exisse per artus
et prius esse sibi distractam corpore in ipso,
quam prolapsa foras enaret in aëris auras.
Quin etiam finis dum vitae vertitur intra,
saepe aliqua tamen e causa labefacta videtur
ire anima ac toto solui de corpore [tota]
et quasi supremo languescere tempore voltus
molliaque exsangui cadere omnia [corpore] membra.

Finally, since the body cannot bear the sundering of the soul without wasting away into a foul odor, why do you doubt that the diffused force of the soul has emanated, like smoke, having arisen from the depths and from the very bottom, and that for that reason the body, changed by putrid ruin, has collapsed, because deep within the foundations have been moved from their place, and the soul flows outward through the limbs and through all the bendings of the passages that are in the body, and through the openings? so that in many ways you can know that the nature of the soul, parceled out, has gone forth through the limbs and had first been torn apart for itself in the body itself, before, having slipped out, it would float in the breezes of the air.
Nay rather, even while the end of life is turning within, often nevertheless for some cause the soul, shaken, seems to go and to be loosened out of the whole body [whole], and the countenance, as if at the final time, grows languid, and all the soft limbs fall from the bloodless [body].

quod genus est, animo male factum cum perhibetur
aut animam liquisse; ubi iam trepidatur et omnes
extremum cupiunt vitae reprehendere vinclum;
conquassatur enim tum mens animaeque potestas
omnis. et haec ipso cum corpore conlabefiunt,
ut gravior paulo possit dissolvere causa.
Quid dubitas tandem quin extra prodita corpus
inbecilla foras in aperto, tegmine dempto,
non modo non omnem possit durare per aevom,
sed minimum quodvis nequeat consistere tempus?

which kind it is, when it is reported that it has gone ill with the mind,
or that the soul has left; when already there is trepidation and all
desire to seize again the final bond of life;
for then the mind and the whole power of the soul
is shaken to pieces. and these collapse together with the body itself,
so that a somewhat heavier cause can dissolve them.
What do you finally doubt, that, once betrayed outside the body,
feeble without, in the open, with its covering removed,
it not only cannot endure through the whole aeon,
but cannot stand fast for even the least time whatsoever?

nec sibi enim quisquam moriens sentire videtur
ire foras animam incolumem de corpore toto,
nec prius ad iugulum et supera succedere fauces,
verum deficere in certa regione locatam;
ut sensus alios in parti quemque sua scit
dissolui. quod si inmortalis nostra foret mens,
non tam se moriens dissolvi conquereretur,
sed magis ire foras vestemque relinquere, ut anguis.
Denique cur animi numquam mens consiliumque
gignitur in capite aut pedibus manibusve, sed unis
sedibus et certis regionibus omnibus haeret,
si non certa loca ad nascendum reddita cuique
sunt, et ubi quicquid possit durare creatum
atque ita multimodis partitis artubus esse,
membrorum ut numquam existat praeposterus ordo?

for indeed no one dying seems to himself to feel
the soul going out safe and sound from the whole body,
nor first to advance to the throat and the upper gullet,
but to fail, being located in a certain region;
just as each knows that the other senses in his own part
are dissolved. But if our mind were immortal,
the dying man would not so complain that he is being dissolved,
but rather that he is going out and leaving his garment, like a snake.
Finally, why are the mind of the spirit and counsel never
generated in the head or in the feet or hands, but in single
seats and for all it clings in fixed regions,
if there are not fixed places rendered to each for being born,
and where whatever has been created can endure,
and thus be in many ways with the limbs partitioned,
so that there may never exist a preposterous order of the members?

usque adeo sequitur res rem, neque flamma creari
fluminibus solitast neque in igni gignier algor.
Praeterea si inmortalis natura animaist
et sentire potest secreta a corpore nostro,
quinque, ut opinor, eam faciundum est sensibus auctam.
nec ratione alia nosmet proponere nobis
possumus infernas animas Acherunte vagare.

to such a degree does thing follow thing, nor is flame wont to be created in rivers, nor is chill begotten in fire.
Moreover, if the nature of the soul is immortal and can feel when separate from our body, it must, as I suppose, be augmented with five senses.
nor by any other reasoning can we propose to ourselves that infernal souls wander in Acheron.

pictores itaque et scriptorum saecla priora
sic animas intro duxerunt sensibus auctas.
at neque sorsum oculi neque nares nec manus ipsa
esse potest animae neque sorsum lingua neque aures;
haud igitur per se possunt sentire neque esse.
Et quoniam toto sentimus corpore inesse
vitalem sensum et totum esse animale videmus,
si subito medium celeri praeciderit ictu
vis aliqua, ut sorsum partem secernat utramque,
dispertita procul dubio quoque vis animai
et discissa simul cum corpore dissicietur.

Thus painters and the earlier generations of writers have in this way led souls inward, augmented with senses.
but neither eyes separately nor nostrils nor the hand itself
can be the soul, nor separately the tongue nor ears;
therefore by themselves they can neither feel nor be.
And since we sense that a vital sense is present in the whole body
and see that the whole is animate,
if some force should suddenly with a swift stroke cut the middle,
so as to separate each part apart,
the force of the soul, disparted beyond doubt, too
will at the same time be torn asunder, split along with the body.

at quod scinditur et partis discedit in ullas,
scilicet aeternam sibi naturam abnuit esse.
falciferos memorant currus abscidere membra
saepe ita de subito permixta caede calentis,
ut tremere in terra videatur ab artubus id quod
decidit abscisum, cum mens tamen atque hominis vis
mobilitate mali non quit sentire dolorem;
et simul in pugnae studio quod dedita mens est,
corpore relicuo pugnam caedesque petessit,
nec tenet amissam laevam cum tegmine saepe
inter equos abstraxe rotas falcesque rapaces,
nec cecidisse alius dextram, cum scandit et instat.
inde alius conatur adempto surgere crure,
cum digitos agitat propter moribundus humi pes.

but what is cleft and departs into any parts,
surely disclaims for itself an eternal nature to be.
they recount that scythe-bearing chariots cut off limbs
often thus, all of a sudden, in the mingled slaughter of a man still hot,
so that that which fell cut off from the limbs seems to tremble on the earth,
while the mind and the force of the man, by the swiftness of the mischief,
is not able to feel the pain;
and at the same time, because the mind is devoted to the zeal of battle,
with the remaining body he makes for fight and for slaughter,
nor does he perceive the left hand lost, with its covering (shield), often,
when among the horses the wheels and rapacious scythes have dragged it away,
nor that his right hand has fallen, when he mounts and presses on.
then another tries to rise with a leg taken away,
while the foot, dying, stirs its toes nearby on the ground.

et caput abscisum calido viventeque trunco
servat humi voltum vitalem oculosque patentis,
donec reliquias animai reddidit omnes.
quin etiam tibi si, lingua vibrante, minanti
serpentis cauda, procero corpore, utrumque
sit libitum in multas partis discidere ferro,
omnia iam sorsum cernes ancisa recenti
volnere tortari et terram conspargere tabo,
ipsam seque retro partem petere ore priorem,
volneris ardenti ut morsu premat icta dolore.
omnibus esse igitur totas dicemus in illis
particulis animas?

and the head cut off from the warm and living trunk
keeps on the ground a vital countenance and eyes agape,
until it has given back all the relics of the soul.
nay rather, if to you, with its tongue vibrating, the menacing
tail of a serpent, with its procerous body, both of them
it has pleased to cut into many parts with iron,
you will now see all severally, hewn by the fresh
wound, writhe and besprinkle the earth with gore,
and the very part seek back with its mouth the prior part,
so that, smitten by pain, it may press with a bite upon the burning wound.
shall we then say that whole souls are in all those
little particles?

at ea ratione sequetur
unam animantem animas habuisse in corpore multas.
ergo divisast ea quae fuit una simul cum
corpore; quapropter mortale utrumque putandumst,
in multas quoniam partis disciditur aeque.
Praeterea si inmortalis natura animai
constat et in corpus nascentibus insinuatur,
cur super ante actam aetatem meminisse nequimus
[interisse et quae nunc est nunc esse creatam]
nec vestigia gestarum rerum ulla tenemus?

but by that reasoning it will follow
that one animate being has had many souls in one body.
therefore that which was one together with
the body has been divided; wherefore both must be thought mortal,
since it is equally torn asunder into many parts.
Moreover, if the nature of the soul is immortal
stands firm and insinuates itself into the body at birth,
why are we unable to remember about the age lived before,
[that it has perished and that which now is has now been created]
nor do we retain any vestiges of deeds done?

nam si tanto operest animi mutata potestas,
omnis ut actarum exciderit retinentia rerum,
non, ut opinor, id ab leto iam longius errat;
qua propter fateare necessest quae fuit ante
interiisse, et quae nunc est nunc esse creatam.
Praeterea si iam perfecto corpore nobis
inferri solitast animi vivata potestas
tum cum gignimur et vitae cum limen inimus,
haud ita conveniebat uti cum corpore et una
cum membris videatur in ipso sanguine cresse,
sed vel ut in cavea per se sibi vivere solam
convenit, ut sensu corpus tamen affluat omne.
quare etiam atque etiam neque originis esse putandumst
expertis animas nec leti lege solutas;
nam neque tanto opere adnecti potuisse putandumst
corporibus nostris extrinsecus insinuatas,
quod fieri totum contra manifesta docet res
Ænamque ita conexa est per venas viscera nervos
ossaque, uti dentes quoque sensu participentur;
morbus ut indicat et gelidai stringor aquai
et lapis oppressus subitis e frugibus asperÆ
nec, tam contextae cum sint, exire videntur
incolumes posse et salvas exsolvere sese
omnibus e nervis atque ossibus articulisque,
quod si forte putas extrinsecus insinuatam
permanare animam nobis per membra solere,
tanto quique magis cum corpore fusa peribit;
quod permanat enim, dissolvitur, interit ergo;
dispertitur enim per caulas corporis omnis.

for if the power of the mind has been changed to such a degree
that all retention of things done has fallen away,
that, I suppose, does not now stray far from death;
wherefore you must needs confess that what was before
has perished, and that what now is is now created.
Moreover, if, with the body already perfected for us,
the enlivened power of the mind is wont to be brought in
then when we are begotten and when we cross the threshold of life,
it would not be fitting that, together with the body and along
with the members, it should seem to have grown in the very blood,
but rather, as in a cage, to live by itself alone,
so that nevertheless the whole body might overflow with sense.
wherefore again and again we must not think souls to be without origin
nor released from the law of death; for neither must it be thought
that, insinuated from without, they could be so greatly fastened
to our bodies, which the whole case plainly shows happens quite the contrary,
and the soul is so interlinked through veins, viscera, nerves,
and bones, that even the teeth are made participants in sense;
as disease indicates, and the chill contraction of gelid water,
and the rough stone, pressed unexpectedly among the grains;
nor, since they are so interwoven, do they seem able to go out
unharmed and to unloose themselves safe from all the sinews and bones and joints;
but if perchance you think that a soul insinuated from without
is wont to permeate for us through the members,
so much the more will it perish, being diffused with the body;
for what permeates is dissolved; therefore it perishes;
for it is distributed through all the channels of the body.

ut cibus, in membra atque artus cum diditur omnis,
disperit atque aliam naturam sufficit ex se,
sic anima atque animus quamvis [est] integra recens [in]
corpus eunt, tamen in manando dissoluuntur,
dum quasi per caulas omnis diduntur in artus
particulae quibus haec animi natura creatur,
quae nunc in nostro dominatur corpore nata
ex illa quae tunc periit partita per artus.
quapropter neque natali privata videtur
esse die natura animae nec funeris expers.
Semina praeterea linquontur necne animai
corpore in exanimo?

as food, when it is distributed into the limbs and joints in every part,
perishes and supplies from itself another nature,
so the soul and the mind, although whole and fresh, go into the body;
yet in the flowing they are dissolved,
while, as if through little lattices, they are distributed into all the limbs
the particles by which this nature of mind is created,
which now rules in our body, born from that which then perished,
portioned out through the limbs.
wherefore the nature of the soul seems neither deprived
of a natal day nor exempt from a funeral.
Besides, are the seeds of the soul left behind or not
in the lifeless body?

quod si lincuntur et insunt,
haut erit ut merito inmortalis possit haberi,
partibus amissis quoniam libata recessit.
sin ita sinceris membris ablata profugit,
ut nullas partis in corpore liquerit ex se,
unde cadavera rancenti iam viscere vermes
expirant atque unde animantum copia tanta
exos et exanguis tumidos perfluctuat artus?
quod si forte animas extrinsecus insinuari?

but if they are left behind and are within,
it will in no wise be able deservedly to be held immortal,
since, parts having been lost, it has withdrawn, skimmed off.
but if thus, taken from the sincere members, it has fled,
so that it has left no parts in the body from itself,
whence do cadavers with now rancid viscera worms
breathe out, and whence does so great a multitude of animate beings
surge over the stripped and bloodless swollen limbs?
but if by chance souls are insinuated from outside?

vermibus et privas in corpora posse venire
credis nec reputas cur milia multa animarum
conveniant unde una recesserit, hoc tamen est ut
quaerendum videatur et in discrimen agendum,
utrum tandem animae venentur semina quaeque
vermiculorum ipsaeque sibi fabricentur ubi sint,
an quasi corporibus perfectis insinuentur.
at neque cur faciant ipsae quareve laborent
dicere suppeditat. neque enim, sine corpore cum sunt,
sollicitae volitant morbis alguque fameque;
corpus enim magis his vitiis adfine laborat,
et mala multa animus contage fungitur eius.

do you believe that souls can come into worms and into private bodies,
and do you not reckon why many thousands of souls
should convene to the place from which a single one has receded? nevertheless this is such as
to seem needing inquiry and to be brought into discrimination,
whether at last souls hunt for the seeds of each of the little worms
and themselves fabricate for themselves the place where they may be,
or as though they insinuate themselves into perfected bodies.
but it supplies no account to say either why they themselves do this or for what reason they labor;
for when they are without body, they do not fly about solicitous with diseases and with chill and with hunger;
for the body rather, being affined to these vices, labors,
and the mind undergoes many evils by contagion of it.

sed tamen his esto quamvis facere utile corpus,
cum subeant; at qua possint via nulla videtur.
haut igitur faciunt animae sibi corpora et artus.
nec tamen est ut qui [cum] perfectis insinuentur
corporibus; neque enim poterunt suptiliter esse
conexae neque consensu contagia fient.

but nevertheless, grant that it is useful for them to make a body, when they enter; yet by what path they could, no way appears.
thus souls do not make for themselves bodies and limbs.
nor yet is it the case that they [when] insinuate themselves into perfected bodies; for they will not be able to be subtly connected, nor will contacts be formed by consensus.

Denique cur acris violentia triste leonum
seminium sequitur, volpes dolus, et fuga cervos?
a patribus datur et [a] patrius pavor incitat artus,
et iam cetera de genere hoc cur omnia membris
ex ineunte aevo generascunt ingenioque,
si non, certa suo quia semine seminioque
vis animi pariter crescit cum corpore quoque?
quod si inmortalis foret et mutare soleret
corpora, permixtis animantes moribus essent,
effugeret canis Hyrcano de semine saepe
cornigeri incursum cervi tremeretque per auras
aëris accipiter fugiens veniente columba,
desiperent homines, saperent fera saecla ferarum.

Finally, why does keen violence follow the grim breed of lions,
guile the foxes, and flight the stags?
it is given by the sires, and a father-born fear incites the limbs,
and now why do all the other things of this kind grow in their members
and in their disposition from the dawning of age,
if not because the force of the mind, fixed by its own seed and seed-stock,
grows equally along with the body as well?
but if it were immortal and were wont to change
bodies, living creatures would have commingled manners:
a dog from Hyrcanian stock would often flee
the onset of the horn-bearing stag, and the hawk would tremble through the airs
of the sky, fleeing at the coming of a dove;
men would be out of their wits, the wild generations of wild beasts would be wise.

illud enim falsa fertur ratione, quod aiunt
inmortalem animam mutato corpore flecti;
quod mutatur enim, dissolvitur, interit ergo;
traiciuntur enim partes atque ordine migrant;
quare dissolui quoque debent posse per artus,
denique ut intereant una cum corpore cunctae.
sin animas hominum dicent in corpora semper
ire humana, tamen quaeram cur e sapienti
stulta queat fieri, nec prudens sit puer ullus,
[si non, certa suo quia semine seminioque]
nec tam doctus equae pullus quam fortis equi vis.
scilicet in tenero tenerascere corpore mentem
confugient.

for that is borne by a false reasoning, which they say:
that the soul, immortal, is bent by the body being changed;
for what is changed is dissolved, therefore it perishes;
for the parts are transferred and migrate in order;
wherefore they must also be able to be dissolved through the limbs,
finally, so that all together they perish along with the body.
but if they will say that the souls of men always
go into human bodies, yet I will ask why from a wise man
a foolish one can come to be, and no boy is prudent,
[if not, because by its own seed and seminality a fixed force],
nor is the foal of a mare so taught as the force of a horse is strong.
of course they will take refuge in this: that the mind
grows tender in a tender body.

quod si iam fit, fateare necessest
mortalem esse animam, quoniam mutata per artus
tanto opere amittit vitam sensumque priorem.
quove modo poterit pariter cum corpore quoque
confirmata cupitum aetatis tangere florem
vis animi, nisi erit consors in origine prima?
quidve foras sibi vult membris exire senectis?

But if this now happens, you must admit
that the soul is mortal, since, changed through the limbs,
to such a degree it loses life and its former sense.
And in what way will the force of the mind, confirmed together with the body as well,
be able to touch the desired flower of age,
unless it will be a consort in the first origin?
Or what does it intend for itself, to go forth outside from aged limbs?

an metuit conclusa manere in corpore putri
et domus aetatis spatio ne fessa vetusto
obruat? at non sunt immortali ulla pericla.
Denique conubia ad Veneris partusque ferarum
esse animas praesto deridiculum esse videtur,
expectare immortalis mortalia membra
innumero numero certareque praeproperanter
inter se quae prima potissimaque insinuetur;
si non forte ita sunt animarum foedera pacta,
ut quae prima volans advenerit insinuetur
prima neque inter se contendant viribus hilum.

or does it fear, being enclosed, to remain in a putrid body,
and that its house, wearied by the span of time-worn age,
might overwhelm it? But no dangers at all belong to an immortal.
Finally, that souls should stand ready for the marriages of Venus and for the births of beasts
seems laughable, that immortals should wait for mortal limbs,
in an innumerable number and vie over-hastily
among themselves as to which shall first and most-potently insinuate itself;
unless perchance the compacts of souls are so pacted,
that whichever, flying, has arrived first is insinuated
first, and that they do not contend among themselves a whit in forces.

Denique in aethere non arbor, non aequore in alto
nubes esse queunt nec pisces vivere in arvis
nec cruor in lignis neque saxis sucus inesse.
certum ac dispositumst ubi quicquid crescat et insit.
sic animi natura nequit sine corpore oriri
sola neque a nervis et sanguine longius esse.

Finally, in the ether no tree can be, nor on the deep sea
can there be clouds, nor can fishes live in the fields,
nor is gore in wood nor juice in stones.
it is fixed and disposed where whatever may grow and inhere.
thus the nature of the mind cannot arise without a body
alone, nor be farther away than the nerves and the blood.

quod si posset enim, multo prius ipsa animi vis
in capite aut umeris aut imis calcibus esse
posset et innasci quavis in parte soleret,
tandem in eodem homine atque in eodem vase manere.
quod quoniam nostro quoque constat corpore certum
dispositumque videtur ubi esse et crescere possit
sorsum anima atque animus, tanto magis infitiandum
totum posse extra corpus durare genique.
quare, corpus ubi interiit, periisse necessest
confiteare animam distractam in corpore toto.

but if indeed it could, far sooner the very force of mind
could be in the head or the shoulders or the lowest heels,
and would be wont to be born-in in any part,
yet to remain in the same man and in the same vessel.
since, in our body too, it stands fixed as certain
and seems disposed where the soul and the mind can be and grow
separately, all the more must it be denied
that the whole can endure and be begotten outside the body.
therefore, when the body has perished, it is necessary to confess
that the soul, torn apart throughout the whole body, has perished.

quippe etenim mortale aeterno iungere et una
consentire putare et fungi mutua posse
desiperest; quid enim diversius esse putandumst
aut magis inter se disiunctum discrepitansque,
quam mortale quod est inmortali atque perenni
iunctum in concilio saevas tolerare procellas?
praeterea quaecumque manent aeterna necessest
aut quia sunt solido cum corpore respuere ictus
nec penetrare pati sibi quicquam quod queat artas
dissociare intus partis, ut materiai
corpora sunt, quorum naturam ostendimus ante,
aut ideo durare aetatem posse per omnem,
plagarum quia sunt expertia sicut inanest,
quod manet intactum neque ab ictu fungitur hilum,
aut etiam quia nulla loci sit copia circum,
quo quasi res possint discedere dissoluique,
sicut summarum summast aeterna, neque extra
quis locus est quo diffugiant neque corpora sunt quae
possint incidere et valida dissolvere plaga.
Quod si forte ideo magis inmortalis habendast,
quod vitalibus ab rebus munita tenetur,
aut quia non veniunt omnino aliena salutis,
aut quia quae veniunt aliqua ratione recedunt
pulsa prius quam quid noceant sentire queamus,
* * *
praeter enim quam quod morbis cum corporis aegret,
advenit id quod eam de rebus saepe futuris
macerat inque metu male habet curisque fatigat,
praeteritisque male admissis peccata remordent.

for indeed to join the mortal to the eternal and to think that they can as one consent and be able to perform mutual functions is folly; for what is to be thought more different, or more mutually sundered and discordant, than that what is mortal, joined to the immortal and perennial in conjunction, should endure savage tempests?
furthermore, whatever things remain eternal must either, because they are with solid body, spurn blows and not allow anything to penetrate them which could dissociate their close-packed parts within, as are the bodies of matter, whose nature we have shown before,
or else be able for that reason to endure through all age, because they are without experience of strokes, like the void is, which remains untouched and does not undergo impact in the least,
or even because there is no supply of place around, whither, as it were, things could depart and be dissolved, just as the sum of sums is eternal, and there is no place outside to which they may scatter, nor bodies which can fall upon and dissolve it with a strong blow.
But if by chance for this reason it must be held the more immortal,
because it is kept warded by vital things,
or because things alien to safety do not come at all,
or because those that come withdraw by some method, driven back before we can feel that they do any harm,
* * *
for besides the fact that it falls ill with diseases along with the body,
there comes that which macerates it about things often future and keeps it ill in fear and wearies it with cares,
and for misdeeds badly committed in the past the sins bite back.

adde furorem animi proprium atque oblivia rerum,
adde quod in nigras lethargi mergitur undas.
Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum,
quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur.
et vel ut ante acto nihil tempore sensimus aegri,
ad confligendum venientibus undique Poenis,
omnia cum belli trepido concussa tumultu
horrida contremuere sub altis aetheris auris,
in dubioque fuere utrorum ad regna cadendum
omnibus humanis esset terraque marique,
sic, ubi non erimus, cum corporis atque animai
discidium fuerit, quibus e sumus uniter apti,
scilicet haud nobis quicquam, qui non erimus tum,
accidere omnino poterit sensumque movere,
non si terra mari miscebitur et mare caelo.

add the mind’s proper fury and oblivions of things,
add that it is plunged into the black waves of lethargy.
Therefore death is nothing to us nor pertains a whit,
since the nature of the mind is held to be mortal.
and even as in time before passed we felt nothing grievous,
when from every side the Punics were coming to clash,
when all things, shaken by the tremulous tumult of war,
shuddered horrid beneath the high airs of the ether,
and it was in doubt to whose rule it must fall
for all human affairs both on land and sea,
so, when we shall not be, when the sundering of body and soul
has come to be, by which we are fitted together as one,
clearly nothing at all will be able for us, who then shall not be,
to happen and to move sensation,
no, not if earth be mixed with sea and sea with sky.

et si iam nostro sentit de corpore postquam
distractast animi natura animaeque potestas,
nil tamen est ad nos, qui comptu coniugioque
corporis atque animae consistimus uniter apti.
nec, si materiem nostram collegerit aetas
post obitum rursumque redegerit ut sita nunc est,
atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae,
pertineat quicquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum,
interrupta semel cum sit repetentia nostri.
et nunc nil ad nos de nobis attinet, ante
qui fuimus, [neque] iam de illis nos adficit angor.

and even if now, after the mind’s nature and the soul’s power have been torn asunder from our body,
it should feel from our body, nevertheless it is nothing to us, we who consist, fitted as one,
by the arrangement and conjunction of body and soul. nor, if time should gather our matter
after death and reduce it back again as it is now set, and the lights of life
should be given to us a second time, yet would that deed pertain in any way to us,
since the repetition of our self has once been interrupted. and now nothing about us
touches us of the “we” who we were before, [nor] now does anguish on account of those affect us.

nam cum respicias inmensi temporis omne
praeteritum spatium, tum motus materiai
multimodi quam sint, facile hoc adcredere possis,
semina saepe in eodem, ut nunc sunt, ordine posta
haec eadem, quibus e nunc nos sumus, ante fuisse.
nec memori tamen id quimus reprehendere mente;
inter enim iectast vitai pausa vageque
deerrarunt passim motus ab sensibus omnes.
debet enim, misere si forte aegreque futurumst;
ipse quoque esse in eo tum tempore, cui male possit
accidere.

for when you look back on all the past space of immense time, then how multi‑mode the motions of matter are, you can easily credit this, that the seeds have often, in the same order as now, been placed—the very same by which we now are—to have existed before.
yet we cannot apprehend that with a remembering mind; for between, a pause of life has been cast, and all the motions have wandered loosely everywhere away from the senses.
for one ought, if by chance it is going to be wretched and grievous, to be himself also in that time, to whom an ill can befall.

id quoniam mors eximit, esseque prohibet
illum cui possint incommoda conciliari,
scire licet nobis nihil esse in morte timendum
nec miserum fieri qui non est posse, neque hilum
differre an nullo fuerit iam tempore natus,
mortalem vitam mors cum inmortalis ademit.
Proinde ubi se videas hominem indignarier ipsum,
post mortem fore ut aut putescat corpore posto
aut flammis interfiat malisve ferarum,
scire licet non sincerum sonere atque subesse
caecum aliquem cordi stimulum, quamvis neget ipse
credere se quemquam sibi sensum in morte futurum;
non, ut opinor, enim dat quod promittit et unde
nec radicitus e vita se tollit et eicit,
sed facit esse sui quiddam super inscius ipse.
vivus enim sibi cum proponit quisque futurum,
corpus uti volucres lacerent in morte feraeque,
ipse sui miseret; neque enim se dividit illim
nec removet satis a proiecto corpore et illum
se fingit sensuque suo contaminat astans.

since death removes that, and forbids there to be
that one upon whom discomforts can be conferred,
it may be known by us that there is nothing to be feared in death,
nor that he who is not can be made wretched, nor one whit
does it differ whether he had at no time been born,
when immortal death has taken away mortal life.
Therefore, whenever you see a man himself grow indignant
that after death he will either rot with his body laid out
or be destroyed by flames or by the evils of wild beasts,
you may know he does not sound sincere and that there lies beneath
some blind stimulus to his heart, although he himself denies
that he believes any sensation will be his in death;
for, as I think, he does not give what he promises, nor does he
root-and-branch lift and cast himself out of life,
but, unwitting, he makes there to be some something of himself left over.
for when alive each one proposes to himself the future—
that birds and wild beasts will lacerate his body in death—
he pities himself; for he does not divide himself from there,
nor remove himself enough from the cast-off body, and he fashions
that as himself and, standing by, contaminates it with his own sense.

hinc indignatur se mortalem esse creatum
nec videt in vera nullum fore morte alium se,
qui possit vivus sibi se lugere peremptum
stansque iacentem [se] lacerari urive dolere.
nam si in morte malumst malis morsuque ferarum
tractari, non invenio qui non sit acerbum
ignibus inpositum calidis torrescere flammis
aut in melle situm suffocari atque rigere
frigore, cum summo gelidi cubat aequore saxi,
urgerive superne obrutum pondere terrae.
'Iam iam non domus accipiet te laeta neque uxor
optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.

From this he grows indignant that he has been created mortal, nor does he see that in true death there will be no other self, who, alive, could mourn himself perished and, standing, feel pain that he, lying [himself], is being torn or burned. For if in death it is an evil to be handled by the jaws and bite of wild beasts, I do not find what would not be bitter: to be set upon fires and be parched by hot flames, or, laid in honey, to suffocate and grow stiff with cold, when he lies on the level surface of the chilly stone, or to be pressed from above, overwhelmed by the weight of earth. 'Now now the glad house will not receive you, nor your excellent wife, nor will the sweet kisses of your children run to meet you to snatch you and touch your breast with silent sweetness.

non poteris factis florentibus esse tuisque
praesidium. misero misere' aiunt 'omnia ademit
una dies infesta tibi tot praemia vitae.'
illud in his rebus non addunt 'nec tibi earum
iam desiderium rerum super insidet una.'
quod bene si videant animo dictisque sequantur,
dissoluant animi magno se angore metuque.
'tu quidem ut es leto sopitus, sic eris aevi
quod super est cunctis privatus doloribus aegris;
at nos horrifico cinefactum te prope busto
insatiabiliter deflevimus, aeternumque
nulla dies nobis maerorem e pectore demet.'
illud ab hoc igitur quaerendum est, quid sit amari
tanto opere, ad somnum si res redit atque quietem,
cur quisquam aeterno possit tabescere luctu.

'you will not be able to be a bulwark by your flourishing deeds and your own; wretchedly,' they say, 'one hostile day has taken from you so many prizes of life.' They do not add this in these matters: 'nor does any longer any desire of those things still sit upon you alone.' If they would see that well in mind and follow it in words, they would dissolve themselves from great anguish and fear of spirit. 'you indeed, as you are lulled to sleep by death, so will you be, in what remains of time deprived of all sickly pains; but we, near the horrific pyre where you are made to ash, have wept for you insatiably, and no day will ever pluck grief out of our breast.' Therefore this must be asked of this man: what is so loved, if the matter returns to sleep and quiet, why anyone can waste away with eternal lamentation.

Hoc etiam faciunt ubi discubuere tenentque
pocula saepe homines et inumbrant ora coronis,
ex animo ut dicant: 'brevis hic est fructus homullis;
iam fuerit neque post umquam revocare licebit.'
tam quam in morte mali cum primis hoc sit eorum,
quod sitis exurat miseros atque arida torrat,
aut aliae cuius desiderium insideat rei.
nec sibi enim quisquam tum se vitamque requiret,
cum pariter mens et corpus sopita quiescunt;
nam licet aeternum per nos sic esse soporem,
nec desiderium nostri nos adficit ullum,
et tamen haud quaquam nostros tunc illa per artus
longe ab sensiferis primordia motibus errant,
cum correptus homo ex somno se colligit ipse.
multo igitur mortem minus ad nos esse putandumst,
si minus esse potest quam quod nihil esse videmus;
maior enim turbae disiectus materiai
consequitur leto nec quisquam expergitus extat,
frigida quem semel est vitai pausa secuta.

They also do this when they have reclined and men often hold
cups and shade their faces with garlands,
so that they say from the heart: 'brief is this fruit for poor mortals;
soon it will have been, and afterwards it will never be permitted to call it back.'
just as if, among the first of evils in death, this were theirs,
that thirst should scorch the wretched and parch them dry,
or a longing for some other thing should sit upon them.
for then no one will seek himself and his life,
when mind and body alike, lulled, are resting;
for so far as concerns us it may be an eternal sleep,
nor does any desire for ourselves affect us at all,
and yet by no means do those first-beginnings then through our limbs
wander far from sense-bearing motions,
when, snatched from sleep, a man gathers himself together.
therefore death must be held to be much less to us,
if there can be less than what we see is nothing;
for a greater scattering of the throng of material
follows upon death, and no one stands forth awakened,
whom the cold pause of life has once overtaken.

Denique si vocem rerum natura repente.
mittat et hoc alicui nostrum sic increpet ipsa:
'quid tibi tanto operest, mortalis, quod nimis aegris
luctibus indulges? quid mortem congemis ac fles?

Finally, if the Nature of things should suddenly send forth a voice.
and thus herself rebuke one of us: 'What need is there for you, mortal, that you indulge in excessively sickly
griefs? Why do you groan over death and weep?

nam [si] grata fuit tibi vita ante acta priorque
et non omnia pertusum congesta quasi in vas
commoda perfluxere atque ingrata interiere;
cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis
aequo animoque capis securam, stulte, quietem?
sin ea quae fructus cumque es periere profusa
vitaque in offensost, cur amplius addere quaeris,
rursum quod pereat male et ingratum occidat omne,
non potius vitae finem facis atque laboris?
nam tibi praeterea quod machiner inveniamque,
quod placeat, nihil est; eadem sunt omnia semper.

for [if] the life lived before and earlier has been pleasing to you
and not all the commodities heaped up have flowed through as if into a pierced vessel
and perished ungratefully;
why do you not, like a guest full of life, withdraw
and with an even mind take secure quiet, fool?
but if those things—whatever fruits you have—have been poured out and have perished,
and life is offensive, why do you seek to add more,
which again will perish badly and all fall away ungratefully,
do you not rather make an end of life and of labor?
for besides, there is nothing that I could contrive and find for you
that would please; the same things are always all the same.

si tibi non annis corpus iam marcet et artus
confecti languent, eadem tamen omnia restant,
omnia si perges vivendo vincere saecla,
atque etiam potius, si numquam sis moriturus',
quid respondemus, nisi iustam intendere litem
naturam et veram verbis exponere causam?
grandior hic vero si iam seniorque queratur
atque obitum lamentetur miser amplius aequo,
non merito inclamet magis et voce increpet acri:
'aufer abhinc lacrimas, baratre, et compesce querellas.
omnia perfunctus vitai praemia marces;
sed quia semper aves quod abest, praesentia temnis,
inperfecta tibi elapsast ingrataque vita,
et nec opinanti mors ad caput adstitit ante
quam satur ac plenus possis discedere rerum.

if for you the body does not now wither with years and your limbs,
worn out, do not languish, nevertheless all the same things remain,
even if you proceed by living to conquer the ages,
and even more, if you were never to be about to die,’
what do we answer, except that nature presses a just suit
and sets forth the true cause in words?
but if here indeed an elder and more aged man should complain
and, wretched, lament death beyond what is equitable,
does she not with good desert cry out the more and rebuke with a sharp voice:
‘take away your tears from here, you abyss, and restrain your laments.
having enjoyed all the rewards of life, you wither;
but because you always crave what is absent, you despise what is present,
life has slipped away for you unfinished and ungrateful,
and death has stood by your head, unlooked-for, before
you could depart sated and full of things.

nunc aliena tua tamen aetate omnia mitte
aequo animoque, age dum, magnis concede necessis?'
iure, ut opinor, agat, iure increpet inciletque;
cedit enim rerum novitate extrusa vetustas
semper, et ex aliis aliud reparare necessest.
Nec quisquam in baratrum nec Tartara deditur atra;
materies opus est, ut crescant postera saecla;
quae tamen omnia te vita perfuncta sequentur;
nec minus ergo ante haec quam tu cecidere cadentque.
sic alid ex alio numquam desistet oriri
vitaque mancipio nulli datur, omnibus usu.

now, however, at your age let go all things alien
and with an even mind, come now, yield to great necessities?' "
rightly, as I suppose, would she act, rightly rebuke and upbraid;
for antiquity, thrust out by the novelty of things, always gives way,
and it is necessary to repair one thing from others.
Nor is anyone delivered into the barathrum nor to black Tartarus;
matter is needed, that posterity may grow;
yet all these things will follow you when life is finished;
and no less, therefore, before these, than you, they have fallen and will fall.
thus one thing from another will never cease to arise,
and life is given in full ownership to no one, to all in use.

respice item quam nil ad nos ante acta vetustas
temporis aeterni fuerit, quam nascimur ante.
hoc igitur speculum nobis natura futuri
temporis exponit post mortem denique nostram.
numquid ibi horribile apparet, num triste videtur
quicquam, non omni somno securius exstat?

look back likewise how the bygone antiquity of eternal time
before we are born was nothing to us.
this mirror therefore nature sets forth for us of the future
time after our death, in fine, our own.
does anything horrific appear there, does anything seem sad
at all? does it not exist more secure than any sleep?

Atque ea ni mirum quae cumque Acherunte profundo
prodita sunt esse, in vita sunt omnia nobis.
nec miser inpendens magnum timet aëre saxum
Tantalus, ut famast, cassa formidine torpens;
sed magis in vita divom metus urget inanis
mortalis casumque timent quem cuique ferat fors.
nec Tityon volucres ineunt Acherunte iacentem
nec quod sub magno scrutentur pectore quicquam
perpetuam aetatem possunt reperire profecto.

And, no wonder, whatever things have been handed down to exist in deep Acheron,
are all, for us, in life. Nor does wretched Tantalus fear the great rock overhanging in the air,
as the report is, benumbed with empty dread;
but rather in life the empty fear of the gods presses mortals,
and they fear the mishap which chance may bear to each.
Nor do birds set upon Tityos lying in Acheron,
nor can they, to rummage beneath his mighty breast, in truth discover anything
by which they might find perpetual age.

quam libet immani proiectu corporis exstet,
qui non sola novem dispessis iugera membris
optineat, sed qui terrai totius orbem,
non tamen aeternum poterit perferre dolorem
nec praebere cibum proprio de corpore semper.
sed Tityos nobis hic est, in amore iacentem
quem volucres lacerant atque exest anxius angor
aut alia quavis scindunt cuppedine curae.
Sisyphus in vita quoque nobis ante oculos est,
qui petere a populo fasces saevasque secures
imbibit et semper victus tristisque recedit.

however much he may stand out with a monstrous projection of body,
one who not only holds nine acres with limbs spread apart
but who the orb of the whole earth—
nevertheless he will not be able to endure eternal dolor
nor to furnish food from his own body forever.
but our Tityos is this man, lying in love,
whom birds lacerate and anxious anguish eats away,
or cares rend him with any other desire whatsoever.
Sisyphus, too, is before our eyes in life,
he who has imbibed to seek from the people the fasces and the savage axes,
and always, defeated and sad, withdraws.

nam petere imperium, quod inanest nec datur umquam,
atque in eo semper durum sufferre laborem,
hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte
saxum, quod tamen [e] summo iam vertice rusum
volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi.
deinde animi ingratam naturam pascere semper
atque explere bonis rebus satiareque numquam,
quod faciunt nobis annorum tempora, circum
cum redeunt fetusque ferunt variosque lepores,
nec tamen explemur vitai fructibus umquam,
hoc, ut opinor, id est, aevo florente puellas
quod memorant laticem pertusum congerere in vas,
quod tamen expleri nulla ratione potestur.
Cerberus et Furiae iam vero et lucis egestas,
Tartarus horriferos eructans faucibus aestus!

for to seek imperium, which is inane and is never granted,
and in it always to suffer hard labor,
this is to shove, straining, a stone up an adverse mountain,
which yet from the topmost summit now again
is rolled and swiftly makes for the level plains of the field.
then to feed always the ungrateful nature of the mind
and to fill with good things and never to satiate,
which the seasons of years do for us, when they return
and bear their produce and various delights,
and yet we are never filled with the fruits of life,
this, as I suppose, is what they relate—that in age flowering the girls
heap liquid into a pierced vessel,
which yet by no method can be filled.
Cerberus and the Furies indeed now, and the poverty of light,
Tartarus belching from its jaws horriferous heats!

qui neque sunt usquam nec possunt esse profecto;
sed metus in vita poenarum pro male factis
est insignibus insignis scelerisque luela,
carcer et horribilis de saxo iactus deorsum,
verbera carnifices robur pix lammina taedae;
quae tamen etsi absunt, at mens sibi conscia factis
praemetuens adhibet stimulos torretque flagellis,
nec videt interea qui terminus esse malorum
possit nec quae sit poenarum denique finis,
atque eadem metuit magis haec ne in morte gravescant.
hic Acherusia fit stultorum denique vita.
Hoc etiam tibi tute interdum dicere possis.

which are nowhere and indeed cannot be at all;
but the fear, in life, of punishments for evil deeds
is notable for notable tokens and the expiations of crime—
prison and the horrible hurling down from a rock,
whippings, executioners, the oaken bar, pitch, the plate, the torches;
which things, however, even if they are absent, yet the mind, conscious to itself of its deeds,
fore-fearing, applies spurs and sears itself with scourges,
nor meanwhile does it see what limit there can be of its evils,
nor what at last may be the end of its punishments,
and it fears these same things the more, lest they grow weightier in death.
here at last the life of fools becomes an Acherusian [realm].
This too you yourself may sometimes be able to say to yourself.

'lumina sis oculis etiam bonus Ancus reliquit,
qui melior multis quam tu fuit, improbe, rebus.
inde alii multi reges rerumque potentes
occiderunt, magnis qui gentibus imperitarunt.
ille quoque ipse, viam qui quondam per mare magnum
stravit iterque dedit legionibus ire per altum
ac pedibus salsas docuit super ire lucunas
et contempsit equis insultans murmura ponti,
lumine adempto animam moribundo corpore fudit.

'even good Ancus left the lights to his eyes,
who was better than you, shameless one, in many matters.
then many other kings and potentates of affairs
fell, who exercised imperium over great nations.
that very one also, who once across the great sea
paved a way and granted a route for legions to go over the deep
and taught on foot to go over the salty lagoons,
and, vaulting on horses, contemned the murmurs of the deep,
with his light taken away, poured out his spirit from his dying body.

Scipiadas, belli fulmen, Carthaginis horror,
ossa dedit terrae proinde ac famul infimus esset.
adde repertores doctrinarum atque leporum,
adde Heliconiadum comites; quorum unus Homerus
sceptra potitus eadem aliis sopitus quietest.
denique Democritum post quam matura vetustas
admonuit memores motus languescere mentis,
sponte sua leto caput obvius optulit ipse.

Scipios, the thunderbolt of war, the horror of Carthage,
gave his bones to the earth just as if he were a lowest menial.
add the discoverers of doctrines and of charms,
add the companions of the Heliconiads; of whom one, Homer,
having possessed the same scepters, lies asleep, quiet, the same as the others.
finally, after ripe old age
admonished that the mindful motions of the mind grow languid,
of his own accord he himself offered his head to meet death.

ipse Epicurus obit decurso lumine vitae,
qui genus humanum ingenio superavit et omnis
restinxit stellas exortus ut aetherius sol.
tu vero dubitabis et indignabere obire?
mortua cui vita est prope iam vivo atque videnti,
qui somno partem maiorem conteris aevi,
et viligans stertis nec somnia cernere cessas
sollicitamque geris cassa formidine mentem
nec reperire potes tibi quid sit saepe mali, cum
ebrius urgeris multis miser undique curis
atque animo incerto fluitans errore vagaris.'
Si possent homines, proinde ac sentire videntur
pondus inesse animo, quod se gravitate fatiget,
e quibus id fiat causis quoque noscere et unde
tanta mali tam quam moles in pectore constet,
haut ita vitam agerent, ut nunc plerumque videmus
quid sibi quisque velit nescire et quaerere semper,
commutare locum, quasi onus deponere possit.

Epicurus himself dies, the light of life having run its course,
he who by his genius surpassed the human race and, risen like the ethereal sun,
quenched all the stars. Will you indeed hesitate and be indignant to die—
you, whose life is already almost dead, though living and seeing,
who wear away the greater part of your age in sleep,
and, awake, you snore and do not cease to discern dreams,
and you carry a mind anxious with empty dread,
nor can you find for yourself what the evil often is, when,
like a drunk, you are pressed on every side by many wretched cares,
and, floating with an uncertain mind, you wander in error?'
If men could, just as they seem to feel,
also know from what causes there is a weight in the mind, which wearies itself by its heaviness,
and whence so great a mass of ill stands fixed in the breast,
they would not so pass life as now we for the most part see—
each not knowing what he himself wants and always seeking,
to change place, as if he could lay down the burden.

exit saepe foras magnis ex aedibus ille,
esse domi quem pertaesumst, subitoque [revertit>,
quippe foris nihilo melius qui sentiat esse.
currit agens mannos ad villam praecipitanter
auxilium tectis quasi ferre ardentibus instans;
oscitat extemplo, tetigit cum limina villae,
aut abit in somnum gravis atque oblivia quaerit,
aut etiam properans urbem petit atque revisit.
hoc se quisque modo fugit, at quem scilicet, ut fit,
effugere haut potis est: ingratius haeret et odit
propterea, morbi quia causam non tenet aeger;
quam bene si videat, iam rebus quisque relictis
naturam primum studeat cognoscere rerum,
temporis aeterni quoniam, non unius horae,
ambigitur status, in quo sit mortalibus omnis
aetas, post mortem quae restat cumque manendo.

he often goes out outdoors from his great house,
he whom it has become loathsome to be at home, and suddenly [he returns>,
since he feels that outside it is by no whit better.
he runs, driving his cobs, headlong to the villa,
pressing on as if to bring help to roofs as though burning;
he yawns straightway, when he has touched the thresholds of the villa,
or goes off into sleep, heavy, and seeks oblivion,
or even, hurrying, he makes for the city and revisits it.
in this way each man flees himself, but the one whom, as it happens,
he is by no means able to escape: it clings more disagreeably, and he loathes it,
because, being sick, he does not grasp the cause of his malady;
which if he could see well, then, with affairs left aside,
let each first be eager to learn the nature of things,
since the state of eternal time, not of a single hour, is in question,
in which every age is for mortals, which remains after death and in abiding forever.

Denique tanto opere in dubiis trepidare periclis
quae mala nos subigit vitai tanta cupido?
certe equidem finis vitae mortalibus adstat
nec devitari letum pote, quin obeamus.
praeterea versamur ibidem atque insumus usque
nec nova vivendo procuditur ulla voluptas;
sed dum abest quod avemus, id exsuperare videtur
cetera; post aliud, cum contigit illud, avemus
et sitis aequa tenet vitai semper hiantis.

Finally, to tremble so greatly in doubtful perils—what evil forces us? so great a desire of life?
surely indeed the end of life stands for mortals,
nor can death be dodged, but that we meet it.
besides, we revolve in the same place and are there continuously,
nor is any new pleasure forged out by living;
but while what we crave is absent, that seems to surpass
the rest; afterward we crave another, when that has been attained,
and an equal thirst holds life ever gaping.

posteraque in dubiost fortunam quam vehat aetas,
quidve ferat nobis casus quive exitus instet.
nec prorsum vitam ducendo demimus hilum
tempore de mortis nec delibare valemus,
quo minus esse diu possimus forte perempti.
proinde licet quod vis vivendo condere saecla,
mors aeterna tamen nihilo minus illa manebit,
nec minus ille diu iam non erit, ex hodierno
lumine qui finem vitai fecit, et ille,
mensibus atque annis qui multis occidit ante.

and in doubt is what fortune the coming age will carry,
or what chance will bring to us or what exit/outcome presses.
nor at all, by leading life on, do we take away a whit
from the time of death, nor are we able to nibble at it,
so that we might by chance be able to be not for so long once destroyed.
accordingly, though you should by living store up whatever ages you wish,
eternal death nevertheless will remain none the less;
and no less long will he now not be, who has made an end of life from today’s
light, than he who perished many months and years before.