Lucretius: DE RERVM NATVRA LIBRI SEX

Quis potis est dignum pollenti pectore carmen
condere pro rerum maiestate hisque repertis?
quisve valet verbis tantum, qui fingere laudes
pro meritis eius possit, qui talia nobis
pectore parta suo quaesitaque praemia liquit?
nemo, ut opinor, erit mortali corpore cretus.

Who is able, with a puissant breast, to compose a song worthy
in proportion to the majesty of things and to these discoveries?
who is so strong in words that he could fashion praises
according to the merits of him who has left to us such rewards,
begotten in his own breast and sought out?
no one, as I think, will be born of a mortal body.

nam si, ut ipsa petit maiestas cognita rerum,
dicendum est, deus ille fuit, deus, inclyte Memmi,
qui princeps vitae rationem invenit eam quae
nunc appellatur sapientia, quique per artem
fluctibus et tantis vitam tantisque tenebris
in tam tranquillo et tam clara luce locavit.
confer enim divina aliorum antiqua reperta.
namque Ceres fertur fruges Liberque liquoris
vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse;
cum tamen his posset sine rebus vita manere,
ut fama est aliquas etiam nunc vivere gentis.

for if, as the very majesty of the things known demands,
it must be said, he was a god, a god, illustrious Memmius,
who first discovered the reason of life, that which
now is called wisdom, and who through art
out of such billows and such great darkness
located life in so tranquil and so bright a light.
compare indeed the divine ancient discoveries of others.
for Ceres is said to have instituted crops, and Liber the liquid
of vine-birth for mortals;
although life could remain without these things,
as report says that certain peoples even now live.

at bene non poterat sine puro pectore vivi;
quo magis hic merito nobis deus esse videtur,
ex quo nunc etiam per magnas didita gentis
dulcia permulcent animos solacia vitae.
Herculis antistare autem si facta putabis,
longius a vera multo ratione ferere.
quid Nemeaeus enim nobis nunc magnus hiatus
ille leonis obesset et horrens Arcadius sus,
tanto opere officerent nobis Stymphala colentes?

but one could not live well without a pure breast;
wherefore this man seems by merit to us to be a god,
since from him even now, spread through great nations,
the sweet solaces of life soothe souls.
but if you think the deeds of Hercules to stand before (surpass),
you would be borne much farther from true reason.
for what would that great yawning gape
of the Nemean lion now hinder us, and the bristling Arcadian boar,
would the Stymphalian dwellers so greatly work harm to us?

denique quid Cretae taurus Lernaeaque pestis
hydra venenatis posset vallata colubris?
quidve tripectora tergemini vis Geryonai
et Diomedis equi spirantes naribus ignem
Thracia Bistoniasque plagas atque Ismara propter
aureaque Hesperidum servans fulgentia mala,
asper, acerba tuens, immani corpore serpens
arboris amplexus stirpes? quid denique obesset
propter Atlanteum litus pelagique severa,
quo neque noster adit quisquam nec barbarus audet?

finally, what could the bull of Crete and the Lernaean pest,
the hydra walled about with venomous serpents, accomplish?
or what the might of three-chested, triple-formed Geryon,
and the horses of Diomedes breathing fire from their nostrils,
in Thrace, by the Bistonian tracts and near Ismarus—
and the serpent guarding the golden, gleaming apples of the Hesperides,
harsh, with bitter gaze, a serpent of enormous body,
embracing the stocks of the tree? what, finally, would hinder us
near the Atlantean shore and the sea’s harshnesses,
where neither any of our own goes nor does a barbarian dare?

cetera de genere hoc quae sunt portenta perempta,
si non victa forent, quid tandem viva nocerent?
nil, ut opinor: ita ad satiatem terra ferarum
nunc etiam scatit et trepido terrore repleta est
per nemora ac montes magnos silvasque profundas;
quae loca vitandi plerumque est nostra potestas.
at nisi purgatumst pectus, quae proelia nobis
atque pericula tumst ingratis insinuandum!

the other portents of this kind which have been slain,
if they had not been conquered, what, pray, would they harm alive?
nothing, as I opine: thus to satiety the earth even now teems with wild beasts
and is filled with trembling terror through groves and great mountains and deep forests;
places which it is for the most part our power to avoid.
but unless the breast is purged, what battles for us
and what perils must then insinuate themselves, unwelcome!

quantae tum scindunt hominem cuppedinis acres
sollicitum curae quantique perinde timores!
quidve superbia spurcitia ac petulantia? quantas
efficiunt clades!

how great then the keen cares of cupidity
tear the anxious man, and just as great fears!
or what of pride, foulness, and petulance? how great
disasters they effect!

quid luxus desidiaeque?
haec igitur qui cuncta subegerit ex animoque
expulerit dictis, non armis, nonne decebit
hunc hominem numero divom dignarier esse?
cum bene praesertim multa ac divinitus ipsis
iam mortalibus e divis dare dicta suerit
atque omnem rerum naturam pandere dictis.

what of luxury and of sloth?
therefore, whoever shall have subjugated all these and expelled them from his mind
by words, not by arms, will it not be fitting
to deem this man worthy to be in the number of the gods?
since especially he has already been wont to give, to mortals themselves from the gods,
many sayings well and divinely,
and to unfold the whole nature of things by words.

Cuius ego ingressus vestigia dum rationes
persequor ac doceo dictis, quo quaeque creata
foedere sint, in eo quam sit durare necessum
nec validas valeant aevi rescindere leges,
quo genere in primis animi natura reperta est
nativo primum consistere corpore creta,
nec posse incolumem magnum durare per aevum,
sed simulacra solere in somnis fallere mentem,
cernere cum videamur eum quem vita reliquit,
quod super est, nunc huc rationis detulit ordo,
ut mihi mortali consistere corpore mundum
nativomque simul ratio reddunda sit esse;
et quibus ille modis congressus materiai
fundarit terram caelum mare sidera solem
lunaique globum; tum quae tellure animantes
extiterint, et quae nullo sint tempore natae;
quove modo genus humanum variante loquella
coeperit inter se vesci per nomina rerum;
et quibus ille modis divom metus insinuarit
pectora, terrarum qui in orbi sancta tuetur
fana lacus lucos aras simulacraque divom.
praeterea solis cursus lunaeque meatus
expediam qua vi flectat natura gubernans;
ne forte haec inter caelum terramque reamur
libera sponte sua cursus lustrare perennis,
morigera ad fruges augendas atque animantis,
neve aliqua divom volvi ratione putemus.
nam bene qui didicere deos securum agere aevom,
si tamen interea mirantur qua ratione
quaeque geri possint, praesertim rebus in illis
quae supera caput aetheriis cernuntur in oris,
rursus in antiquas referuntur religiones
et dominos acris adsciscunt, omnia posse
quos miseri credunt, ignari quid queat esse,
quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique
qua nam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens.

Whose footsteps of entry I, while I pursue the reasonings
and teach in words by what covenant each thing has been created,
in that how it is necessary to endure, nor can they avail to rescind
the strong laws of age, in what manner first the nature of mind
has been found first to take its stand in a native body created,
and not to be able to endure unharmed through a great age,
but that likenesses are wont in dreams to deceive the mind,
when we seem to discern him whom life has left; as to what remains,
now to this point the order of reasoning has brought, that I must render
that the world stands in a mortal body and is native-born as well;
and by what modes the meetings of matter
have founded earth, heaven, sea, the stars, the sun,
and the globe of the moon; then what living beings on the earth
have arisen, and which at no time have been born;
and in what way the human race, with varying speech,
began among themselves to feed upon the names of things;
and by what modes the fear of the gods has insinuated itself
into breasts, which in the orb of lands maintains the holy
fanes, lakes, groves, altars, and images of the gods.
moreover the course of the sun and the goings of the moon
I will set forth, by what force governing nature bends them;
lest by chance we suppose that these between heaven and earth
traverse their perennial courses by free will of their own,
obedient to increase crops and living creatures,
nor think that they are rolled by some rationale of the gods.
for those who have well learned that the gods conduct a carefree age,
if yet meanwhile they marvel by what rationale
each thing can be carried on, especially in those matters
which above the head are seen on the ethereal coasts,
are borne back again into ancient religions
and enroll harsh masters, whom the wretched believe able to do all things,
ignorant what can be, and what cannot, and that to each a power is finite,
and by what rationale, and with a deep-clinging boundary, the limit abides.

Quod super est, ne te in promissis plura moremur,
principio maria ac terras caelumque tuere;
quorum naturam triplicem, tria corpora, Memmi,
tris species tam dissimilis, tria talia texta,
una dies dabit exitio, multosque per annos
sustentata ruet moles et machina mundi.
nec me animi fallit quam res nova miraque menti
accidat exitium caeli terraeque futurum,
et quam difficile id mihi sit pervincere dictis;
ut fit ubi insolitam rem adportes auribus ante
nec tamen hanc possis oculorum subdere visu
nec iacere indu manus, via qua munita fidei
proxima fert humanum in pectus templaque mentis.
sed tamen effabor.

What remains, lest we detain you further in the promised things,
to begin with, contemplate the seas and lands and the sky;
whose triple nature, three bodies, Memmius,
three species so dissimilar, three such textures,
one day will give to destruction, and, sustained through many years,
the mass and machine of the world will collapse. Nor does it escape my mind how a new and wondrous thing
it is to the mind, that the ruin of sky and earth will be,
and how difficult it is for me to prevail upon it with words;
as it happens when you bring before the ears a thing unaccustomed,
and yet you cannot subject it to the sight of the eyes
nor cast it into the hands, the route which, fortified for trust,
bears most nearly into the human breast and the temples of the mind.
But nevertheless I will speak out.

dictis dabit ipsa fidem res
forsitan et graviter terrarum motibus ortis
omnia conquassari in parvo tempore cernes.
quod procul a nobis flectat fortuna gubernans,
et ratio potius quam res persuadeat ipsa
succidere horrisono posse omnia victa fragore.
Qua prius adgrediar quam de re fundere fata
sanctius et multo certa ratione magis quam
Pythia quae tripode a Phoebi lauroque profatur,
multa tibi expediam doctis solacia dictis;
religione refrenatus ne forte rearis
terras et solem et caelum, mare sidera lunam,
corpore divino debere aeterna manere,
proptereaque putes ritu par esse Gigantum
pendere eos poenas inmani pro scelere omnis,
qui ratione sua disturbent moenia mundi
praeclarumque velint caeli restinguere solem
inmortalia mortali sermone notantes;
quae procul usque adeo divino a numine distent
inque deum numero quae sint indigna videri,
notitiam potius praebere ut posse putentur
quid sit vitali motu sensuque remotum.

the thing itself will lend credence to the words
and perhaps, when grave motions of the lands arise,
you will see all things shaken to pieces in a short time.
may guiding Fortune bend that far away from us,
and may reason rather than the thing itself persuade
that all things, overcome by a dread-sounding crash, can collapse.
Before I set about to pour forth pronouncements on the matter
more sacredly and by far with reason more sure than
the Pythia who utters from the tripod and Phoebus’s laurel,
I will unfold for you many solaces with learned words;
lest, reined in by religion, you perchance suppose
that the lands and the sun and the sky, the sea, the stars, the moon,
because of a divine body, ought to remain eternal,
and therefore think it on a par with the rite of the Giants
that all should pay penalties for monstrous crime—
all who by their own reason disturb the walls of the world
and would extinguish the splendid sun of heaven,
designating immortal things with mortal speech;
things which are so far removed from the divine numen,
and which are unworthy to seem in the number of the gods,
as being able rather to furnish a knowledge
of what is removed from vital motion and sense.

quippe etenim non est, cum quovis corpore ut esse
posse animi natura putetur consiliumque.
sicut in aethere non arbor, non aequore salso
nubes esse queunt neque 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.
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.

indeed, for it is not the case that the nature of mind and counsel can be thought to be able to exist
with whatever body. just as in the ether no tree, nor upon the salty expanse
can clouds be, nor can fishes live in the fields,
nor blood be in timbers nor juice be present in stones,
it is fixed and disposed where whatever may grow and be inborn;
so the nature of the mind cannot arise without body
by itself nor be farther away than from nerves and blood.
for if it could, much rather the very force of the mind
could be in the head or the shoulders or in the lowest heels,
and would be wont to be born into any part,
and yet remain in the same man and in the same vessel.

quod quoniam nostro quoque constat corpore certum
dispositumque videtur ubi esse et crescere possit
seorsum anima atque animus, tanto magis infitiandum
totum posse extra corpus formamque animalem
putribus in glebis terrarum aut solis in igni
aut in aqua durare aut altis aetheris oris.
haud igitur constant divino praedita sensu,
quandoquidem nequeunt vitaliter esse animata.
Illud item non est ut possis credere, sedes
esse deum sanctas in mundi partibus ullis.

Since it is certain in our own body as well,
and it seems ordained where the soul and the mind can be and grow
separate—breath-soul and mind—so much the more must it be denied
that the whole can endure outside the body and the animal form,
in the rotten clods of earth or in the sun’s fire,
or in water, or on the high borders of the aether.
therefore they do not subsist as endowed with divine sense,
since they cannot be animated with vital life.
Likewise, it is not the case that you can believe that there are
holy seats of the gods in any parts of the world.

tenvis enim natura deum longeque remota
sensibus ab nostris animi vix mente videtur;
quae quoniam manuum tactum suffugit et ictum,
tactile nil nobis quod sit contingere debet;
tangere enim non quit quod tangi non licet ipsum.
quare etiam sedes quoque nostris sedibus esse
dissimiles debent, tenues de corpore eorum;
quae tibi posterius largo sermone probabo.
Dicere porro hominum causa voluisse parare
praeclaram mundi naturam proptereaque
adlaudabile opus divom laudare decere
aeternumque putare atque inmortale futurum,
nec fas esse, deum quod sit ratione vetusta
gentibus humanis fundatum perpetuo aevo,
sollicitare suis ulla vi ex sedibus umquam
nec verbis vexare et ab imo evertere summa,
cetera de genere hoc adfingere et addere, Memmi,
desiperest.

for the tenuous nature of the gods, far removed from our senses, is scarcely seen by the mind;
since it escapes the touch and the blow of hands,
no thing tactile ought to make contact with it for us;
for what is not permitted itself to be touched cannot touch.
wherefore their seats also ought to be dissimilar to our seats,
tenuous in respect to their body;
which I shall prove to you later with a broad discourse.
Moreover, to say that for the sake of humans they wished to prepare
the preeminent nature of the world, and therefore
that it is fitting to praise as highly laudable the work of the gods,
and to think it eternal and destined to be immortal,
and that it is not lawful that what, as divine, has been founded by time-honored reason
for human nations in perpetual age,
should ever be dislodged from its seats by any force of theirs,
nor vexed by words and the heights overturned from the base,
to feign and add other things of this kind, Memmius,
is folly.

quid enim inmortalibus atque beatis
gratia nostra queat largirier emolumenti,
ut nostra quicquam causa gerere adgrediantur?
quidve novi potuit tanto post ante quietos
inlicere ut cuperent vitam mutare priorem?
nam gaudere novis rebus debere videtur
cui veteres obsunt; sed cui nihil accidit aegri
tempore in ante acto, cum pulchre degeret aevom,
quid potuit novitatis amorem accendere tali?

for what, indeed, to the immortals and the blessed
could our gratitude lavish any emolument,
that they should undertake to do anything for our sake?
or what novelty could, so long thereafter, they being formerly at rest,
entice them to desire to change their prior life?
for one seems bound to rejoice in new things
to whom the old things are harmful; but for whom nothing grievous befell
in the time before, when he was passing his age fairly,
what could kindle in such a one a love of novelty?

quidve mali fuerat nobis non esse creatis?
an, credo, in tenebris vita ac maerore iacebat,
donec diluxit rerum genitalis origo?
natus enim debet qui cumque est velle manere
in vita, donec retinebit blanda voluptas;
qui numquam vero vitae gustavit amorem
nec fuit in numero, quid obest non esse creatum?

Or what evil would there have been for us, not to have been created?
or, I suppose, did life lie in darkness and mourning,
until the generative origin of things dawned?
for whoever is born ought, whoever he is, to wish to remain
in life, so long as blandishing pleasure will hold him;
but he who has never truly tasted the love of life
nor was in the number, what harm is it not to have been created?

exemplum porro gignundis rebus et ipsa
notities hominum divis unde insita primum est,
quid vellent facere ut scirent animoque viderent,
quove modost umquam vis cognita principiorum
quidque inter sese permutato ordine possent.
si non ipsa dedit speciem natura creandi?
namque ita multa modis multis primordia rerum
ex infinito iam tempore percita plagis
ponderibusque suis consuerunt concita ferri
omnimodisque coire atque omnia pertemptare,
quae cumque inter se possint congressa creare,
ut non sit mirum, si in talis disposituras
deciderunt quoque et in talis venere meatus,
qualibus haec rerum geritur nunc summa novando.

moreover, the example for begetting things and the very acquaintance of men with the gods, whence it was first implanted, what they would wish to do, so that they might know and see in mind, and by what mode the force of the first-beginnings has ever been known, and what they could do among themselves with the order changed, if nature herself did not give the pattern of creating?
for in such wise, in many modes, the primordials of things, from infinite time now, stirred by strokes and by their own weights, have been accustomed, set in motion, to be borne along and to come together in every sort of way and to try through everything, whatever things, when they have met among themselves, they can create, so that it is not a wonder, if they too have fallen into such dispositions and have come into such courses, by which the sum of things is now carried on by renewing.

Quod [si] iam rerum ignorem primordia quae sint,
hoc tamen ex ipsis caeli rationibus ausim
confirmare aliisque ex rebus reddere multis,
nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam
naturam rerum: tanta stat praedita culpa.
principio quantum caeli tegit impetus ingens,
inde avidam partem montes silvaeque ferarum
possedere, tenent rupes vastaeque paludes
et mare, quod late terrarum distinet oras.
inde duas porro prope partis fervidus ardor
adsiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert.

Although I may now be ignorant what the first-beginnings of things are,
yet from the very arrangements of the heavens I would dare to confirm this
and render it from many other matters: that the nature of things has by no means
been prepared for us by divinity; so great a fault does it stand endowed with.
To begin with, as much as the huge onrush of the sky covers,
of that a ravening share mountains and the forests of wild beasts
have possessed; rocks and vast marshes hold it,
and the sea, which widely separates the shores of lands.
Then further, nearly two parts the burning ardor
and the continual fall of frost take away from mortals.

quod super est arvi, tamen id natura sua vi
sentibus obducat, ni vis humana resistat
vitai causa valido consueta bidenti
ingemere et terram pressis proscindere aratris.
si non fecundas vertentes vomere glebas
terraique solum subigentes cimus ad ortus.
sponte sua nequeant liquidas existere in auras.

what land is left over, nevertheless nature by her own force would cover with brambles, unless human force resists
for the sake of life, accustomed with the stout bident to groan and to furrow the earth with pressure-laden ploughs.
if, turning the fertile clods with the ploughshare and subduing the soil of the earth, we do not stir it to up-sproutings.
of its own accord they could not come forth into the limpid airs.

et tamen inter dum magno quaesita labore
cum iam per terras frondent atque omnia florent,
aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol
aut subiti peremunt imbris gelidaeque pruinae
flabraque ventorum violento turbine vexant.
praeterea genus horriferum natura ferarum
humanae genti infestum terraque marique
cur alit atque auget? cur anni tempora morbos
adportant?

and yet at times, things sought with great labor,
when now across the lands they leaf and all things blossom,
either the ethereal sun scorches with excessive fervors
or sudden showers and gelid frosts destroy,
and the breaths of winds vex with a violent whirlwind.
moreover, the horror-bearing race of wild beasts,
hostile to the human clan on land and sea—why does nature
nourish and augment it? why do the seasons of the year
import diseases?

quare mors inmatura vagatur?
tum porro puer, ut saevis proiectus ab undis
navita, nudus humi iacet infans indigus omni
vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras
nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit,
vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequumst
cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum.
at variae crescunt pecudes armenta feraeque
nec crepitacillis opus est nec cuiquam adhibendast
almae nutricis blanda atque infracta loquella
nec varias quaerunt vestes pro tempore caeli,
denique non armis opus est, non moenibus altis,
qui sua tutentur, quando omnibus omnia large
tellus ipsa parit naturaque daedala rerum.

Why does untimely death wander abroad?
then furthermore the boy, like a sailor cast forth by savage waves,
lies naked on the ground, an infant in need of every
vital aid, when first to the borders of light
nature, by strugglings, has poured him from his mother’s womb,
and with a mournful wail he fills the place, as is right
for one to whom so much of evils remains to cross in life.
but various flocks, herds, and wild beasts grow up,
nor is there need of little rattles, nor must there be applied to anyone
the kindly nurse’s coaxing and unbroken prattle,
nor do they seek various garments according to the season of the sky;
in fine, there is no need of arms, nor of lofty walls,
to protect their own, since for all men all things in abundance
the earth herself bears, and the daedal nature of things.

Principio quoniam terrai corpus et umor
aurarumque leves animae calidique vapores,
e quibus haec rerum consistere summa videtur,
omnia nativo ac mortali corpore constant,
debet eodem omnis mundi natura putari.
quippe etenim, quorum partis et membra videmus
corpore nativo mortalibus esse figuris,
haec eadem ferme mortalia cernimus esse
et nativa simul. qua propter maxima mundi
cum videam membra ac partis consumpta regigni,
scire licet caeli quoque item terraeque fuisse
principiale aliquod tempus clademque futuram.

To begin with, since the body of earth and moisture
and the light breaths of the airs and hot vapors,
from which this sum of things seems to consist,
all consist of a native and mortal body,
the whole nature of the world ought to be thought the same.
for indeed, of which we see the parts and members
to be with native body in mortal figures,
we discern these same to be almost both mortal
and native at once. wherefore, since I see the greatest members and parts of the world
consumed and re-born,
one may know that both the sky and likewise the earth have had
some initial time and a destruction to come.

Illud in his rebus ne corripuisse rearis
me mihi, quod terram atque ignem mortalia sumpsi
esse neque umorem dubitavi aurasque perire
atque eadem gigni rursusque augescere dixi.
principio pars terrai non nulla, perusta
solibus adsiduis, multa pulsata pedum vi,
pulveris exhalat nebulam nubesque volantis,
quas validi toto dispergunt aëre venti.
pars etiam glebarum ad diluviem revocatur
imbribus et ripas radentia flumina rodunt.

Do not think, in these matters, that I have reproached myself to myself
for this: that I have supposed earth and fire to be mortal,
nor have I doubted that moisture and airs perish,
and that the same are begotten and again increase.
To begin with, no small part of the earth, scorched
by constant suns, much beaten by the force of feet,
exhales a mist of dust and flying clouds,
which strong winds disperse through the whole air.
Part also of the clods is carried back into flood
by the rains, and rivers, scraping the banks, gnaw them away.

praeterea pro parte sua, quod cumque alit auget,
redditur; et quoniam dubio procul esse videtur
omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulcrum.
ergo terra tibi libatur et aucta recrescit.
Quod super est, umore novo mare flumina fontes
semper abundare et latices manare perennis
nil opus est verbis: magnus decursus aquarum
undique declarat.

moreover, for its part, whatever it nourishes and augments is rendered back; and since, beyond doubt, the same all-parent seems to be the common sepulcher of things.
therefore earth is poured out to you in libation and, increased, grows again.
What remains, that with new moisture the sea, the rivers, the springs always abound and perennial waters flow—there is no need of words: the great course of waters on every side declares it.

sed primum quicquid aquai
tollitur in summaque fit ut nihil umor abundet,
partim quod validi verrentes aequora venti
deminuunt radiisque retexens aetherius sol,
partim quod supter per terras diditur omnis;
percolatur enim virus retroque remanat
materies umoris et ad caput amnibus omnis
convenit, inde super terras fluit agmine dulci
qua via secta semel liquido pede detulit undas.
Aëra nunc igitur dicam, qui corpore toto
innumerabiliter privas mutatur in horas.
semper enim, quod cumque fluit de rebus, id omne
aëris in magnum fertur mare; qui nisi contra
corpora retribuat rebus recreetque fluentis,
omnia iam resoluta forent et in aëra versa.

but first, whatever of the water is lifted up and it comes about that no moisture abounds on the surface,
partly because the strong winds, sweeping the levels, diminish it, and the ethereal sun, unweaving by its rays,
partly because all of it is distributed below through the lands;
for the sap is percolated, and the material of moisture flows back and altogether comes together to the head for the rivers,
thence it flows over the lands in a sweet current, along the path once cut where with liquid foot it bore down the waves.
now therefore I will speak of the air, which in its whole body
is changed innumerably in discrete hours.
for always, whatever flows from things, all of it
is carried into the great sea of air; which, unless in return
it gave back bodies to things and renewed what are flowing,
all things would already have been loosened and turned into air.

haut igitur cessat gigni de rebus et in res
reccidere, adsidue quoniam fluere omnia constat.
Largus item liquidi fons luminis, aetherius sol,
inrigat adsidue caelum candore recenti
suppeditatque novo confestim lumine lumen.
nam primum quicquid fulgoris disperit ei,
quo cumque accidit.

therefore it by no means ceases to be begotten from things and to fall back into things,
since it is agreed that all things flow assiduously.
Likewise the ample liquid fount of light, the ethereal sun,
irrigates the sky continually with fresh brightness
and at once supplies light with new light.
for first whatever of brilliance perishes from it,
upon whatever it falls.

id licet hinc cognoscere possis,
quod simul ac primum nubes succedere soli
coepere et radios inter quasi rumpere lucis,
extemplo inferior pars horum disperit omnis
terraque inumbratur qua nimbi cumque feruntur;
ut noscas splendore novo res semper egere
et primum iactum fulgoris quemque perire
nec ratione alia res posse in sole videri,
perpetuo ni suppeditet lucis caput ipsum.
quin etiam nocturna tibi, terrestria quae sunt,
lumina, pendentes lychni claraeque coruscis
fulguribus pingues multa caligine taedae
consimili properant ratione, ardore ministro,
suppeditare novom lumen, tremere ignibus instant,
instant, nec loca lux inter quasi rupta relinquit:
usque adeo properanter ab omnibus ignibus ei
exitium celeri celeratur origine flammae.
sic igitur solem lunam stellasque putandum
ex alio atque alio lucem iactare subortu
et primum quicquid flammarum perdere semper,
inviolabilia haec ne credas forte vigere.

that you may be able to recognize this from here, that as soon as first the clouds began to come up under the sun and, as it were, to break in between the rays of light, at once the lower portion of them all perishes, and the earth is shadowed wherever the rain-clouds are borne; that you may know that things always need a new splendor, and that each first cast of radiance perishes, nor by any other rationale can things be seen in the sun, unless the very head of light supplies it perpetually. nay even the nocturnal lights for you, which are terrestrial—the hanging lamps and the bright torches, rich with much soot, with coruscant flashes—hasten by a similar rationale, with ardor as minister, to supply new light; they are busy, quivering with fires, they are busy, nor does the light leave places between as if ruptured: so far, so hastily from all fires for it the destruction is hastened by the swift origin of the flame. thus therefore one must think that the sun, the moon, and the stars cast their light from one arising and another, and are always losing whatever is the first of their flames, lest perchance you believe that these inviolable ones persist in vigor.

Denique non lapides quoque vinci cernis ab aevo,
non altas turris ruere et putrescere saxa,
non delubra deum simulacraque fessa fatisci
nec sanctum numen fati protollere finis
posse neque adversus naturae foedera niti?
denique non monimenta virum dilapsa videmus,
[quaerere proporro, sibi cumque senescere credas,]
non ruere avolsos silices a montibus altis
nec validas aevi vires perferre patique
finiti? neque enim caderent avolsa repente,
ex infinito quae tempore pertolerassent
omnia tormenta aetatis, privata fragore.

Finally, do you not discern even stones being conquered by age,
do you not [see] lofty towers collapse and rocks rot,
do not the shrines of the gods and simulacra, wearied, crumble,
nor is the holy numen able to prolong the limits of fate
nor to strive against the covenants of nature?
finally, do we not see the monuments of men slip to pieces,
[to inquire further, you would believe that each thing grows old for itself,]
do not flints torn from high mountains rush down in ruin,
nor are they, being finite, able to bear and endure
the mighty powers of age? for neither would they fall, torn off, suddenly,
if through infinite time they had endured
all the torments of age, being deprived of fracture.

Denique iam tuere hoc, circum supraque quod omne
continet amplexu terram: si procreat ex se
omnia, quod quidam memorant, recipitque perempta,
totum nativum mortali corpore constat.
nam quod cumque alias ex se res auget alitque,
deminui debet, recreari, cum recipit res.
Praeterea si nulla fuit genitalis origo
terrarum et caeli semperque aeterna fuere,
cur supera bellum Thebanum et funera Troiae
non alias alii quoque res cecinere poëtae?

Finally now look upon this, which all around and above contains the earth in its embrace:
if it procreates from itself all things, as certain men recount, and receives back the things destroyed,
the whole native order consists of a mortal body.
for whatever things it from itself increases and nourishes for others,
it must be diminished, and be renewed when it receives the things back.
Moreover, if there was no generative origin
of earth and sky and they have always been eternal,
why did not poets in former ages sing of the Theban war and the funerals of Troy,
and why did other poets not also sing other matters?

quo tot facta virum totiens cecidere neque usquam
aeternis famae monimentis insita florent?
verum, ut opinor, habet novitatem summa recensque
naturast mundi neque pridem exordia cepit.
quare etiam quaedam nunc artes expoliuntur,
nunc etiam augescunt; nunc addita navigiis sunt
multa, modo organici melicos peperere sonores,
denique natura haec rerum ratioque repertast
nuper, et hanc primus cum primis ipse repertus
nunc ego sum in patrias qui possim vertere voces.

why is it that so many deeds of men have so often fallen, nor anywhere
do they flourish, implanted in the eternal monuments of fame?
but, as I suppose, the sum has novelty, and the nature of the world is fresh,
nor did it take its beginnings long ago.
wherefore certain arts now are being burnished,
now also they augment; now many things have been added to ships;
only recently the organists have begotten melic sounds;
finally, this nature of things and rationale has been discovered
recently, and I myself am now found, first among the foremost,
who can turn this into my native voices.

Quod si forte fuisse ante hac eadem omnia credis,
sed periise hominum torrenti saecla vapore,
aut cecidisse urbis magno vexamine mundi,
aut ex imbribus adsiduis exisse rapaces
per terras amnes atque oppida coperuisse.
tanto quique magis victus fateare necessest
exitium quoque terrarum caelique futurum;
nam cum res tantis morbis tantisque periclis
temptarentur, ibi si tristior incubuisset
causa, darent late cladem magnasque ruinas.
nec ratione alia mortales esse videmur,
inter nos nisi quod morbis aegrescimus isdem
atque illi quos a vita natura removit.

But if by chance you believe that all these same things existed before now,
but that the generations of men have perished by a torrential vapor,
or that cities have fallen by a great vexation of the world,
or that from incessant showers rapacious
rivers went forth across the lands and covered the towns.
by so much the more, being vanquished, you must admit
that there will also be a destruction of the earth and sky;
for when things were being tested by such great diseases and such great perils,
if a sadder cause had lain upon them there,
they would deal far and wide destruction and great ruins.
nor by any other reasoning do we seem to be mortals,
among ourselves except that we fall ill with the same diseases
as those whom nature has removed from life.

Praeterea quae cumque manent aeterna necessust
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 inane est,
quod manet intactum neque ab ictu fungitur hilum,
aut etiam quia nulla loci sit copia circum,
quo quasi res possint discedere dissoluique,
sicut summarum summa est aeterna, neque extra
qui locus est quo dissiliant neque corpora sunt quae
possint incidere et valida dissolvere plaga.
at neque, uti docui, solido cum corpore mundi
naturast, quoniam admixtumst in rebus inane,
nec tamen est ut inane, neque autem corpora desunt,
ex infinito quae possint forte coorta
corruere hanc rerum violento turbine summam
aut aliam quamvis cladem inportare pericli,
nec porro natura loci spatiumque profundi
deficit, exspargi quo possint moenia mundi,
aut alia quavis possunt vi pulsa perire.
haut igitur leti praeclusa est ianua caelo
nec soli terraeque neque altis aequoris undis,
sed patet immani et vasto respectat hiatu.

Moreover, whatever things remain eternal must either, because they are with a solid body, spit out blows and not allow anything to penetrate them that could dissociate the close-packed parts within, as the bodies of material are, whose nature we showed before,
or for this reason be able to endure through all age, because they are unexperienced of blows, just as the void is, which remains untouched and does not undergo the least whit from a stroke,
or else because there is no supply of place around, whither things could, as it were, depart and be dissolved,
just as the sum of sums is eternal, since there is neither a place outside where they might spring apart nor bodies that could fall upon it and dissolve it with a strong blow.
But neither, as I have taught, is the nature of the world with a solid body, since the void is commixed in things,
nor yet is it as the void; nor are bodies lacking, which, having perhaps arisen out of the infinite, could tumble upon this sum of things with a violent whirlwind, or bring in whatever other disaster of peril,
nor, moreover, does the nature of place and the space of the deep fail, into which the walls of the world could be scattered abroad, or they can perish, driven by any other force whatsoever.
Therefore the gate of death is not shut to the sky, nor to the sun and the earth nor to the high waves of the sea-plain,
but it stands open and looks out with an immense and vast yawning gulf.

quare etiam nativa necessumst confiteare
haec eadem; neque enim, mortali corpore quae sunt,
ex infinito iam tempore adhuc potuissent
inmensi validas aevi contemnere vires.
Denique tantopere inter se cum maxima mundi
pugnent membra, pio nequaquam concita bello,
nonne vides aliquam longi certaminis ollis
posse dari finem, vel cum sol et vapor omnis
omnibus epotis umoribus exsuperarint?
quod facere intendunt, neque adhuc conata patrantur;
tantum suppeditant amnes ultraque minantur
omnia diluviare ex alto gurgite ponti:
ne quiquam, quoniam verrentes aequora venti
deminuunt radiisque retexens aetherius sol,
et siccare prius confidunt omnia posse
quam liquor incepti possit contingere finem.

Wherefore you must also by nature confess these same things;
for the things that have a mortal body could not, from infinite time up to now,
have contemned the mighty powers of immense age.
Finally, since the greatest members of the world fight among themselves so greatly,
stirred by no pious war at all,
do you not see that some end of the long contest can be given to them,
either when the sun and every vapor, after all the moistures have been drunk up,
shall have prevailed?
which they intend to do, nor are the attempts as yet accomplished;
so much do the rivers supply, and they even threaten beyond
that all things will deluge from the deep whirlpool of the sea:
in vain, since the winds sweeping the levels of the sea
diminish them, and the ethereal sun, unweaving by his rays,
and they trust that they can dry everything sooner
than the liquid can attain the end of its begun enterprise.

tantum spirantes aequo certamine bellum
magnis [inter se] de rebus cernere certant,
cum semel interea fuerit superantior ignis
et semel, ut fama est, umor regnarit in arvis.
ignis enim superavit et ambiens multa perussit,
avia cum Phaethonta rapax vis solis equorum
aethere raptavit toto terrasque per omnis.
at pater omnipotens ira tum percitus acri
magnanimum Phaethonta repenti fulminis ictu
deturbavit equis in terram, Solque cadenti
obvius aeternam succepit lampada mundi
disiectosque redegit equos iunxitque trementis,
inde suum per iter recreavit cuncta gubernans,
scilicet ut veteres Graium cecinere poëtae.

only breathing war, in an even contest they strive to decide great matters [among themselves],
since once, in the meantime, fire was the more prevailing,
and once, as the report goes, moisture has reigned in the fields.
for fire prevailed and, encompassing, scorched many things,
when over pathless places the ravening force of the Sun’s horses
snatched Phaethon through the whole aether and over all the lands.
but the omnipotent Father, then stirred by sharp wrath,
with the stroke of a sudden thunderbolt tumbled high‑souled Phaethon
from the horses to the earth, and the Sun, meeting the falling one,
took up the eternal lamp of the world and gathered the scattered horses
and yoked them, trembling; then he restored his own course, steering all things—
to wit, as the ancient poets of the Greeks sang.

quod procul a vera nimis est ratione repulsum.
ignis enim superare potest ubi materiai
ex infinito sunt corpora plura coorta;
inde cadunt vires aliqua ratione revictae,
aut pereunt res exustae torrentibus auris.
umor item quondam coepit superare coortus,
ut fama est, hominum vitas quando obruit undis;
inde ubi vis aliqua ratione aversa recessit,
ex infinito fuerat quae cumque coorta,
constiterunt imbres et flumina vim minuerunt.

which is repelled far from true reason.
for fire indeed can prevail when there have arisen more bodies of matter out of the infinite;
then the forces fall, overpowered in some manner,
or things perish, burned up by scorching blasts.
likewise once moisture, having arisen, began to prevail,
as the story goes, when it overwhelmed the lives of men with waves;
then, when the force, turned aside by some manner, receded—
whatever had arisen from the infinite—
the rains halted and the rivers lessened their force.

Sed quibus ille modis coniectus materiai
fundarit terram et caelum pontique profunda,
solis lunai cursus, ex ordine ponam.
nam certe neque consilio primordia rerum
ordine se suo quaeque sagaci mente locarunt
nec quos quaeque darent motus pepigere profecto;
sed quia multa modis multis primordia rerum
ex infinito iam tempore percita plagis
ponderibusque suis consuerunt concita ferri
omnimodisque coire atque omnia pertemptare,
quae cumque inter se possent congressa creare,
propterea fit uti magnum volgata per aevom
omnigenus coetus et motus experiundo
tandem conveniant ea quae coniecta repente
magnarum rerum fiunt exordia saepe,
terrai maris et caeli generisque animantum.
Hic neque tum solis rota cerni lumine largo
altivolans poterat nec magni sidera mundi
nec mare nec caelum nec denique terra neque aër
nec similis nostris rebus res ulla videri,
sed nova tempestas quaedam molesque coorta.

But by what modes the cast-together of matter
has founded earth and heaven and the deep of the sea,
the courses of the sun and of the moon, I will set forth in order.
for surely neither by counsel did the first-beginnings of things,
each in its own order, place themselves with a sagacious mind,
nor did they indeed stipulate what motions each should give;
but because the first-beginnings of things, in many ways by many modes,
from infinite time now, stirred by blows
and by their own weights, have been wont to be carried in commotion,
and to come together in every manner and to assay all things,
whatever, when they met among themselves, might be able to create,
therefore it comes to pass that, widely spread through the great aevum,
by trying out gatherings and motions of every kind,
at length those things agree which, suddenly cast together,
often become the commencements of great things,
of earth, sea, and sky, and the race of living creatures.
Here neither then could the wheel of the sun be seen with lavish light
flying on high, nor the stars of the great world,
nor sea nor sky nor, in the end, earth nor air,
nor could any thing like our things be seen,
but a certain new tempest and mass had arisen.

diffugere inde loci partes coepere paresque
cum paribus iungi res et discludere mundum
membraque dividere et magnas disponere partes
omnigenis e principiis, discordia quorum
intervalla vias conexus pondera plagas
concursus motus turbabat proelia miscens
propter dissimilis formas variasque figuras,
quod non omnia sic poterant coniuncta manere
nec motus inter sese dare convenientis,
hoc est, a terris altum secernere caelum,
et sorsum mare, uti secreto umore pateret,
seorsus item puri secretique aetheris ignes.
Quippe etenim primum terrai corpora quaeque,
propterea quod erant gravia et perplexa, coibant
in medio atque imas capiebant omnia sedes;
quae quanto magis inter se perplexa coibant,
tam magis expressere ea quae mare sidera solem
lunamque efficerent et magni moenia mundi;
omnia enim magis haec e levibus atque rutundis
seminibus multoque minoribus sunt elementis
quam tellus. ideo per rara foramina terrae
partibus erumpens primus se sustulit aether
ignifer et multos secum levis abstulit ignis,
non alia longe ratione ac saepe videmus,
aurea cum primum gemmantis rore per herbas
matutina rubent radiati lumina solis
exhalantque lacus nebulam fluviique perennes
ipsaque ut inter dum tellus fumare videtur;
omnia quae sursum cum conciliantur, in alto
corpore concreto subtexunt nubila caelum.

from there the parts of the place began to scatter, and things equal
to be joined with equals, and to shut apart the world
and to divide the members and to dispose the great parts
from all-kinds-of first-beginnings, the discord of which
their intervals, paths, connections, weights, regions,
concourses, motions was disturbing, commingling battles,
because of dissimilar forms and various figures,
since not all could thus remain conjoined
nor give motions consonant among themselves—
that is, to sunder the high heaven from the lands,
and apart the sea, so that with separate moisture it might lie open,
and separately likewise the fires of the pure and secret aether.
For indeed first each of the bodies of the earth,
because they were heavy and interwoven, were coming together
in the middle and were taking all the lowest seats;
and the more they came together interwoven among themselves,
so much the more they pressed out those which would make the sea, the stars, the sun,
and the moon, and the walls of the great world;
for all these are from lighter and more rotund
seeds and by much smaller elements than earth.
Therefore, bursting forth through the rare openings of the earth
in parts, the aether, fire-bearing, first lifted itself up,
and with it carried off many light fires,
by no far other rationale than we often see,
when first the golden, beaming lights of the sun grow red through the grasses
gemmed with dew at morning, and the lakes exhale a nebula
and the perennial rivers, and even the earth itself sometimes seems to smoke;
all which, when gathered upward, in the height
with the body concrete, weave beneath the sky the clouds.

sic igitur tum se levis ac diffusilis aether
corpore concreto circum datus undique saepsit
et late diffusus in omnis undique partis
omnia sic avido complexu cetera saepsit.
hunc exordia sunt solis lunaeque secuta,
interutrasque globi quorum vertuntur in auris;
quae neque terra sibi adscivit nec maximus aether,
quod neque tam fuerunt gravia ut depressa sederent,
nec levia ut possent per summas labier oras,
et tamen interutrasque ita sunt, ut corpora viva
versent et partes ut mundi totius extent;
quod genus in nobis quaedam licet in statione
membra manere, tamen cum sint ea quae moveantur.
his igitur rebus retractis terra repente,
maxuma qua nunc se ponti plaga caerula tendit,
succidit et salso suffudit gurgite fossas.

Thus therefore then the light and diffusible aether, with its body condensed and given round about, enclosed itself on every side, and widely diffused into all parts everywhere, thus with an avid embrace it enclosed all the rest.
hunc the beginnings of the sun and the moon followed, and between them the globes which are turned in the airs;
which neither the earth claimed for itself nor the greatest aether, because they were neither so heavy as to sit pressed down, nor so light as to be able to slip along the utmost borders,
and yet they are so between the two that they revolve like living bodies and extend as parts of the whole world;
just as in us certain limbs may remain in station, though there are those which are moved.
his therefore things withdrawn to their places, suddenly the earth, where now the greatest expanse of the sea stretches its cerulean plain,
subsided and flooded the channels with a salty whirlpool.

inque dies quanto circum magis aetheris aestus
et radii solis cogebant undique terram
verberibus crebris extrema ad limina fartam
in medio ut propulsa suo condensa coiret,
tam magis expressus salsus de corpore sudor
augebat mare manando camposque natantis,
et tanto magis illa foras elapsa volabant
corpora multa vaporis et aëris altaque caeli
densabant procul a terris fulgentia templa.
sidebant campi, crescebant montibus altis
ascensus; neque enim poterant subsidere saxa
nec pariter tantundem omnes succumbere partis.
Sic igitur terrae concreto corpore pondus
constitit atque omnis mundi quasi limus in imum
confluxit gravis et subsedit funditus ut faex;
inde mare, inde aër, inde aether ignifer ipse
corporibus liquidis sunt omnia pura relicta
et leviora aliis alia, et liquidissimus aether
atque levissimus aërias super influit auras
nec liquidum corpus turbantibus aëris auris
commiscet; sinit haec violentis omnia verti
turbinibus, sinit incertis turbare procellis,
ipse suos ignis certo fert impete labens.

and with the days, the more the heat of aether and the rays of the sun were compelling the earth on every side
with frequent beatings, stuffed to the outer thresholds,
so that, driven back toward the middle, it might gather condensed in its own place,
so much the more the salty sweat pressed out from the body
increased the sea by its flowing and set the fields a-swim,
and by so much the more those many bodies of vapor and of aër slipping out flew forth
and far from the lands they were densifying the shining temples of the high heaven.
the plains were settling, the ascents to lofty mountains were growing;
for neither could the rocks settle down
nor could all the parts alike yield by the same amount.
Thus therefore the weight of the earth, its body concreted,
took its stand, and as if the mud of the whole world flowed to the bottom,
heavy, it subsided to the very depths like dregs;
then the sea, then the air, then aether itself, fire-bearing—
all things were left pure with liquid bodies,
and some lighter than others; and the most liquid aether,
being the lightest, flowed above the aërial breezes
and does not mix its liquid body with the air’s troubling winds;
it allows these things to be whirled by violent whirlwinds,
allows them to be troubled by uncertain storms—
he himself, the fire, gliding, bears his own course with a sure impetus.

nam modice fluere atque uno posse aethera nisu
significat Pontos, mare certo quod fluit aestu
unum labendi conservans usque tenorem.
Motibus astrorum nunc quae sit causa canamus.
principio magnus caeli si vortitur orbis,
ex utraque polum parti premere aëra nobis
dicendum est extraque tenere et claudere utrimque;
inde alium supra fluere atque intendere eodem
quo volvenda micant aeterni sidera mundi;
aut alium supter, contra qui subvehat orbem,
ut fluvios versare rotas atque austra videmus.

for that it flows moderately and that the aether can move by a single impulse signifies the Pontus, the sea which flows with a fixed tide, ever preserving one tenor of gliding.
Now let us sing what the cause of the motions of the stars is.
first, if the great orb of heaven is turned, we must say that from each side of the pole it presses the air and holds it outside and encloses it on both sides;
then that another flows above and is stretched in the same course wherein the everlasting stars of the world, to be rolled, shimmer;
or another beneath, which, contrariwise, bears up the orb from below, as we see rivers turn wheels and the south winds do.

est etiam quoque uti possit caelum omne manere
in statione, tamen cum lucida signa ferantur,
sive quod inclusi rapidi sunt aetheris aestus
quaerentesque viam circum versantur et ignes
passim per caeli volvunt summania templa,
sive aliunde fluens alicunde extrinsecus aër
versat agens ignis, sive ipsi serpere possunt,
quo cuiusque cibus vocat atque invitat euntis,
flammea per caelum pascentis corpora passim.
nam quid in hoc mundo sit eorum ponere certum
difficilest; sed quid possit fiatque per omne
in variis mundis varia ratione creatis,
id doceo plurisque sequor disponere causas,
motibus astrorum quae possint esse per omne;
e quibus una tamen sit et haec quoque causa necessest,
quae vegeat motum signis; sed quae sit earum
praecipere haud quaquamst pedetemptim progredientis.
Terraque ut in media mundi regione quiescat,
evanescere paulatim et decrescere pondus
convenit atque aliam naturam supter habere
ex ineunte aevo coniunctam atque uniter aptam
partibus aëriis mundi, quibus insita vivit.

It is also possible that the whole heaven can remain in station, even while the bright signs are borne along,
either because the swift surges of aether, enclosed, seeking a way, wheel around, and the fires
roll everywhere through the sky’s loftiest temples,
or because air flowing from somewhere, from outside, turns and drives the fires; or they themselves can creep,
where the nourishment of each calls and invites them as they go,
fiery bodies feeding through the heaven everywhere.
For to set down what among these is certain in this world
is most difficult; but what can be and comes to be through the entire All,
in various worlds created by various method,
this I teach, and I go on to set forth several causes
which can be for the motions of the stars through the whole;
of which, nevertheless, one must be, and this too the cause
which quickens motion for the signs; but which of them it is
it is by no means possible to determine for one advancing step by step.
And that the Earth rests in the middle region of the world,
it is fitting that its weight gradually evaporate and decrease,
and that it have beneath another nature,
conjoined from the dawning age and uniformly fitted
to the airy parts of the world, in which, being implanted, it lives.

propterea non est oneri neque deprimit auras,
ut sua cuique homini nullo sunt pondere membra
nec caput est oneri collo nec denique totum
corporis in pedibus pondus sentimus inesse;
at quae cumque foris veniunt inpostaque nobis
pondera sunt laedunt, permulto saepe minora.
usque adeo magni refert quid quaeque queat res.
sic igitur tellus non est aliena repente
allata atque auris aliunde obiecta alienis,
sed pariter prima concepta ab origine mundi
certaque pars eius, quasi nobis membra videntur.

therefore it is not a burden nor does it depress the airs,
just as to each man his own limbs are of no weight,
nor is the head a burden to the neck, nor, finally, do we feel the whole
weight of the body to be present in the feet;
but whatever things come from outside and are imposed upon us
are weights and wound, often by much smaller ones.
usque adeo it matters greatly what each thing is able to do.
thus therefore the earth is not something alien suddenly
brought in and thrust upon alien airs from elsewhere,
but equally conceived at the first from the origin of the world
and a sure part of it, as our limbs seem to us.

    Praeterea grandi tonitru concussa repente
terra supra quae se sunt concutit omnia motu;
quod facere haut ulla posset ratione, nisi esset
partibus aëriis mundi caeloque revincta;
nam communibus inter se radicibus haerent
ex ineunte aevo coniuncta atque uniter aucta.
    Nonne vides etiam quam magno pondere nobis
sustineat corpus tenuissima vis animai,
propterea quia tam coniuncta atque uniter apta est?
    Denique iam saltu pernici tollere corpus
quid potis est nisi vis animae, quae membra gubernat?

    Moreover, when with a great thunderclap the earth is suddenly concussed,
above it all things shake themselves with the motion;
which by no reasoning could it do, unless it were fast-bound
with the aerial parts of the world and with the heaven;
for with common roots they cling together,
joined from the dawning age and grown as one.
    Do you not see also with how great a weight for us
the most tenuous force of the soul sustains the body,
for this reason, because it is so conjoined and fitted together as one?
    Finally, now, to lift the body with a nimble leap,
what is able to do it except the force of the soul, which governs the limbs?

iamne vides quantum tenuis natura valere
possit, ubi est coniuncta gravi cum corpore, ut aër
coniunctus terris et nobis est animi vis?
Nec nimio solis maior rota nec minor ardor
esse potest, nostris quam sensibus esse videtur.
nam quibus e spatiis cumque ignes lumina possunt
adiicere et calidum membris adflare vaporem,
nil magnis intervallis de corpore libant
flammarum, nihil ad speciem est contractior ignis.

Do you now see how much a tenuous nature can prevail, when it is conjoined with a heavy body, as the air is conjoined with the lands and, in us, the force of mind is?
Nor can the sun’s wheel be by too much greater, nor its ardor less, than it seems to our senses to be.
for from whatever spaces the fires can add their lights and blow a warm vapor upon our limbs, over great intervals they take nothing from the body of the flames, nothing is the fire more contracted to the appearance.

proinde, calor quoniam solis lumenque profusum
perveniunt nostros ad sensus et loca fulgent,
forma quoque hinc solis debet filumque videri,
nil adeo ut possis plus aut minus addere vere.
[perveniunt nostros ad sensus et loca fulgent]
lunaque sive notho fertur loca lumine lustrans,
sive suam proprio iactat de corpore lucem,
quidquid id est, nihilo fertur maiore figura
quam, nostris oculis qua cernimus, esse videtur.
nam prius omnia, quae longe semota tuemur
aëra per multum, specie confusa videntur
quam minui filum.

Accordingly, since the heat of the sun and the profuse light reach our senses and the places gleam,
the form too of the sun, and its filament (outline), ought to be seen, in no respect so that you could truly add either more or less.
[they reach our senses and the places gleam]
and the moon, whether it is carried illuminating places with spurious light,
or flings its own light from its proper body,
whatever it is, it is carried with no greater figure
than it appears to be to our eyes by which we perceive.
for first all things which we behold far removed
through much air seem confused in appearance
before the filament (outline) is diminished.

quapropter luna necesse est,
quandoquidem claram speciem certamque figuram
praebet, ut est oris extremis cumque notata,
quanta quoquest, tanta hinc nobis videatur in alto.
postremo quos cumque vides hinc aetheris ignes,
scire licet perquam pauxillo posse minores
esse vel exigua maioris parte brevique.
quandoquidem quos cumque in terris cernimus [ignes],
dum tremor [et] clarus dum cernitur ardor eorum,
perparvom quiddam inter dum mutare videntur
alteram utram in partem filum, quo longius absunt.

wherefore the moon must,
since she offers a bright appearance and a certain figure,
as she is marked with extreme borders,
appear to us here on high just as great as she is wherever she is.
finally, whatever fires of the aether you see from here,
it may be known that they can be smaller by a very little,
or greater by a tiny portion and brief.
since whatever [fires] we behold on earth,
while the tremor [and] the bright ardor of them is seen,
they seem at times to alter their outline a very small amount
in either direction, the farther off they are.

Illud item non est mirandum, qua ratione
tantulus ille queat tantum sol mittere lumen,
quod maria ac terras omnis caelumque rigando
compleat et calido perfundat cuncta vapore.
[quanta quoquest tanta hinc nobis videatur in alto]
nam licet hinc mundi patefactum totius unum
largifluum fontem scatere atque erumpere lumen,
ex omni mundo quia sic elementa vaporis
undique conveniunt et sic coniectus eorum
confluit, ex uno capite hic ut profluat ardor.
nonne vides etiam quam late parvus aquai
prata riget fons inter dum campisque redundet?

This likewise is not to be wondered at, by what reasoning
that so tiny sun can send so great a light,
which, by irrigating seas and lands and the sky,
fills and perfuses all things with hot vapor.
[that, however great it is, just so great from here it appears to us on high]
for though from here one may see, laid open from the whole world,
that single largifluent fount of light to gush and burst forth,
because from all the world thus the elements of vapor
convene from every side and thus their aggregation
flows together, so that from one head the ardor here may flow forth.
do you not see even how widely a small spring of water
at times irrigates the meadows and overflows the plains?

est etiam quoque uti non magno solis ab igni
aëra percipiat calidis fervoribus ardor,
opportunus ita est si forte et idoneus aër,
ut queat accendi parvis ardoribus ictus;
quod genus inter dum segetes stipulamque videmus
accidere ex una scintilla incendia passim.
forsitan et rosea sol alte lampade lucens
possideat multum caecis fervoribus ignem
circum se, nullo qui sit fulgore notatus,
aestifer ut tantum radiorum exaugeat ictum.
Nec ratio solis simplex [et] recta patescit,
quo pacto aestivis e partibus aegocerotis
brumalis adeat flexus atque inde revertens
canceris ut vertat metas ad solstitialis,
lunaque mensibus id spatium videatur obire,
annua sol in quo consumit tempora cursu.

it is also the case that from no great fire of the sun
the air may take on ardor by hot fervors,
so opportune and so fit the air is, if by chance it be suitable,
that, struck by small heats, it can be ignited;
just so we sometimes see among crops and stubble
conflagrations occur everywhere from a single scintilla.
perhaps too the sun, shining high with his rosy lamp,
possesses much fire around himself in blind fervors,
which is marked by no splendor,
so that he may augment the heat-bearing impact of his rays to such a pitch.
Nor does the rationale of the sun [and] simple and straight lie open,
by what method from the summer regions of Capricorn
he may approach the winter bendings, and thence returning
turn his turning-posts toward solstitial Cancer,
and that the moon in months seems to traverse that span
in which the sun consumes the yearly seasons in his course.

non, inquam, simplex his rebus reddita causast.
nam fieri vel cum primis id posse videtur,
Democriti quod sancta viri sententia ponit,
quanto quaeque magis sint terram sidera propter,
tanto posse minus cum caeli turbine ferri;
evanescere enim rapidas illius et acris
imminui supter viris, ideoque relinqui
paulatim solem cum posterioribus signis,
inferior multo quod sit quam fervida signa.
et magis hoc lunam: quanto demissior eius
cursus abest procul a caelo terrisque propinquat,
tanto posse minus cum signis tendere cursum.

not, I say, is a simple cause rendered for these things.
for it seems, first of all, that this can happen,
which the sacred doctrine of the man Democritus posits,
the nearer each star is to the earth,
so much the less can it be carried with the whirl of the sky;
for the rapid and sharp forces of that evanesce and are diminished
lower down, and therefore the sun is left behind
little by little with the posterior signs,
because it is much lower than the fiery signs.
and this more for the moon: the more lower her
course is far from the heaven and approaches the lands,
by so much the less is she able to tend her course with the signs.

flaccidiore etiam quanto iam turbine fertur
inferior quam sol, tanto magis omnia signa
hanc adipiscuntur circum praeterque feruntur.
propterea fit ut haec ad signum quodque reverti
mobilius videatur, ad hanc quia signa revisunt.
fit quoque ut e mundi transversis partibus aër
alternis certo fluere alter tempore possit,
qui queat aestivis solem detrudere signis
brumalis usque ad flexus gelidumque rigorem,
et qui reiciat gelidis a frigoris umbris
aestiferas usque in partis et fervida signa.

and the more it is now borne by a more flaccid whirl,
lower than the sun, by that much the more all the signs
overtake this one around and are carried past it.
therefore it comes about that this one seems to return
to each sign more readily, because the signs revisit it.
it also comes about that from the transverse parts of the world the air
can flow alternately at one time and at another in a fixed way,
which can shove the sun down from the aestival signs
all the way to the brumal bend and gelid rigor,
and which can cast him back from the gelid shades of chill
into the aestiferous parts and the fervid signs.

et ratione pari lunam stellasque putandumst,
quae volvunt magnos in magnis orbibus annos,
aëribus posse alternis e partibus ire.
nonne vides etiam diversis nubila ventis
diversas ire in partis inferna supernis?
qui minus illa queant per magnos aetheris orbis
aestibus inter se diversis sidera ferri?

and by an equal rationale it must be thought that the moon and the stars,
which roll great years in great orbits,
are able to go by alternate airs from opposite parts.
do you not see even the clouds by diverse winds
go into diverse parts, the lower contrary to the upper?
why should those be any less able through the great orbits of the aether
the stars to be borne by differing surges among themselves?

At nox obruit ingenti caligine terras,
aut ubi de longo cursu sol ultima caeli
impulit atque suos efflavit languidus ignis
concussos itere et labefactos aëre multo,
aut quia sub terras cursum convortere cogit
vis eadem, supra quae terras pertulit orbem.
Tempore item certo roseam Matuta per oras
aetheris auroram differt et lumina pandit,
aut quia sol idem, sub terras ille revertens,
anticipat caelum radiis accendere temptans,
aut quia conveniunt ignes et semina multa
confluere ardoris consuerunt tempore certo,
quae faciunt solis nova semper lumina gigni;
quod genus Idaeis fama est e montibus altis
dispersos ignis orienti lumine cerni,
inde coire globum quasi in unum et conficere orbem.
nec tamen illud in his rebus mirabile debet
esse, quod haec ignis tam certo tempore possint
semina confluere et solis reparare nitorem.

But night overwhelms the lands with a vast caliginous gloom,
either when, from its long course, the sun has driven to the furthest bounds of heaven
and, languid, its fire has exhaled its own, having been shaken by the journey and loosened by much air,
or because the same force compels it to turn its course beneath the lands,
which carried its orb above the lands.
At a fixed time likewise rosy Matuta along the borders of the aether
spreads the dawn and opens the lights,
either because the same sun, returning beneath the lands,
anticipates, attempting to kindle the sky with its rays,
or because fires come together and many seeds
of ardor are accustomed to flow together at a fixed time,
which cause new lights of the sun ever to be begotten;
of which kind it is reported that from the lofty Idaean mountains
scattered fires are seen at the rising light,
and from there to come together into, as it were, one globe and to make up an orb.
Nor, however, in these matters ought it to be marveled at,
that these seeds of fire can at so fixed a time
flow together and repair the radiance of the sun.

multa videmus enim, certo quae tempore fiunt
omnibus in rebus. florescunt tempore certo
arbusta et certo dimittunt tempore florem.
nec minus in certo dentes cadere imperat aetas
tempore et inpubem molli pubescere veste
et pariter mollem malis demittere barbam.

for we see many things, which at a certain time come to be
in all matters. at a certain time the orchards blossom
and at a certain time they shed the blossom.
nor less does age command that teeth fall at a certain
time, and that the beardless grow pubescent with a soft vesture,
and likewise let down a soft beard upon the cheeks.

fulmina postremo nix imbres nubila venti
non nimis incertis fiunt in partibus anni.
namque ubi sic fuerunt causarum exordia prima
atque ita res mundi cecidere ab origine prima,
conseque quoque iam redeunt ex ordine certo.
Crescere itemque dies licet et tabescere noctes,
et minui luces, cum sumant augmina noctis,
aut quia sol idem sub terras atque superne
imparibus currens amfractibus aetheris oras
partit et in partis non aequas dividit orbem,
et quod ab alterutra detraxit parte, reponit
eius in adversa tanto plus parte relatus,
donec ad id signum caeli pervenit, ubi anni
nodus nocturnas exaequat lucibus umbras;
nam medio cursu flatus aquilonis et austri
distinet aequato caelum discrimine metas
propter signiferi posituram totius orbis,
annua sol in quo concludit tempora serpens,
obliquo terras et caelum lumine lustrans,
ut ratio declarat eorum qui loca caeli
omnia dispositis signis ornata notarunt.

thunderbolts, finally, snow, showers, clouds, winds
do not occur in overly uncertain parts of the year.
for when thus were the first beginnings of causes,
and thus the affairs of the world fell into place from the first origin,
accordingly they also now return in a fixed order.
Likewise it is permitted that days grow and nights melt away,
and that the lights be diminished when the nights take on increases,
either because the same sun, beneath the earth and above,
running with unequal anfractuous circuits, parcels out the borders of the aether
and divides the orb into parts not equal,
and what he has taken away from the one side he restores
in the opposite side, being borne back by so much more in that part,
until he arrives at that sign of the sky where the knot of the year
makes the nocturnal shades equal to the lights;
for in the middle of his course the breaths of north wind and south wind
separate the bounds of the sky with equal distinction,
on account of the placement of the whole circuit of the zodiac,
in which the sun, winding serpent-like, encloses the annual seasons,
surveying lands and sky with oblique light,
as the reasoning of those declares who have marked all the places of the sky
adorned with the arranged signs.

aut quia crassior est certis in partibus aër,
sub terris ideo tremulum iubar haesitat ignis
nec penetrare potest facile atque emergere ad ortus;
propterea noctes hiberno tempore longae
cessant, dum veniat radiatum insigne diei.
aut etiam, quia sic alternis partibus anni
tardius et citius consuerunt confluere ignes,
qui faciunt solem certa de surgere parte,
propterea fit uti videantur dicere verum.
Luna potest solis radiis percussa nitere
inque dies magis [id] lumen convertere nobis
ad speciem, quantum solis secedit ab orbi,
donique eum contra pleno bene lumine fulsit
atque oriens obitus eius super edita vidit;
inde minutatim retro quasi condere lumen
debet item, quanto propius iam solis ad ignem
labitur ex alia signorum parte per orbem;
ut faciunt, lunam qui fingunt esse pilai
consimilem cursusque viam sub sole tenere.

or because the air is thicker in certain regions,
therefore beneath the earth the tremulous radiance of the fire hesitates
and cannot easily penetrate and emerge to the risings;
for that reason in the wintertime long nights linger
until the radiate insignia of day may come.
or also, because thus in alternate parts of the year
the fires have been wont to flow together more slowly and more quickly,
which make the sun rise from a fixed quarter,
for that reason it comes about that they seem to speak the truth.
The Moon, struck by the Sun’s rays, can shine
and day by day turn [that] light more toward us
to appearance, by as much as she withdraws from the Sun’s orb,
until, opposite him, she has shone with full, good light
and, rising, has seen his setting over the heights;
thence little by little backward she ought likewise to conceal, as it were, her light,
the nearer she now glides to the fire of the sun
from the other part of the signs through the orbit;
as those do who fashion the moon to be like a ball
and to hold the path of her course beneath the sun.

est etiam quare proprio cum lumine possit
volvier et varias splendoris reddere formas;
corpus enim licet esse aliud, quod fertur et una
labitur omnimodis occursans officiensque,
nec potis est cerni, quia cassum lumine fertur.
versarique potest, globus ut, si forte, pilai
dimidia ex parti candenti lumine tinctus,
versandoque globum variantis edere formas,
donique eam partem, quae cumque est ignibus aucta,
ad speciem vertit nobis oculosque patentis;
inde minutatim retro contorquet et aufert
luciferam partem glomeraminis atque pilai;
ut Babylonica Chaldaeum doctrina refutans
astrologorum artem contra convincere tendit,
proinde quasi id fieri nequeat quod pugnat uterque
aut minus hoc illo sit cur amplectier ausis.
denique cur nequeat semper nova luna creari
ordine formarum certo certisque figuris
inque dies privos aborisci quaeque creata
atque alia illius reparari in parte locoque,
difficilest ratione docere et vincere verbis,
ordine cum [videas] tam certo multa creari.

there is also a reason why it might be able to be rolled with its own proper light and to render various forms of splendor; for it may be that there is another body, which is borne along and together glides in all ways, meeting and obstructing, and it cannot be discerned, because it is borne void of light. and it can be arranged as a globe, as, if by chance, a ball tinged on half its part with glowing light, and by turning the globe to produce varying forms, so long as it turns that part, whichever is increased with fires, toward appearance for us and our open eyes; then little by little it twists back and removes the light-bearing part of the mass and of the ball; as the Babylonian doctrine, refuting the Chaldean, strives on the contrary to convict the art of astrologers, just as if that which each maintains could not be the case, or that this is inferior to that, why you should dare to embrace it. finally, why a new moon could not always be created in a fixed order of forms and fixed figures, and on individual days each one created arise, and another of it be repaired in that part and place, it is most difficult to teach by reasoning and to prevail with words, since you [see] many things created in so certain an order.

it Ver et Venus et Veneris praenuntius ante
pennatus graditur, Zephyri vestigia propter
Flora quibus mater praespargens ante viai
cuncta coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet.
inde loci sequitur Calor aridus et comes una
pulverulenta Ceres [et] etesia flabra aquilonum.
inde Autumnus adit, graditur simul Euhius Euan.

goes Spring and Venus, and the winged forerunner of Venus strides before,
close by the footsteps of Zephyr,
Flora, their mother, sprinkling beforehand along the way,
fills all things with choice colors and odors.
then in its place follows Arid Heat and, as companion together,
dusty Ceres [and] the Etesian blasts of the north winds.
then Autumn approaches; at the same time Euhius Euan strides.

inde aliae tempestates ventique secuntur,
altitonans Volturnus et Auster fulmine pollens.
tandem Bruma nives adfert pigrumque rigorem
reddit. Hiemps sequitur crepitans hanc dentibus algu.

then other seasons and winds follow,
the high-thundering Volturnus and Auster, powerful in lightning.
at last Winter brings snows and returns sluggish rigor
Winter follows, chattering with the teeth at this cold.

quo minus est mirum, si certo tempore luna
gignitur et certo deletur tempore rusus,
cum fieri possint tam certo tempore multa.
Solis item quoque defectus lunaeque latebras
pluribus e causis fieri tibi posse putandumst.
nam cur luna queat terram secludere solis
lumine et a terris altum caput obstruere ei,
obiciens caecum radiis ardentibus orbem,
tempore eodem aliut facere id non posse putetur
corpus, quod cassum labatur lumine semper?

wherefore it is the less a marvel, if at a fixed time the moon is engendered and at a fixed time is effaced again,
since many things can come to pass at so fixed a time.
Likewise, too, you must think that eclipses of the Sun and the hidings of the Moon
can be produced from several causes.
for why could the Moon be able to seclude the Earth from the Sun’s
light and, from the lands, block from us his lofty head,
presenting a blind orb to the ardent rays,
and at the same time be thought that some other body cannot do this,
which ever glides void of light?

solque suos etiam dimittere languidus ignis
tempore cur certo nequeat recreareque lumen,
cum loca praeteriit flammis infesta per auras,
quae faciunt ignis interstingui atque perire?
et cur terra queat lunam spoliare vicissim
lumine et oppressum solem super ipsa tenere,
menstrua dum rigidas coni perlabitur umbras,
tempore eodem aliud nequeat succurrere lunae
corpus vel supra solis perlabier orbem,
quod radios inter rumpat lumenque profusum?
et tamen ipsa suo si fulget luna nitore,
cur nequeat certa mundi languescere parte,
dum loca luminibus propriis inimica per exit?

and the sun too, a languid fire, why could it not at a fixed time send forth its own fires and restore its light,
when it has passed through the airs places hostile to flames,
which make fires be extinguished and perish?
and why can the earth in turn despoil the moon of light
and hold the sun, pressed down, right above itself,
while in its monthly course it glides through the rigid shadows of the cone,
and at the same time some other body not be able to come up to the moon
or glide above the orb of the sun,
to break among the rays and the outpoured light?
and yet if the moon herself shines with her own brilliance,
why could she not grow faint in a certain part of the world,
while she passes through places hostile to her own lights?

[menstrua dum rigidas coni perlabitur umbras].
Quod superest, quoniam magni per caerula mundi
qua fieri quicquid posset ratione resolvi,
solis uti varios cursus lunaeque meatus
noscere possemus quae vis et causa cieret,
quove modo [possent] offecto lumine obire
et neque opinantis tenebris obducere terras,
cum quasi conivent et aperto lumine rursum
omnia convisunt clara loca candida luce,
nunc redeo ad mundi novitatem et mollia terrae
arva, novo fetu quid primum in luminis oras
tollere et incertis crerint committere ventis.
Principio genus herbarum viridemque nitorem
terra dedit circum collis camposque per omnis,
florida fulserunt viridanti prata colore,
arboribusque datumst variis exinde per auras
crescendi magnum inmissis certamen habenis.
ut pluma atque pili primum saetaeque creantur
quadripedum membris et corpore pennipotentum,
sic nova tum tellus herbas virgultaque primum
sustulit, inde loci mortalia saecla creavit
multa modis multis varia ratione coorta.

[while monthly she glides through the rigid shadows of the cone].
What remains, since through the cerulean of the great world whatever could come to be could be resolved by reason, how we might know the various courses of the sun and the goings of the moon, what force and cause set them in motion, and in what way [they could] go with their light affected and, unlooked-for, shroud the lands with darkness, when, as if they wink, and with open light again all the bright places re-see together with white-bright radiance, now I return to the newness of the world and the soft fields of earth, what first with new offspring they raised to the borders of light and committed to uncertain winds.
In the beginning the kind of herbs and green splendor the earth gave around the hills and through all the fields, flowery meadows shone with a greenish color, and to various trees thereafter there was given through the airs a great contest of growing, the reins let loose. As plume and hairs and bristles are first created on the limbs of quadrupeds and on the body of the wing-powerful, so then the new earth first lifted up grasses and thickets, then from the locale it created mortal generations, many arisen in many ways by various rationale.

nam neque de caelo cecidisse animalia possunt,
nec terrestria de salsis exisse lacunis.
linquitur ut merito maternum nomen adepta
terra sit, e terra quoniam sunt cuncta creata.
multaque nunc etiam existunt animalia terris
imbribus et calido solis concreta vapore;
quo minus est mirum, si tum sunt plura coorta
et maiora, nova tellure atque aethere adulta.

for neither can animals have fallen from the sky,
nor can terrestrial ones have gone forth from salty pools.
it remains that, having deservedly acquired the maternal name,
the earth is so, since from earth all things have been created.
and many animals even now come into being on the lands,
concreted by rains and the warm vapor of the sun;
wherefore it is the less a wonder, if then more arose
and larger, matured by the new earth and the aether.

principio genus alituum variaeque volucres
ova relinquebant exclusae tempore verno,
folliculos ut nunc teretis aestate cicadae
lincunt sponte sua victum vitamque petentes.
tum tibi terra dedit primum mortalia saecla.
multus enim calor atque umor superabat in arvis.

In the beginning the genus of the winged and diverse birds
were abandoning the eggshells, hatched at the springtime,
just as now in summer the cicadas leave their smooth follicles
of their own accord, seeking victual and life.
then for you the earth gave the first mortal generations.
for abundant heat and moisture prevailed in the fields.

hoc ubi quaeque loci regio opportuna dabatur,
crescebant uteri terram radicibus apti;
quos ubi tempore maturo pate fecerat aetas
infantum, fugiens umorem aurasque petessens,
convertebat ibi natura foramina terrae
et sucum venis cogebat fundere apertis
consimilem lactis, sicut nunc femina quaeque
cum peperit, dulci repletur lacte, quod omnis
impetus in mammas convertitur ille alimenti.
terra cibum pueris, vestem vapor, herba cubile
praebebat multa et molli lanugine abundans.
at novitas mundi nec frigora dura ciebat
nec nimios aestus nec magnis viribus auras.

wherever in each place any region was afforded as opportune,
wombs were growing fitted to the earth with roots;
which, when time at a ripe season had made open
for infants, fleeing the moisture and seeking the airs,
Nature would turn there the openings of the earth
and forced the juice to pour from opened veins
similar to milk, just as now every woman,
when she has borne, is filled with sweet milk, because all
that impulse of aliment is converted into the breasts.
the earth provided food for the children, vapor clothing, the grass a couch
abounding in much and soft down.
but the newness of the world was stirring neither hard chills
nor excessive heats nor winds with great forces.

omnia enim pariter crescunt et robora sumunt.
Quare etiam atque etiam maternum nomen adepta
terra tenet merito, quoniam genus ipsa creavit
humanum atque animal prope certo tempore fudit
omne quod in magnis bacchatur montibus passim,
aëriasque simul volucres variantibus formis.
sed quia finem aliquam pariendi debet habere,
destitit, ut mulier spatio defessa vetusto.

for all things alike grow and take on strength.
Wherefore again and again, having obtained the maternal name,
earth holds it with merit, since she herself created
the human race and at a nearly fixed time poured forth the animal-kind,
all that revels far and wide on the great mountains,
and at the same time the aerial birds with variegated forms.
but because she ought to have some end of bearing,
she ceased, as a woman, wearied by an age-old span.

mutat enim mundi naturam totius aetas
ex alioque alius status excipere omnia debet
nec manet ulla sui similis res: omnia migrant,
omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit.
namque aliud putrescit et aevo debile languet,
porro aliud [suc]crescit et [e] contemptibus exit.
sic igitur mundi naturam totius aetas
mutat, et ex alio terram status excipit alter,
quod potuit nequeat, possit quod non tulit ante.

for age changes the nature of the whole world,
and from one state another ought to receive all things,
nor does any thing remain like unto itself: all things migrate,
nature changes all things and compels them to turn.
for indeed one thing putrefies and, feeble, languishes with age,
further, another [up-]grows and [out] of despised things issues forth.
thus therefore age changes the nature of the whole world,
and from one state another state takes up the earth,
so that what could cannot, what it did not bear before it can bear.

Multaque tum tellus etiam portenta creare
conatast mira facie membrisque coorta,
androgynem, interutras necutrumque utrimque remotum,
orba pedum partim, manuum viduata vicissim,
muta sine ore etiam, sine voltu caeca reperta,
vinctaque membrorum per totum corpus adhaesu,
nec facere ut possent quicquam nec cedere quoquam
nec vitare malum nec sumere quod volet usus.
cetera de genere hoc monstra ac portenta creabat,
ne quiquam, quoniam natura absterruit auctum
nec potuere cupitum aetatis tangere florem
nec reperire cibum nec iungi per Veneris res.
multa videmus enim rebus concurrere debere,
ut propagando possint procudere saecla;
pabula primum ut sint, genitalia deinde per artus
semina qua possint membris manare remissis,
feminaque ut maribus coniungi possit, habere,
mutua qui mutent inter se gaudia uterque.

And then the earth also strove to create many portents,
with wondrous face and limbs arisen—
an androgyn, between both, and a neuter, removed from either side,
some bereft of feet, deprived in turn of hands,
mute, even without a mouth, found blind without a countenance,
and bound by the adhesion of limbs through the whole body,
so that they could do nothing nor go anywhere,
nor avoid harm nor take what need for use would wish.
The rest of this kind, monsters and portents, it created
in vain, since nature deterred increase,
and they could not touch the desired flower of age,
nor find food nor be joined through the business of Venus.
For we see that many things must concur for things,
so that by propagating they can forge generations;
first, that there be provender; then, that the generative seeds through the limbs
may be able to flow, the members relaxed;
and that a female may be joined to males, having
a partner with whom each may exchange mutual joys between themselves.

Multaque tum interiisse animantum saecla necessest
nec potuisse propagando procudere prolem.
nam quae cumque vides vesci vitalibus auris,
aut dolus aut virtus aut denique mobilitas est
ex ineunte aevo genus id tuta reservans.
multaque sunt, nobis ex utilitate sua quae
commendata manent, tutelae tradita nostrae.

And many races of living creatures then must have perished,
nor been able, by propagating, to hammer out progeny.
for whatever you see feeding on the vital air,
either guile or prowess or, finally, mobility is
from the commencing age that which keeps that kind safe, preserving it.
and there are many which, by their utility to us,
remain commended, handed over to our tutelage.

principio genus acre leonum saevaque saecla
tutatast virtus, volpes dolus et fuga cervos.
at levisomna canum fido cum pectore corda,
et genus omne quod est veterino semine partum
lanigeraeque simul pecudes et bucera saecla
omnia sunt hominum tutelae tradita, Memmi;
nam cupide fugere feras pacemque secuta
sunt et larga suo sine pabula parta labore,
quae damus utilitatis eorum praemia causa.
at quis nil horum tribuit natura, nec ipsa
sponte sua possent ut vivere nec dare nobis
utilitatem aliquam, quare pateremur eorum
praesidio nostro pasci genus esseque tutum,
scilicet haec aliis praedae lucroque iacebant
indupedita suis fatalibus omnia vinclis,
donec ad interitum genus id natura redegit.

first, the fierce genus of lions and savage races
valor protected, foxes by guile and deer by flight.
but the light-sleeping hearts of dogs with a faithful breast,
and every genus that is bred from domestic stock,
and the wool-bearing flocks and the horn-bearing races
all have been handed over to the tutelage of men, Memmius;
for eagerly they fled the wild beasts and followed peace,
and fodders abundant, obtained without their own labor,
which we give as rewards on account of their utility.
but to those to whom nature granted none of these things,
so that they could neither live of themselves by their own impulse nor give us
any utility, why should we allow their race
to be fed by our protection and to be safe?
of course these lay as prey and profit for others,
all entangled in their own fatal bonds,
until nature brought that genus back to destruction.

Sed neque Centauri fuerunt nec tempore in ullo
esse queunt duplici natura et corpore bino
ex alienigenis membris compacta, potestas
hinc illinc partis ut sat par esse potissit.
id licet hinc quamvis hebeti cognoscere corde.
principio circum tribus actis impiger annis
floret equus, puer haut quaquam; nam saepe etiam nunc
ubera mammarum in somnis lactantia quaeret.

But neither were there Centaurs, nor at any time can there be,
to exist of double nature and twin body,
compacted from alien limbs, with the power
that the part from here and from there might be sufficiently on a par.
this one may from here recognize, even with a dull heart.
to begin with, when about three years have run their course, the nimble horse
blooms, the boy not at all; for often even now
he seeks in dreams the milky teats of his mother’s breasts.

post ubi equum validae vires aetate senecta
membraque deficiunt fugienti languida vita,
tum demum puerili aevo florenta iuventas
officit et molli vestit lanugine malas;
ne forte ex homine et veterino semine equorum
confieri credas Centauros posse neque esse,
aut rapidis canibus succinctas semimarinis
corporibus Scyllas et cetera de genere horum,
inter se quorum discordia membra videmus;
quae neque florescunt pariter nec robora sumunt
corporibus neque proiciunt aetate senecta
nec simili Venere ardescunt nec moribus unis
conveniunt neque sunt eadem iucunda per artus.
quippe videre licet pinguescere saepe cicuta
barbigeras pecudes, homini quae est acre venenum.
flamma quidem [vero] cum corpora fulva leonum
tam soleat torrere atque urere quam genus omne
visceris in terris quod cumque et sanguinis extet,
qui fieri potuit, triplici cum corpore ut una,
prima leo, postrema draco, media ipsa, Chimaera
ore foras acrem flaret de corpore flammam?

afterwards, when the strong powers of the horse in senile age
and the limbs fail, as life, languid, flees,
then at last a youth blooming at a boyish age
hinders, and clothes his cheeks with soft down;
lest perchance you believe that from a man and the animal seed of horses
Centaurs can be made and exist,
or Scyllas girded with swift dogs on semi-marine
bodies, and the rest of the race of these,
whose members we see at variance among themselves;
which neither flourish equally nor take on strengths
in their bodies nor cast them off in senile age,
nor burn with like Venus nor agree in single manners,
nor are the same things pleasant throughout their limbs.
indeed one may see hemlock often make fat
beard-bearing flocks, which is a sharp poison to a man.
and flame indeed [in truth], since it is accustomed to parch and burn the tawny bodies of lions
just as it does every kind
of flesh and blood whatever exists on earth,
how could it have come to be, that one, with a triple body,
the front a lion, the rear a dragon, the middle itself, Chimaera,
would blow out with its mouth a keen flame from its body?

quare etiam tellure nova caeloque recenti
talia qui fingit potuisse animalia gigni,
nixus in hoc uno novitatis nomine inani,
multa licet simili ratione effutiat ore,
aurea tum dicat per terras flumina vulgo
fluxisse et gemmis florere arbusta suësse
aut hominem tanto membrorum esse impete natum,
trans maria alta pedum nisus ut ponere posset
et manibus totum circum se vertere caelum.
nam quod multa fuere in terris semina rerum,
tempore quo primum tellus animalia fudit,
nil tamen est signi mixtas potuisse creari
inter se pecudes compactaque membra animantum,
propterea quia quae de terris nunc quoque abundant
herbarum genera ac fruges arbustaque laeta
non tamen inter se possunt complexa creari,
sed res quaeque suo ritu procedit et omnes
foedere naturae certo discrimina servant.
Et genus humanum multo fuit illud in arvis
durius, ut decuit, tellus quod dura creasset,
et maioribus et solidis magis ossibus intus
fundatum, validis aptum per viscera nervis,
nec facile ex aestu nec frigore quod caperetur
nec novitate cibi nec labi corporis ulla.

wherefore, too, on new earth and a recent sky, whoever fashions that such animals could have been begotten, leaning on this one empty name of novelty, though he may babble out many things with similar reasoning from his mouth, may say that then golden rivers commonly flowed through the lands and that tree-plantings were wont to bloom with gems, or that a man was born with so great an impetus of limbs that he could plant the tread of his feet across the deep seas and with his hands revolve the whole heaven around himself. For although there were many seeds of things in the lands at the time when first the earth poured forth animals, nevertheless there is no sign that cattle could have been created mixed among themselves, and compacted members of living beings, because the kinds of herbs and fruits and glad orchards which even now abound from the earth cannot be created interwoven among themselves; but each thing proceeds by its own rite, and all keep their distinctions by the fixed covenant of nature. And the human race was much harder in the fields, as was fitting, since hard earth had created it, and it was founded within with larger and more solid bones, fitted through the viscera with strong sinews, and not easily taken either by heat or by cold, nor by the novelty of food nor by any bodily lapse.

multaque per caelum solis volventia lustra
volgivago vitam tractabant more ferarum.
nec robustus erat curvi moderator aratri
quisquam, nec scibat ferro molirier arva
nec nova defodere in terram virgulta neque altis
arboribus veteres decidere falcibus ramos.
quod sol atque imbres dederant, quod terra crearat
sponte sua, satis id placabat pectora donum.

and many lustra of the sun rolling through heaven
they dragged out their life in the vagabond manner of wild beasts.
nor was there any robust moderator of the curved plow
anyone, nor did he know to work the fields with iron,
nor to bury new shoots in the earth nor from tall
trees to lop the old branches with sickles.
what the sun and rains had given, what the earth had created
of its own accord, that gift satisfied their hearts enough.

glandiferas inter curabant corpora quercus
plerumque; et quae nunc hiberno tempore cernis
arbita puniceo fieri matura colore,
plurima tum tellus etiam maiora ferebat.
multaque praeterea novitas tum florida mundi
pabula dura tulit, miseris mortalibus ampla.
at sedare sitim fluvii fontesque vocabant,
ut nunc montibus e magnis decursus aquai
claricitat late sitientia saecla ferarum.

they for the most part sustained their bodies among acorn-bearing oaks;
and those arbutus fruits which now in the winter season you see
to become ripe with a crimson hue,
the earth then bore very many, even larger.
multaque besides the world’s flowery novelty then
brought forth hard provender, ample for wretched mortals.
but to quench thirst rivers and springs invited,
as now the downrush of water from great mountains
rings out far and wide to the thirsty ages of wild beasts.

denique nota vagis silvestria templa tenebant
nympharum, quibus e scibant umore fluenta
lubrica proluvie larga lavere umida saxa,
umida saxa, super viridi stillantia musco,
et partim plano scatere atque erumpere campo.
necdum res igni scibant tractare neque uti
pellibus et spoliis corpus vestire ferarum,
sed nemora atque cavos montis silvasque colebant
et frutices inter condebant squalida membra
verbera ventorum vitare imbrisque coacti.
nec commune bonum poterant spectare neque ullis
moribus inter se scibant nec legibus uti.

at length they held the sylvan temples, known to the wanderers,
of the nymphs, where they knew that from the moisture the streams
slippery with a large proluvial outpour washed the wet rocks,
wet rocks, above dripping with green moss,
and in part to gush and to erupt upon the level plain.
and not yet did they know to tract things by fire nor to use
pelts and the spoils of wild beasts to clothe the body,
but they inhabited groves and the hollows of the mountain and the forests,
and among the shrubs they would tuck away their squalid limbs,
forced to avoid the lashes of winds and of rains.
nor could they look to the common good, nor by any
mores did they know, nor to use laws.

quod cuique obtulerat praedae fortuna, ferebat
sponte sua sibi quisque valere et vivere doctus.
et Venus in silvis iungebat corpora amantum;
conciliabat enim vel mutua quamque cupido
vel violenta viri vis atque inpensa libido
vel pretium, glandes atque arbita vel pira lecta.
et manuum mira freti virtute pedumque
consectabantur silvestria saecla ferarum
missilibus saxis et magno pondere clavae.

what prey fortune had offered to each, he would carry;
each, taught, to be strong for himself and to live of his own accord.
and Venus in the woods was joining the bodies of lovers;
for either mutual cupidity was bringing each together,
or the violent force of the man and lavish libido,
or a price, acorns and arbutus-berries or picked pears.
and relying on the wondrous virtue of their hands and feet
they pursued the woodland races of wild beasts
with missile stones and the great weight of the club.

multaque vincebant, vitabant pauca latebris;
saetigerisque pares subus silvestria membra
nuda dabant terrae nocturno tempore capti,
circum se foliis ac frondibus involventes.
nec plangore diem magno solemque per agros
quaerebant pavidi palantes noctis in umbris,
sed taciti respectabant somnoque sepulti,
dum rosea face sol inferret lumina caelo.
a parvis quod enim consuerant cernere semper
alterno tenebras et lucem tempore gigni,
non erat ut fieri posset mirarier umquam
nec diffidere, ne terras aeterna teneret
nox in perpetuum detracto lumine solis.

and many they were overcoming; a few were avoiding [them] by lairs;
and, equal to bristle-bearing swine, their sylvan limbs
they would give naked to the earth, captured at nocturnal time,
wrapping themselves around with leaves and foliage.
nor with great lamentation for day and the sun through the fields
were they seeking, timorous, wandering in the shades of night,
but silent they were looking out and, buried in sleep,
until with rosy torch the Sun might bring lights into the heaven.
for from small years they had been accustomed to see always
darkness and light be born in alternate time,
so that it could not come to pass that they would ever marvel,
nor distrust, lest eternal night should hold the lands forever
with the light of the sun withdrawn.

sed magis illud erat curae, quod saecla ferarum
infestam miseris faciebant saepe quietem.
eiectique domo fugiebant saxea tecta
spumigeri suis adventu validique leonis
atque intempesta cedebant nocte paventes
hospitibus saevis instrata cubilia fronde.
Nec nimio tum plus quam nunc mortalia saecla
dulcia linquebant lamentis lumina vitae.

but more was that a care, that the ages of wild beasts
often made hostile to the wretched their repose.
and, ejected from home, they fled their stony roofs
at the advent of the foam-bearing boar and the powerful lion,
and in the dead of night, trembling, they yielded
their leaf-strewn couches to savage guests.
Nor by too much then more than now did mortal generations
leave the sweet lights of life with lamentations.

unus enim tum quisque magis deprensus eorum
pabula viva feris praebebat, dentibus haustus,
et nemora ac montis gemitu silvasque replebat
viva videns vivo sepeliri viscera busto.
at quos effugium servarat corpore adeso,
posterius tremulas super ulcera tetra tenentes
palmas horriferis accibant vocibus Orcum,
donique eos vita privarant vermina saeva
expertis opis, ignaros quid volnera vellent.
at non multa virum sub signis milia ducta
una dies dabat exitio nec turbida ponti
aequora lidebant navis ad saxa virosque.

for then each one of them, more often when caught alone,
offered living fodder to the wild beasts, gulped by their teeth,
and with groan he filled the groves and mountains and woods,
seeing alive his viscera being buried in a living sepulcher.
but those whom escape had preserved, with body gnawed,
afterwards, holding trembling palms over their foul ulcers,
with horrific voices they summoned Orcus,
until savage vermin deprived them of life,
bereft of help, ignorant what the wounds wanted.
but not many thousands of men led beneath the standards
did a single day give to destruction, nor did the turbid levels
of the sea dash ships and men against the rocks.

nam temere in cassum frustra mare saepe coortum
saevibat leviterque minas ponebat inanis,
nec poterat quemquam placidi pellacia ponti
subdola pellicere in fraudem ridentibus undis.
improba navigii ratio tum caeca iacebat.
tum penuria deinde cibi languentia leto
membra dabat, contra nunc rerum copia mersat.

for often the sea, rashly stirred to no purpose in vain,
raged and lightly put down its empty threats,
nor could the seduction of the placid sea,
with sly allure, entice anyone into deceit with laughing waves.
wicked the method of navigation then lay blind.
then the penury of food in turn was giving languishing
limbs to death, whereas now an abundance of things drowns us.

illi inprudentes ipsi sibi saepe venenum
vergebant, nunc dant [aliis] sollertius ipsi.
Inde casas postquam ac pellis ignemque pararunt
et mulier coniuncta viro concessit in unum
* * *
cognita sunt, prolemque ex se videre creatam,
tum genus humanum primum mollescere coepit.
ignis enim curavit, ut alsia corpora frigus
non ita iam possent caeli sub tegmine ferre,
et Venus inminuit viris puerique parentum
blanditiis facile ingenium fregere superbum.

those imprudent, they themselves often were pouring venom for themselves,
now they themselves give it more skillfully to [others].
Then, after they prepared huts and hides and fire,
and the woman, conjoined with the man, consented into one,
* * *
things were known, and they saw progeny created from themselves,
then the human race first began to soften.
for fire contrived that chilled bodies could no longer
so endure the cold beneath the sky’s covering,
and Venus diminished the manly powers, and boys, by the blandishments
of parents, easily broke the proud temper.

tunc et amicitiem coeperunt iungere aventes
finitimi inter se nec laedere nec violari,
et pueros commendarunt muliebreque saeclum,
vocibus et gestu cum balbe significarent
imbecillorum esse aequum misererier omnis.
nec tamen omnimodis poterat concordia gigni,
sed bona magnaque pars servabat foedera caste;
aut genus humanum iam tum foret omne peremptum
nec potuisset adhuc perducere saecla propago.
At varios linguae sonitus natura subegit
mittere et utilitas expressit nomina rerum,
non alia longe ratione atque ipsa videtur
protrahere ad gestum pueros infantia linguae,
cum facit ut digito quae sint praesentia monstrent.

then too, desiring, they began to join amity,
neighbors among themselves, neither to injure nor to be violated,
and they commended the boys and the female race,
while with voices and with gesture they stammeringly signified
that it is just for all to commiserate the weak.
nor yet by every mode could concord be begotten,
but a good and great part kept the covenants purely;
else the human race would even then have been wholly destroyed
nor could progeny until now have led the ages along.
But nature compelled them to emit the various sounds of the tongue,
and utility expressed the names of things,
by no far different method than the very infancy of speech seems
to draw boys out toward gesture,
when it causes them to show with the finger the things that are present.

sentit enim vim quisque suam quod possit abuti.
cornua nata prius vitulo quam frontibus extent,
illis iratus petit atque infestus inurget.
at catuli pantherarum scymnique leonum
unguibus ac pedibus iam tum morsuque repugnant,
vix etiam cum sunt dentes unguesque creati.

for each one perceives his own force, how he can abuse it.
the horns are born to the calf before they stand out from the brows,
with them, angered, he makes an attack and presses on in hostility.
but the whelps of panthers and of lions
with claws and feet even then, and with their bite, fight back,
hardly even when teeth and claws have been formed.

alituum porro genus alis omne videmus
fidere et a pennis tremulum petere auxiliatum.
proinde putare aliquem tum nomina distribuisse
rebus et inde homines didicisse vocabula prima,
desiperest. nam cur hic posset cuncta notare
vocibus et varios sonitus emittere linguae,
tempore eodem alii facere id non quisse putentur?

Moreover, we see the tribe of winged creatures all to trust in wings
and, trembling, to seek aid from their feathers.
Therefore to think that some one then distributed names
to things and that from that men learned the first vocables,
it is folly. For why could this man mark all things
with voices and emit varied sounds of tongue,
and at the same time others be thought not to have been able to do this?

praeterea si non alii quoque vocibus usi
inter se fuerant, unde insita notities est
utilitatis et unde data est huic prima potestas,
quid vellet facere ut sciret animoque videret?
cogere item pluris unus victosque domare
non poterat, rerum ut perdiscere nomina vellent.
nec ratione docere ulla suadereque surdis,
quid sit opus facto, facilest; neque enim paterentur
nec ratione ulla sibi ferrent amplius auris
vocis inauditos sonitus obtundere frustra.

Moreover, if others too had not used voices among themselves, whence is the implanted notion of utility, and whence was first given to this man the power, to know what he wished to do and to see it in his mind?
likewise, a single man could not coerce several and tame the conquered, so that they should be willing to learn thoroughly the names of things.
nor by any method of reason to teach and to persuade the deaf what work is needed to be done is easy; for they would not allow it, nor by any reasoning would they any longer let their ears be battered in vain with unheard sounds of a voice.

postremo quid in hac mirabile tantoperest re,
si genus humanum, cui vox et lingua vigeret,
pro vario sensu varia res voce notaret?
cum pecudes mutae, cum denique saecla ferarum
dissimilis soleant voces variasque ciere,
cum metus aut dolor est et cum iam gaudia gliscunt.
quippe [et]enim licet id rebus cognoscere apertis.

finally, what is so marvelous in this matter,
if the human race, for which voice and tongue were vigorous,
should, according to varied sense, mark various things with voice?
when mute cattle, when at last the generations of wild beasts
are accustomed to stir dissimilar and various voices,
when there is fear or pain and when now joys swell.
for [and] indeed one may recognize that from evident things.

inritata canum cum primum magna Molossum
mollia ricta fremunt duros nudantia dentes,
longe alio sonitu rabies [re]stricta minatur,
et cum iam latrant et vocibus omnia complent;
at catulos blande cum lingua lambere temptant
aut ubi eos lactant, pedibus morsuque potentes
suspensis teneros imitantur dentibus haustus,
longe alio pacto gannitu vocis adulant,
et cum deserti baubantur in aedibus, aut cum
plorantis fugiunt summisso corpore plagas.
denique non hinnitus item differre videtur,
inter equas ubi equus florenti aetate iuvencus
pinnigeri saevit calcaribus ictus Amoris
et fremitum patulis sub naribus edit ad arma,
et cum sic alias concussis artibus hinnit?
postremo genus alituum variaeque volucres,
accipitres atque ossifragae mergique marinis
fluctibus in salso victum vitamque petentes,
longe alias alio iaciunt in tempore voces,
et quom de victu certant praedaque repugnant.

when first the irritated great Molossians’ soft gapes of the dogs
growl, laying bare their hard teeth,
with far other sound restrained rabies threatens,
and when now they bark and fill everything with their voices;
but when they try sweetly to lick their whelps with the tongue
or when they nurse them, powerful in feet and bite,
with teeth held back they imitate gentle draughts,
by a far different manner they fawn with a yapping of the voice,
and when, left alone, they bay in the house, or when
they flee the blows of one lamenting, with body lowered.
finally, the neighing too seems likewise to differ,
when among mares the horse, a youthful stallion in blooming age,
rages, struck by the spurs of wing-bearing Love,
and emits a snorting to arms beneath his flared nostrils,
and when thus at other times he neighs with shaken limbs?
lastly, the race of fliers and the varied birds,
hawks and ossifrages and divers, seeking food and life
in sea-waves in the brine,
at far other times cast far different voices,
and when they contend about sustenance and fight over prey.

et partim mutant cum tempestatibus una
raucisonos cantus, cornicum ut saecla vetusta
corvorumque gregis ubi aquam dicuntur et imbris
poscere et inter dum ventos aurasque vocare.
ergo si varii sensus animalia cogunt,
muta tamen cum sint, varias emittere voces,
quanto mortalis magis aequumst tum potuisse
dissimilis alia atque alia res voce notare!
Illud in his rebus tacitus ne forte requiras,
fulmen detulit in terram mortalibus ignem
primitus, inde omnis flammarum diditur ardor;
multa videmus enim caelestibus insita flammis
fulgere, cum caeli donavit plaga vaporis.

and partly they change with the tempests together
their raucous-sounding chants, as the ancient generations of crows
and the flocks of ravens are said, when they demand water and rain,
and sometimes to call for winds and breezes.
therefore, if various feelings compel animals,
though mute they be, to send forth various voices,
how much more is it equitable that mortals then could
mark different things with one voice and another!
That point, in these matters, do not perchance inquire in silence:
a thunderbolt first brought fire to earth for mortals;
thence the whole blaze of flames was spread abroad;
for we see many things inset in the celestial flames
to gleam, when the region of the sky has bestowed a stroke of vapor.

et ramosa tamen cum ventis pulsa vacillans
aestuat in ramos incumbens arboris arbor,
exprimitur validis extritus viribus ignis,
emicat inter dum flammai fervidus ardor,
mutua dum inter se rami stirpesque teruntur.
quorum utrumque dedisse potest mortalibus ignem.
inde cibum quoquere ac flammae mollire vapore
sol docuit, quoniam mitescere multa videbant
verberibus radiorum atque aestu victa per agros.

and yet the branchy tree, when, struck by winds, vacillating,
seethes, leaning upon the branches, one tree upon a tree,
exprimitur fire, crushed out by strong forces,
at times the fervid ardor of flame flashes forth,
while branches and stocks are rubbed mutually among themselves.
either of which could have given fire to mortals.
thence the Sun taught to cook food and to soften by the vapor of the flame,
since they used to see many things grow mild,
by the lashings of the rays and, overcome by heat, across the fields.

Inque dies magis hi victum vitamque priorem
commutare novis monstrabant rebus et igni,
ingenio qui praestabant et corde vigebant.
condere coeperunt urbis arcemque locare
praesidium reges ipsi sibi perfugiumque,
et pecudes et agros divisere atque dedere
pro facie cuiusque et viribus ingenioque;
nam facies multum valuit viresque vigebant.
posterius res inventast aurumque repertum,
quod facile et validis et pulchris dempsit honorem;
divitioris enim sectam plerumque secuntur
quam lubet et fortes et pulchro corpore creti.

And with each day more, these men showed how to change their former victual and life by new things and by fire,
who excelled in ingenuity and were vigorous in heart.
they began to found cities and to place the city’s citadel
as a garrison, and to establish kings themselves as a protection and refuge for themselves,
and they divided and assigned flocks and fields
according to each one’s appearance and strengths and ingenuity;
for appearance had much weight, and the strengths were flourishing.
later, bronze was invented and gold discovered,
which easily took away honor both from the strong and the fair;
for they for the most part follow the sect of the richer man
more than it pleases, both the brave and those begotten with a handsome body.

quod siquis vera vitam ratione gubernet,
divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce
aequo animo; neque enim est umquam penuria parvi.
at claros homines voluerunt se atque potentes,
ut fundamento stabili fortuna maneret
et placidam possent opulenti degere vitam,
ne quiquam, quoniam ad summum succedere honorem
certantes iter infestum fecere viai,
et tamen e summo, quasi fulmen, deicit ictos
invidia inter dum contemptim in Tartara taetra;
invidia quoniam ceu fulmine summa vaporant
plerumque et quae sunt aliis magis edita cumque;
ut satius multo iam sit parere quietum
quam regere imperio res velle et regna tenere.
proinde sine in cassum defessi sanguine sudent,
angustum per iter luctantes ambitionis;
quandoquidem sapiunt alieno ex ore petuntque
res ex auditis potius quam sensibus ipsis,
nec magis id nunc est neque erit mox quam fuit ante.

but if anyone should govern his life by true reason,
great riches for a man are to live sparingly
with an even mind; for there is never a shortage of little.
but men have wanted to be famous and powerful,
so that fortune might remain on a stable foundation
and, opulent, they might be able to pass a placid life,
in vain, since, striving to ascend to the highest honor,
they have made an infested journey of the way;
and yet from the summit, like a thunderbolt, envy sometimes
hurls the stricken in scorn down into foul Tartarus;
since the heights, and whatever things are more elevated above others,
for the most part steam with envy as if by lightning;
so that it is by much better now to obey in quiet
than to wish to rule things by command and to hold kingdoms.
therefore let them, worn out, sweat blood to no purpose,
struggling along the narrow path of ambition;
since they take their wisdom from another’s mouth and seek
things from hearsay rather than from the senses themselves,
nor is that more so now, nor will it be soon, than it was before.

Ergo regibus occisis subversa iacebat
pristina maiestas soliorum et sceptra superba,
et capitis summi praeclarum insigne cruentum
sub pedibus vulgi magnum lugebat honorem;
nam cupide conculcatur nimis ante metutum.
res itaque ad summam faecem turbasque redibat,
imperium sibi cum ac summatum quisque petebat.
inde magistratum partim docuere creare
iuraque constituere, ut vellent legibus uti.

Therefore, with the kings slain, the pristine majesty of the thrones lay overturned and the proud scepters,
and the illustrious insignia of the highest head, blood-stained,
beneath the feet of the crowd bewailed great honor;
for what was too much feared before is greedily trampled.
So the matter was returning to the lowest dregs and to turmoils,
since each man was seeking for himself dominion and the summit of power.
From there they taught, in part, to create magistracy
and to establish laws, so that they would wish to make use of statutes.

nam genus humanum, defessum vi colere aevom,
ex inimicitiis languebat; quo magis ipsum
sponte sua cecidit sub leges artaque iura.
acrius ex ira quod enim se quisque parabat
ulcisci quam nunc concessumst legibus aequis,
hanc ob rem est homines pertaesum vi colere aevom.
inde metus maculat poenarum praemia vitae.

for the human race, wearied to cultivate its life by force,
was languishing from enmities; wherefore the more it
fell of its own accord under laws and strict rights.
for because each man was preparing, out of anger, to avenge
himself more sharply than now is conceded by equitable laws,
for this reason men were utterly weary to live life by force.
thence fear of punishments maculates the prizes of life.

circumretit enim vis atque iniuria quemque
atque unde exortast, ad eum plerumque revertit,
nec facilest placidam ac pacatam degere vitam
qui violat factis communia foedera pacis.
etsi fallit enim divom genus humanumque,
perpetuo tamen id fore clam diffidere debet;
quippe ubi se multi per somnia saepe loquentes
aut morbo delirantes protraxe ferantur
et celata [mala] in medium et peccata dedisse.
Nunc quae causa deum per magnas numina gentis
pervulgarit et ararum compleverit urbis
suscipiendaque curarit sollemnia sacra,
quae nunc in magnis florent sacra rebus locisque,
unde etiam nunc est mortalibus insitus horror,
qui delubra deum nova toto suscitat orbi
terrarum et festis cogit celebrare diebus,
non ita difficilest rationem reddere verbis.

for force and injustice nets around each person,
and whence it has arisen, to him it for the most part returns;
nor is it easy to pass a placid and pacified life
for one who violates by deeds the common covenants of peace.
even if he deceives, indeed, the race of the gods and of men,
nevertheless he ought secretly to distrust that it will be so perpetually;
since many, speaking often through dreams,
or raving in sickness, are said to have drawn themselves forth
and to have given into the open their hidden [evils] and sins.
Now what cause has made the numina of the gods very common through great nations,
and has filled the cities with altars,
and has taken care that the solemn sacred rites be undertaken,
which sacred rites now flourish in great affairs and places,
whence even now a dread is implanted in mortals,
which raises new shrines of the gods throughout the whole world
and compels them to celebrate on festal days,
it is not so difficult to render a rationale in words.

quippe etenim iam tum divom mortalia saecla
egregias animo facies vigilante videbant
et magis in somnis mirando corporis auctu.
his igitur sensum tribuebant propterea quod
membra movere videbantur vocesque superbas
mittere pro facie praeclara et viribus amplis.
aeternamque dabant vitam, quia semper eorum
subpeditabatur facies et forma manebat,
et tamen omnino quod tantis viribus auctos
non temere ulla vi convinci posse putabant.

for indeed even then the mortal generations saw, with the vigilant mind, the preeminent faces of the gods,
and more in dreams, with a marvelous augmentation of body.
to these, therefore, they attributed sense, because they seemed to move their limbs and to emit proud voices,
in proportion to their splendid face and ample powers.
and they gave eternal life, because their face was ever being supplied and the form remained,
and moreover, altogether, because, endowed with such great forces,
they thought that they could not easily be overcome by any force.

fortunisque ideo longe praestare putabant,
quod mortis timor haut quemquam vexaret eorum,
et simul in somnis quia multa et mira videbant
efficere et nullum capere ipsos inde laborem.
praeterea caeli rationes ordine certo
et varia annorum cernebant tempora verti
nec poterant quibus id fieret cognoscere causis.
ergo perfugium sibi habebant omnia divis
tradere et illorum nutu facere omnia flecti.

and therefore they thought them far to excel in fortunes,
because the fear of death vexed none of them,
and at the same time because in dreams they saw them effect many and wondrous things
and themselves incur no labor therefrom.
moreover they perceived the reckonings of the sky in fixed order
and the varied seasons of the years to turn,
nor were they able to learn by what causes this was brought about.
therefore they had as a refuge to hand over all things to the gods
and that by their nod all things are bent.

in caeloque deum sedes et templa locarunt,
per caelum volvi quia nox et luna videtur,
luna dies et nox et noctis signa severa
noctivagaeque faces caeli flammaeque volantes,
nubila sol imbres nix venti fulmina grando
et rapidi fremitus et murmura magna minarum.
O genus infelix humanum, talia divis
cum tribuit facta atque iras adiunxit acerbas!
quantos tum gemitus ipsi sibi, quantaque nobis
volnera, quas lacrimas peperere minoribus nostris!

and in the sky they placed the seats and temples of the gods,
because night and the moon are seen to roll through the sky,
the moon, day and night, and the stern signs of night,
and the night-wandering torches of heaven and flying flames,
clouds, sun, showers, snow, winds, lightnings, hail,
and the swift rumblings and great murmurs of threats.
O unhappy human race, when it assigned such deeds to the gods
and added bitter wraths! How many groans then for themselves, and what wounds for us,
what tears they begot for our juniors, our descendants!

nec pietas ullast velatum saepe videri
vertier ad lapidem atque omnis accedere ad aras
nec procumbere humi prostratum et pandere palmas
ante deum delubra nec aras sanguine multo
spargere quadrupedum nec votis nectere vota,
sed mage pacata posse omnia mente tueri.
nam cum suspicimus magni caelestia mundi
templa super stellisque micantibus aethera fixum,
et venit in mentem solis lunaeque viarum,
tunc aliis oppressa malis in pectora cura
illa quoque expergefactum caput erigere infit,
ne quae forte deum nobis inmensa potestas
sit, vario motu quae candida sidera verset;
temptat enim dubiam mentem rationis egestas,
ecquae nam fuerit mundi genitalis origo,
et simul ecquae sit finis, quoad moenia mundi
et taciti motus hunc possint ferre laborem,
an divinitus aeterna donata salute
perpetuo possint aevi labentia tractu
inmensi validas aevi contemnere viris.
praeterea cui non animus formidine divum
contrahitur, cui non correpunt membra pavore,
fulminis horribili cum plaga torrida tellus
contremit et magnum percurrunt murmura caelum?

nor is piety at all to be often seen, veiled, to turn toward a stone and to approach all the altars,
nor to lie prostrate on the ground and to spread the palms
before the shrines of the god nor to sprinkle the altars with much blood
of quadrupeds nor to bind vow with vows,
but rather to be able to survey all things with a pacified mind.
for when we look up at the celestial temples of the great world
above and the aether fixed with twinkling stars,
and the courses of sun and moon come to mind,
then care too, oppressed in the breast by other evils,
begins to lift its awakened head,
whether perchance there is for us some immense power of the gods
which in varied motion turns the shining stars;
for the poverty of reasoning assails the wavering mind—
what indeed was the generative origin of the world,
and at the same time what end there may be, how long the ramparts of the world
and their silent motions can bear this toil,
or whether, divinely endowed with eternal safety,
they can, in the perpetual tract of gliding time,
disdain the mighty forces of immeasurable age.
moreover, whose spirit is not drawn tight with fear of the gods,
whose limbs do not creep with dread,
when at the horrible stroke of the thunderbolt the torrid earth
trembles and great rumblings run through the sky?

non populi gentesque tremunt, regesque superbi
corripiunt divum percussi membra timore,
ne quod ob admissum foede dictumve superbe
poenarum grave sit solvendi tempus adauctum?
summa etiam cum vis violenti per mare venti
induperatorem classis super aequora verrit
cum validis pariter legionibus atque elephantis,
non divom pacem votis adit ac prece quaesit
ventorum pavidus paces animasque secundas?
ne quiquam, quoniam violento turbine saepe
correptus nihilo fertur minus ad vada leti.

Do not peoples and nations tremble, and proud kings
are seized, struck in their limbs by fear of the gods,
lest, on account of some foul transgression or a word spoken superbly,
the time for paying grievous penalties be augmented?
even when the utmost force of a violent wind over the sea
sweeps the commander-in-chief of the fleet across the level waters
together with his strong legions and elephants alike,
does he not by vows approach the peace of the gods and with prayer seek
the calms of the winds and favorable spirits, in his dread?
in vain, since, often seized by a violent whirlwind,
he is borne none the less to the shoals of death.

usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam
opterit et pulchros fascis saevasque secures
proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur.
denique sub pedibus tellus cum tota vacillat
concussaeque cadunt urbes dubiaeque minantur,
quid mirum si se temnunt mortalia saecla
atque potestatis magnas mirasque relinquunt
in rebus viris divum, quae cuncta gubernent?
Quod super est, ae[s at]que aurum ferrumque repertumst
et simul argenti pondus plumbique potestas,
ignis ubi ingentis silvas ardore cremarat
montibus in magnis, seu caelo fulmine misso,
sive quod inter se bellum silvestre gerentes
hostibus intulerant ignem formidinis ergo,
sive quod inducti terrae bonitate volebant
pandere agros pinguis et pascua reddere rura,
sive feras interficere et ditescere praeda;
nam fovea atque igni prius est venarier ortum
quam saepire plagis saltum canibusque ciere.

to such an extent does a certain hidden force crush human affairs and seems to trample underfoot the fair fasces and savage axes and to hold them for mockery to itself.
finally, when the whole earth wavers beneath the feet and shaken cities fall and the doubtful threaten, what wonder if mortal generations despise themselves and leave great and wondrous powers of rule to the gods in things, to govern all?
As for what remains, bronze and gold and iron were discovered, and at the same time the weight of silver and the power of lead,
when fire had with its blaze burned vast forests on great mountains, whether by a thunderbolt sent from heaven,
or because, waging woodland war among themselves, they had brought fire upon their enemies for the sake of terror,
or because, induced by the goodness of the earth, they wished to spread out rich fields and render the countrysides pastures,
or to slay wild beasts and grow wealthy with booty;
for to hunt by pit and by fire arose earlier than to hedge the woodland with nets and to set it in motion with dogs.

quicquid id est, qua cumque e causa flammeus ardor
horribili sonitu silvas exederat altis
a radicibus et terram percoxerat igni,
manabat venis ferventibus in loca terrae
concava conveniens argenti rivus et auri,
aeris item et plumbi. quae cum concreta videbant
posterius claro in terra splendere colore,
tollebant nitido capti levique lepore,
et simili formata videbant esse figura
atque lacunarum fuerant vestigia cuique.
tum penetrabat eos posse haec liquefacta calore
quamlibet in formam et faciem decurrere rerum,
et prorsum quamvis in acuta ac tenvia posse
mucronum duci fastigia procudendo,
ut sibi tela parent silvasque ut caedere possint
materiemque dolare et levia radere tigna
et terebrare etiam ac pertundere perque forare.

whatever it is, from whatever cause the flaming ardor,
with horrible noise, had eaten out the forests from their deep roots
and had thoroughly-cooked the earth with fire,
from the fervent veins there was flowing into the hollow places of the earth
a stream of silver and of gold, likewise of bronze and of lead.
when afterwards they saw these, congealed, shining in the earth with a bright color,
they would lift them, captivated by the shining and smooth charm,
and they saw that they were formed in a figure similar
to whatever were the imprints of the hollows for each.
then it penetrated them that, liquefied by heat, these could run down
into any form and visage of things,
and absolutely could be drawn, by hammering, into sharp and slender
peaks of points,
so that they might prepare weapons for themselves and might be able to fell woods,
and to hew material and to scrape smooth the beams,
and even to bore and perforate and thoroughly drill through.

nec minus argento facere haec auroque parabant
quam validi primum violentis viribus aeris,
ne quiquam, quoniam cedebat victa potestas
nec poterant pariter durum sufferre laborem.
nam fuit in pretio magis aes aurumque iacebat
propter inutilitatem hebeti mucrone retusum;
nunc iacet aes, aurum in summum successit honorem.
sic volvenda aetas commutat tempora rerum.

nor were they any less preparing to make these things with silver and with gold
than at first with the strong bronze of vehement powers,—
in vain, since the conquered capacity gave way
and they could not equally endure the hard labor.
for bronze was more in price and gold lay cast aside
on account of its uselessness, blunted with a dull edge;
now bronze lies low, gold has succeeded to the highest honor.
thus the age that must roll on changes the seasons of things.

quod fuit in pretio, fit nullo denique honore;
porro aliud succedit et [e] contemptibus exit
inque dies magis adpetitur floretque repertum
laudibus et miro est mortalis inter honore.
Nunc tibi quo pacto ferri natura reperta
sit facilest ipsi per te cognoscere, Memmi.
arma antiqua manus ungues dentesque fuerunt
et lapides et item silvarum fragmina rami
et flamma atque ignes, post quam sunt cognita primum.

what was in value comes at last to no honor;
furthermore another succeeds and [from] contempts goes forth
and with the days it is more sought after and, discovered, it flourishes
in praises and is among mortals in wondrous honor.
Now for you how the nature of iron was discovered
it is easiest for you yourself to learn by yourself, Memmi.
the ancient arms were hands, nails and teeth
and stones and likewise fragments of the woods, branches,
and flame and fires, after they were first known.

posterius ferri vis est aerisque reperta.
et prior aeris erat quam ferri cognitus usus,
quo facilis magis est natura et copia maior.
aere solum terrae tractabant, aereque belli
miscebant fluctus et vulnera vasta serebant
et pecus atque agros adimebant; nam facile ollis
omnia cedebant armatis nuda et inerma.

Later the force of iron and of bronze was discovered.
And earlier the use of bronze was known than that of iron,
by which its nature is more facile and the supply greater.
With bronze they worked the soil of the earth, and with bronze the waves of war
they would mingle, and they were sowing vast wounds,
and cattle and fields they would take away; for to them easily
all things, naked and unarmed, yielded to the armed.

inde minutatim processit ferreus ensis
versaque in obprobrium species est falcis ahenae,
et ferro coepere solum proscindere terrae
exaequataque sunt creperi certamina belli.
et prius est armatum in equi conscendere costas
et moderarier hunc frenis dextraque vigere
quam biiugo curru belli temptare pericla.
et biiugo prius est quam bis coniungere binos
et quam falciferos armatum escendere currus.

thence little by little the iron sword advanced
and the appearance of the brazen sickle was turned into opprobrium,
and with iron they began to furrow the soil of the earth,
and the doubtful contests of war were equalized.
and it was earlier for an armed man to mount upon a horse’s flanks
and to govern him with the reins and be vigorous with the right hand
than to try the perils of war in a two-yoked chariot.
and the two-yoked came earlier than to yoke two pairs together
and than for an armed man to mount scythe-bearing chariots.

inde boves Lucas turrito corpore, tetras,
anguimanus, belli docuerunt volnera Poeni
sufferre et magnas Martis turbare catervas.
sic alid ex alio peperit discordia tristis,
horribile humanis quod gentibus esset in armis,
inque dies belli terroribus addidit augmen.
Temptarunt etiam tauros in moenere belli
expertique sues saevos sunt mittere in hostis.

thence the Carthaginians taught the Lucanian oxen, with turreted body, grim, snake-handed,
to endure the wounds of war and to throw into disorder the great cohorts of Mars.
thus sad discord begot one thing out of another, something horrible for human nations in arms,
and day by day it added augment to the terrors of war.
they even attempted bulls in the service of war,
and by experience they proved the sending of savage swine against the enemy.

et validos partim prae se misere leones
cum doctoribus armatis saevisque magistris,
qui moderarier his possent vinclisque tenere,
ne quiquam, quoniam permixta caede calentes
turbabant saevi nullo discrimine turmas,
terrificas capitum quatientis undique cristas,
nec poterant equites fremitu perterrita equorum
pectora mulcere et frenis convertere in hostis.
inritata leae iaciebant corpora saltu
undique et adversum venientibus ora patebant
et nec opinantis a tergo deripiebant
deplexaeque dabant in terram volnere victos,
morsibus adfixae validis atque unguibus uncis.
iactabantque suos tauri pedibusque terebant
et latera ac ventres hauribant supter equorum
cornibus et terram minitanti mente ruebant.

and in part they sent strong lions before them
with armed teachers and savage masters,
who could control them and hold them with bonds,
but in vain, since, heated with mingled slaughter,
the fierce beasts were throwing into turmoil the squadrons without any distinction,
with the terrifying crests of heads quivering on every side,
nor could the horsemen soothe the breasts of the horses terrified by the roaring
and with the reins turn them against the enemies.
enraged lionesses were flinging their bodies with a leap
everywhere, and they opened their jaws against those coming to meet them,
and they were tearing down the unsuspecting from behind
and, having dragged them down, were casting to the ground those overcome by a wound,
fastened by strong bites and by hooked claws.
and the bulls were tossing their own and were grinding with their feet,
and they were gulping the sides and bellies beneath the horses
with their horns, and with a threatening mind they were rushing upon the ground.

et validis socios caedebant dentibus apri
tela infracta suo tinguentes sanguine saevi
[in se fracta suo tinguentes sanguine tela,]
permixtasque dabant equitum peditumque ruinas.
nam transversa feros exibant dentis adactus
iumenta aut pedibus ventos erecta petebant,
ne quiquam, quoniam ab nervis succisa videres
concidere atque gravi terram consternere casu.
si quos ante domi domitos satis esse putabant,
effervescere cernebant in rebus agundis
volneribus clamore fuga terrore tumultu,
nec poterant ullam partem redducere eorum;
diffugiebat enim varium genus omne ferarum,
ut nunc saepe boves Lucae ferro male mactae
diffugiunt, fera facta suis cum multa dedere.

and boars with strong teeth were cutting down their allies
the savage ones, staining broken missiles with their own blood
[in themselves broken, staining the missiles with their own blood,]
and they were dealing mingled downfalls of horsemen and foot-soldiers.
for the team-beasts, driven crosswise by fierce teeth, were issuing forth
or, reared up, with their feet they sought the winds,
in vain, since you would see them, cut down at the sinews,
fall and strew the earth with a heavy crash.
if any whom before at home they thought sufficiently tamed,
they perceived to effervesce in the business of doing,
through wounds, clamor, flight, terror, tumult,
nor could they bring back any part of them;
for every varied kind of wild beasts was scattering,
as now often the Lucanian oxen, badly mangled by steel,
scatter, when, made fierce, they have dealt many a harm to their own.

Sed facere id non tam vincendi spe voluerunt;
quam dare quod gemerent hostes, ipsique perire,
qui numero diffidebant armisque vacabant,
si fuit ut facerent. sed vix adducor ut ante
non quierint animo praesentire atque videre,
quam commune malum fieret foedumque, futurum.
et magis id possis factum contendere in omni
in variis mundis varia ratione creatis,
quam certo atque uno terrarum quolibet orbi.

But they wished to do this not so much with the hope of conquering;
as to give something at which the enemies might groan, and themselves to perish,
who distrusted their numbers and were devoid of arms,
if it came to pass that they did so. but I am hardly induced to think that earlier
they had not been able in mind to foresee and to see,
before the common and foul evil would come to be, in the future.
and you could rather contend this to have been done in every
in various worlds created by various reasoning,
than in any certain and single orb of lands.

Nexilis ante fuit vestis quam textile tegmen.
textile post ferrumst, quia ferro tela paratur,
nec ratione alia possunt tam levia gigni
insilia ac fusi, radii, scapique sonantes.
et facere ante viros lanam natura coëgit
quam muliebre genus; nam longe praestat in arte
et sollertius est multo genus omne virile;
agricolae donec vitio vertere severi,
ut muliebribus id manibus concedere vellent
atque ipsi pariter durum sufferre laborem
atque opere in duro durarent membra manusque.

A netted garment was before a textile covering.
the textile comes after iron, since by iron the loom is prepared,
nor by any other method can such light implements be produced
as shuttles and spindles, rods, and clattering shafts.
and Nature compelled men to work wool before the female race;
for by far it excels in the art, and the male kind is much more skillful;
until stern farmers turned it into a fault,
so that they wished to concede it to womanly hands
and themselves alike to endure the hard labor
and that in hard work their limbs and hands might harden.

At specimen sationis et insitionis origo
ipsa fuit rerum primum natura creatrix,
arboribus quoniam bacae glandesque caducae
tempestiva dabant pullorum examina supter;
unde etiam libitumst stirpis committere ramis
et nova defodere in terram virgulta per agros.
inde aliam atque aliam culturam dulcis agelli
temptabant fructusque feros mansuescere terra
cernebant indulgendo blandeque colendo.
inque dies magis in montem succedere silvas
cogebant infraque locum concedere cultis,
prata lacus rivos segetes vinetaque laeta
collibus et campis ut haberent, atque olearum
caerula distinguens inter plaga currere posset
per tumulos et convallis camposque profusa;
ut nunc esse vides vario distincta lepore
omnia, quae pomis intersita dulcibus ornant
arbustisque tenent felicibus opsita circum.

But the model of sowing and the origin of ingrafting
was Nature herself, the creatrix of things at the first,
since for the trees berries and acorns, falling,
at the seasonable time were giving swarms of offspring beneath;
whence it also pleased them to commit stocks by branches
and to sink new little rods into the earth through the fields.
from there they were trying one cultivation and another of the sweet small plot,
and they saw the wild fruits grow domesticated in the soil
by indulging and by blandly cultivating.
and day by day they forced the woods to withdraw up into the mountain
and to yield place below to the tilled lands,
so that they might have meadows, lakes, rills, grain-crops, and joyous vineyards
on hills and on plains, and that the bluish tract of olives,
dividing between, might be able to run
over knolls and valleys and plains poured forth;
as now you see all things marked off with varied charm,
which, interset with sweet fruits, adorn
and, covered around with happy tree-plantings, hold them.

At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore
ante fuit multo quam levia carmina cantu
concelebrare homines possent aurisque iuvare.
et zephyri cava per calamorum sibila primum
agrestis docuere cavas inflare cicutas.
inde minutatim dulcis didicere querellas,
tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum,
avia per nemora ac silvas saltusque reperta,
per loca pastorum deserta atque otia dia.

But to imitate with the mouth the liquid voices of birds
was much earlier than that men could celebrate light songs with singing and gladden the ears.
and the Zephyrs, through the hollow hisses of reeds, first
taught the country folk to blow hollow hemlock-stalks.
then little by little they learned the sweet laments,
which the tibia pours forth, struck by the fingers of singers,
found through pathless groves and woods and glades,
through the deserted places of shepherds and their divine leisures.

[sic unum quicquid paulatim protrahit aetas
in medium ratioque in luminis eruit oras.]
haec animos ollis mulcebant atque iuvabant
cum satiate cibi; nam tum sunt omnia cordi.
saepe itaque inter se prostrati in gramine molli
propter aquae rivom sub ramis arboris altae.
non magnis opibus iucunde corpora habebant,
praesertim cum tempestas ridebat et anni
tempora pingebant viridantis floribus herbas.

[sic one by one whatever thing little by little time draws forth
into the midst, and reason brings out to the borders of light.]
these soothed and aided their souls for them
when sated with food; for then all things are dear to the heart.
often therefore, lying down together on soft grass
beside the rivulet of water under the branches of a tall tree,
they held their bodies pleasantly with no great means,
especially when the weather smiled and the seasons of the year
painted the green grasses with flowers.

tum ioca, tum sermo, tum dulces esse cachinni
consuerant; agrestis enim tum musa vigebat.
tum caput atque umeros plexis redimire coronis
floribus et foliis lascivia laeta movebat,
atque extra numerum procedere membra moventes
duriter et duro terram pede pellere matrem;
unde oriebantur risus dulcesque cachinni,
omnia quod nova tum magis haec et mira vigebant.
et vigilantibus hinc aderant solacia somno
ducere multimodis voces et flectere cantus
et supera calamos unco percurrere labro;
unde etiam vigiles nunc haec accepta tuentur.

then jokes, then talk, then sweet guffaws were wont to be;
for then the rustic Muse was flourishing.
then wanton, gladsome play moved them to wreathe head and shoulders
with braided garlands of flowers and leaves,
and, stepping outside the measure, moving their limbs,
to smite Mother Earth hard with a hard foot;
whence there arose laughter and sweet guffaws,
because all these things, being then more new and wondrous, were in vigor.
and for the wakeful from this there were solaces: to draw forth in many modes the voices and to bend the songs
and to run the upper lip, hooked, over the reeds;
whence even now the vigilant preserve these received things.

et numerum servare genus didicere, neque hilo
maiore interea capiunt dulcedine fructum
quam silvestre genus capiebat terrigenarum.
nam quod adest praesto, nisi quid cognovimus ante
suavius, in primis placet et pollere videtur,
posteriorque fere melior res illa reperta
perdit et immutat sensus ad pristina quaeque.
sic odium coepit glandis, sic illa relicta
strata cubilia sunt herbis et frondibus aucta.

and the race learned to keep the number, nor meanwhile do they take fruit with a whit
greater sweetness than the sylvan genus of the terrigenous used to take.
for what is present at hand, unless we have known something sweeter before,
pleases in the first rank and seems to prevail,
and a later thing, found better, for the most part destroys and changes the senses toward each of the pristine things.
thus hatred of the acorn began; thus that was left,
couches spread were augmented with herbs and fronds.

pellis item cecidit vestis contempta ferina;
quam reor invidia tali tunc esse repertam,
ut letum insidiis qui gessit primus obiret,
et tamen inter eos distractam sanguine multo
disperiise neque in fructum convertere quisse.
tunc igitur pelles, nunc aurum et purpura curis
exercent hominum vitam belloque fatigant;
quo magis in nobis, ut opinor, culpa resedit.
frigus enim nudos sine pellibus excruciabat
terrigenas; at nos nil laedit veste carere
purpurea atque auro signisque ingentibus apta,
dum plebeia tamen sit, quae defendere possit.

likewise the pelt, the beast‑skin garment, despised, fell away;
which I reckon was then found out amid such envy,
so that he who first carried death by ambush might meet his doom,
and yet, torn among them with much blood,
it perished, nor were they able to convert it into profit.
then, therefore, hides—now gold and purple—by cares
drive the life of men and weary it with war;
whereby, as I suppose, the fault has more settled upon us.
for cold tormented the earth‑born, naked and without skins;
but for us it does no harm to lack a garment purple
and gold and fitted with huge insignia,
provided nevertheless it be plebeian, one which can defend.

Ergo hominum genus in cassum frustraque laborat
semper et [in] curis consumit inanibus aevom,
ni mirum quia non cognovit quae sit habendi
finis et omnino quoad crescat vera voluptas;
idque minutatim vitam provexit in altum
et belli magnos commovit funditus aestus.
at vigiles mundi magnum versatile templum
sol et luna suo lustrantes lumine circum
perdocuere homines annorum tempora verti
et certa ratione geri rem atque ordine certo.
Iam validis saepti degebant turribus aevom,
et divisa colebatur discretaque tellus,
tum mare velivolis florebat navibus ponti,
auxilia ac socios iam pacto foedere habebant,
carminibus cum res gestas coepere poëtae
tradere; nec multo prius sunt elementa reperta.

Therefore the race of men to no purpose and in vain labors
always and consumes its aeon in inane cares,
no wonder, because it has not known what the limit of having is,
and altogether how far true voluptas grows;
and this, little by little, has carried life aloft
and has stirred from the bottom the great swells of war.
but the watchful sun and moon, lustrating around with their own light
the great turning temple of the world,
thoroughly taught men that the seasons of years turn
and that the affair is conducted by a fixed reckoning and in fixed order.
Already, enclosed within strong towers, they were passing their aeon,
and the land, divided and discrete, was being cultivated;
then the sea of the deep was blooming with sail-winged ships,
they now had aids and allies by a pledged treaty,
when poets began to hand down deeds done in songs;
nor were the elements discovered much earlier.

propterea quid sit prius actum respicere aetas
nostra nequit, nisi qua ratio vestigia monstrat.
Navigia atque agri culturas moenia leges
arma vias vestes [et] cetera de genere horum,
praemia, delicias quoque vitae funditus omnis,
carmina, picturas et daedala signa polita
usus et impigrae simul experientia mentis
paulatim docuit pedetemptim progredientis.
sic unum quicquid paulatim protrahit aetas
in medium ratioque in luminis erigit oras;
namque alid ex alio clarescere corde videbant,
artibus ad summum donec venere cacumen.

therefore our age cannot look back to what was done earlier, unless in so far as reason points out the vestiges.
Ships and field-cultivations, walls, laws,
arms, roads, garments [and] the rest of the kind of these things,
rewards, and the delights too of life altogether,
poems, pictures, and Daedalian polished statues—
use and the unremitting experience of the mind,
advancing step by step, taught them gradually, feeling-the-way.
thus time little by little brings each single thing out
into the midst, and reason lifts it to the borders of light;
for they saw one thing grow clear from another in the heart,
until by the arts they came to the topmost summit.