: Translations from Lucretius by Lucretius Carus Titus BCE BCE Trevelyan R C Robert Calverley Translator - Didactic poetry Latin Translations into English

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TRANSLATIONS FROM LUCRETIUS

THE FOOLISHNESS OF SOLOMON 3s. 6d. LUCRETIUS ON DEATH 2s. 6d. THE PTERODAMOZELS 2s. THE NEW PARSIFAL 3s. 6d. THE BRIDE OF DIONYSUS 3s. 6d. SISYPHUS 5s. POLYPHEMUS 7s. 6d. THE BIRTH OF PARSIVAL 3s. 6d. CECILIA GONZAGA 2s. 6d. MALLOW AND ASPHODEL 2s. 6d. THE AJAX OF SOPHOCLES 2s.

TRANSLATIONS FROM LUCRETIUS

BY R. C. TREVELYAN

LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1

TO G. LOWES DICKINSON

TRANSLATIONS FROM LUCRETIUS

BOOK I, lines 1-328

Thou mother of the Aenead race, delight Of men and deities, bountiful Venus, thou Who under the sky's gliding constellations Fillest ship-carrying ocean with thy presence And the corn-bearing lands, since through thy power Each kind of living creature is conceived Then riseth and beholdeth the sun's light: Before thee and thine advent the winds and clouds Of heaven take flight, O goddess: daedal earth Puts forth sweet-scented flowers beneath thy feet: Beholding thee the smooth deep laughs, the sky Grows calm and shines with wide-outspreading light. For soon as the day's vernal countenance Has been revealed, and fresh from wintry bonds Blows the birth-giving breeze of the West wind, First do the birds of air give sign of thee, Goddess, and thine approach, as through their hearts Thine influence smites. Next the wild herds of beasts Bound over the rich pastures and swim through The rapid streams, as captured by thy charm Each one with eager longing follows thee Whithersoever thou wouldst lure them on. And thus through seas, mountains and rushing rivers, Through the birds' leafy homes and the green plains, Striking bland love into the hearts of all, Thou art the cause that following his lust Each should renew his race after his kind. Therefore since thou alone art nature's mistress, And since without thine aid naught can rise forth Into the glorious regions of the light, Nor aught grow to be gladsome and delectable, Thee would I win to help me while I write These verses, wherein I labour to describe The nature of things in honour of my friend This scion of the Memmian house, whom thou Hast willed to be found peerless all his days In every grace. Therefore the more, great deity, Grant to my words eternal loveliness: Cause meanwhile that the savage works of warfare Over all seas and lands sink hushed to rest. For thou alone hast power to bless mankind With tranquil peace; since of war's savage works Mavors mighty in battle hath control, Who oft flings himself back upon thy lap, Quite vanquished by love's never-healing wound; And so with upturned face and shapely neck Thrown backward, feeds with love his hungry looks, Gazing on thee, goddess, while thus he lies Supine, and on thy lips his spirit hangs. O'er him thus couched upon thy holy body Do thou bend down to enfold him, and from thy lips Pour tender speech, petitioning calm peace, O glorious divinity, for thy Romans. For nor can we in our country's hour of trouble Toil with a mind untroubled at our task, Nor yet may the famed child of Memmius Be spared from public service in such times.

For the rest, leisured ears and a keen mind Withdrawn from cares, lend to true reasoning, Lest my gifts, which with loving diligence I set out for you, ere they be understood You should reject disdainfully. For now About the most high theory of the heavens And of the deities, I will undertake To tell you in my discourse, and will reveal The first beginnings of existing things, Out of which nature gives birth and increase And nourishment to all things; into which Nature likewise, when they have been destroyed, Resolves them back in turn. These we are wont, In setting forth our argument, to call Matter, or else begetting particles, Or to name them the seeds of things: again As primal atoms we shall speak of them, Because from them first everything is formed.

When prostrate upon earth lay human life Visibly trampled down and foully crushed Beneath religion's cruelty, who meanwhile Forth from the regions of the heavens above Showed forth her face, lowering down on men With horrible aspect, first did a man of Greece Dare to lift up his mortal eyes against her; The first was he to stand up and defy her. Him neither stories of the gods, nor lightnings, Nor heaven with muttering menaces could quell, But all the more did they arouse his soul's Keen valour, till he longed to be the first To break through the fast-bolted doors of nature. Therefore his fervent energy of mind Prevailed, and he passed onward, voyaging far Beyond the flaming ramparts of the world, Ranging in mind and spirit far and wide Throughout the unmeasured universe; and thence A conqueror he returns to us, bringing back Knowledge both of what can and what cannot Rise into being, teaching us in fine Upon what principle each thing has its powers Limited, and its deep-set boundary stone. Therefore now has religion been cast down Beneath men's feet, and trampled on in turn: Ourselves heaven-high his victory exalts.

Nor am I unaware how hard my task In Latin verses to set clearly forth The obscure truths discovered by the Greeks, Chiefly because so much will need new terms To deal with it, owing to our poverty Of language, and the novelty of the themes. Nevertheless your worth and the delight Of your sweet friendship, which I hope to win, Prompt me to bear the burden of any toil, And lead me on to watch the calm nights through, Seeking by means of what words and what measures I may attain my end, and shed so clear A light upon your spirit, that thereby Your gaze may search the depths of hidden things.

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