Lucrèce citations

Page 2

“Regarde, en effet, quand la lumière du soleil fait pénétrer un faisceau de rayons dans l'obscurité de nos maisons : tu verras une multitude de corpuscules s'entremêler de mille façons à travers le vide dans le faisceau lumineux et, comme soldats d'une guerre éternelle, se livrer combats et batailles, guerroyer par escadrons, sans trêve, et ne cessant fiévreusement de se joindre et de se séparer : tu peux te figurer par là ce qu'est l'agitation sans fin des atomes dans le grand vide, autant toutefois qu'une petite chose peut en représenter une grande et nous guider sur la trace de sa connaissance.

Une autre raison d'observer attentivement les corpuscules qui s'agitent en désordre dans un rayon de soleil, c'est qu'une telle agitation nous révèle les mouvements invisibles auxquels sont entraînés les éléments de la matière. Car souvent tu verras beaucoup de ces poussières, sous l'impulsion sans doute de chocs imperceptibles, changer de direction, rebrousser chemin, tantôt à droite, tantôt à gauche et dans tous les sens. Or, leur mobilité tient évidemment à celle de leurs principes.

Les atomes, en effet, se meuvent les premiers par eux-mêmes ; c'est ensuite au tour des plus petits corps composés : les plus proches des atomes par leur force ; sous leurs chocs invisibles ils s'ébranlent, se mettent en marche et eux-mêmes en viennent à déplacer des corps plus importants. C'est ainsi que part des atomes le mouvement, qui s'élève toujours et parvient peu à peu à nos sens, pour parvenir enfin à la poussière que nous apercevons dans les rayons du soleil, alors même que les chocs qui la mettent en mouvement nous demeurent invisibles.”

“Il est doux, quand sur la grande mer les vents soulèvent les flots, d'assister de la terre aux rudes épreuves d'autrui : non que la souffrance de personne nous soit un plaisir si grand; mais voir à quels maux on échappe soi-même est chose douce.”

“Never trust her at any time, when the calm sea shows her false alluring smile.”
Infidi maris insidis virisque dolumque ut vitare velint, neve ullo tempore credant subdola cum ridet placidi pellacia ponti.

“So rolling time changes the seasons of things. What was of value, becomes in turn of no worth.”
Sic volvenda aetas commutat tempora rerum. Quod fuit in pretio, fit nullo denique honore.

“Life is one long struggle in the dark.”
Omnis cum in tenebris praesertim vita laboret.

“Nothing can be produced from nothing.”
Nil posse creari de nihilo<!--nilo?-->.

“For no fact is so simple we believe it at first sight,
And there is nothing that exists so great or marvellous
That over time mankind does not admire it less and less.”
Sed neque tam facilis res ulla est, quin ea primum difficilis magis ad credendum constet, itemque nil adeo magnum neque tam mirabile quicquam, quod non paulatim minuant mirarier omnes.

“To none is life given in freehold; to all on lease.”
Vitaque mancipio, nulli datur, omnibus usu.

“So far as it goes, a small thing may give an analogy of great things, and show the tracks of knowledge.”
Dum taxat, rerum magnarum parva potest res exemplare dare et vestigia notitiai.

“So potent was Religion in persuading to do wrong.”
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.

“Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation: not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive from what ills you are free yourself is pleasant.”
Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem; non quia vexari quemquamst jucunda voluptas, sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est.

“Custom renders love attractive; for that which is struck by oft-repeated blows however lightly, yet after long course of time is overpowered and gives way. See you not too that drops of water falling on rocks after long course of time scoop a hole through these rocks?”
Consuetudo concinnat amorem; nam leviter quamvis quod crebro tunditur ictu, vincitur in longo spatio tamen atque labascit. Nonne vides etiam guttas in saxa cadentis umoris longo in spatio pertundere saxa?

“Superstition is now in her turn cast down and trampled underfoot, whilst we by the victory are exalted high as heaven.”
Quare religio pedibus subiecta vicissim opteritur, nos exaequat victoria caelo.

“Nay, even suppose when we have suffered fate,
The soul could feel in her divided state,
What's that to us? for we are only we,
While souls and bodies in one frame agree.
Nay, though our atoms should revolve by chance,
And matter leap into the former dance;
Though time our life and motion could restore,
And make our bodies what they were before,
What gain to us would all this bustle bring?
The new-made man would be another thing;
When once an interrupting pause is made,
That individual being is decayed.
We, who are dead and gone, shall bear no part
In all the pleasures, nor shall feel the smart,
Which to that other mortal shall accrue,
Whom of our matter, time shall mould anew.
For backward if you look, on that long space
Of ages past, and view the changing face
Of matter, tossed and variously combined
In sundry shapes, ’tis easy for the mind
From thence t' infer that seeds of things have been
In the same order as they now are seen:
Which yet our dark remembrance cannot trace,
Because a pause of life, a gaping space
Has come betwixt, where memory lies dead,
And all the wandering motions from the sense are fled.”
Et si iam nostro sentit de corpore postquam distractast animi natura animaeque potestas, tamen est ad nos, qui comptu coniugioque corporis atque animae consistimus uniter apti. nec, si materiem nostram collegerit aetas post obitum rursumque redegerit ut sita nunc est, atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae, quicquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum, interrupta semel cum sit repetentia nostri. et nunc nil ad nos de nobis attinet, ante qui fuimus, [neque] iam de illis nos adficit angor. nam cum respicias inmensi temporis omne praeteritum spatium, tum motus materiai quam sint, facile hoc adcredere possis, saepe in eodem, ut nunc sunt, ordine posta haec eadem, quibus e nunc nos sumus, ante fuisse. nec memori tamen id quimus reprehendere mente; inter enim iectast vitai pausa vageque deerrarunt passim motus ab sensibus omnes.

“If you well apprehend and keep in mind these things, nature free at once and rid of her haughty lords is seen to do all things spontaneously of herself without the meddling of the gods.”

“The fall of dropping water wears away the Stone.”