Lucretius on life and death :: :: University of Virginia Library

Lucretius on life and death

In the metre of Omar Khayybam: To which are appended parallel passages from the original: By W. H. Mallock

Mallock, W. H. (1849-1923)

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LUCRETIUS ON LIFE AND DEATH

II.

III.

III

IV.

VI.

VII.

VII

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VII

Scire licet nobis nihil esse in morte timendum

I

“Thy wife, thy home, the child that climbed thy knee
Are sinking down like sails behind the sea.”
Breathe to the dying this; but breathe as well,
“All love for these shall likewise pass from thee.”

II

Brother, if I should watch their last light shine
In those loved eyes, those dying ears of thine
Should hear me murmur what, when my hour comes,
I would some friend might murmur into mine.

III

Rest, rest, perturbèd bosom—heart forlorn,
With thoughts of ended joys, and evil borne,
And—worse—of evil done: for they, like thee,
Shall rest—those others thou hast made to mourn.

IV

Even if there lurk behind some veil of sky
The fabled Maker, the immortal Spy,
Ready to torture each poor life he made,
Thou canst do more than God can—thou canst die.

V

Will not the thunders of thy God be dumb
When thou art deaf for ever? Can the Sum
Of all things bruise what is not? Nay—take heart;
For where thou goest, thither no God can come.

VI

Rest, brother, rest. Have you done ill or well,
Rest, rest. There is no God, no Gods, who dwell
Crowned with avenging righteousness on high,
Nor frowning ministers of their hate in Hell.

VII

None shall accuse thee, none shall judge: for lo,
Those others have forgotten long ago:
And all thy sullied drifts of memory
Shall lie as white, shall lie as cold as snow:

VIII

And no vain hungering for the joys of yore
Gone with the vanished sunsets, nor the sore
Torn in your heart by all the ills you did,
Nor even the smart of those poor ills you bore;

IX

And no omnipotent wearer of a crown
Of righteousness, nor fiend with branded frown
Swart from the flame, shall break or reach your rest,
Or stir your temples from the eternal down.

X

Flakes of the water, on the waters cease!
Soul of the body, melt and sleep like these.
Atoms to atoms—weariness to rest.
Ashes to ashes—hopes and fears to peace!