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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IV

Nil igitur mors est

I

Death is for us, then, nothing—a mere name
For the mere noiseless ending of a flame.
It hurts us not, for there is nothing left
To hurt: and as of old, when Carthage came

II

To battle, we and ours felt nought at all,
Nor quailed to see city and farm and stall
Flare into dust, and all our homeless fields
Trampled beneath the hordes of Hannibal,

III

But slumbered on and on, nor cared a jot,
Deaf to the stress and tumult, though the lot
Of things was doubtful, to which lords should fall
The rule of all—but we, we heeded not—

IV

So when that wedlock of the flesh and mind
Which makes us what we are, shall cease to bind,
And mind and flesh, being mind and flesh no more,
Powdered to dust go whistling down the wind,

V

Even as our past was shall our future be.
Others may start and tremble, but not we,
Though heaven with the disbanded dust of earth
Be dark, or earth be drowned beneath the sea.

VI

Why then torment ourselves, and shrink aghast
Like timorous children from the great At Last?
For though the Future holds its face averse,
See that hid face reflected in the past,

VII

As in a shield. Look! Does some monster seem
To threaten there? Is that the Gorgon's gleam?
What meets your eyes is nothing—or a face
Even gentler than a sleep without a dream.

VIII

And yet—ah thou who art about to cease
From toil, and lapse into perpetual peace,
Why will the mourners stand about thy bed,
And sting thy parting hour with words like these?—

IX

“Never shalt thou behold thy dear home more,
Never thy wife await thee at thy door,
Never again thy little climbing boy
A father's kindness in thine eyes explore.

X

“All you have toiled for, all you have loved,” they say,
“Is gone, is taken in a single day;”
But never add, “All memory, all desire,
All love—these likewise shall have passed away.”

XI

Ah ignorant mourners! Did they only see
The fate which Death indeed lays up for thee,
How would they sing a different song from this—
“Beloved, not thou the sufferer—not thou; but we.

XII

“Thou hast lost us all; but thou, redeemed from pain,
Shalt sleep the sleep that kings desire in vain.
Thou hast left us all; and lo, for us, for us,
A void that never shall be filled again.

XIII

“Not thine, but ours, to see the sharp flames thrust
Their daggers through the hands we clasped in trust;
To see the dear lips crumble, and at last
To brood above a bitter pile of dust.

XIV

“Not thine, but ours is this. All pain is fled
From thee, and we are wailing in thy stead,
Not for the dead that leave the loved behind,
But for the living that must lose their dead.”