Lucretius on life and death In the metre of Omar Khayybam: To which are appended parallel passages from the original: By W. H. Mallock |
 |
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. | V |
| VI. |
| VII. |
 | Lucretius on life and death |  |
28
V
Denique si vocem
I
Oh ye of little faith, who fear to scanThe inevitable hour that ends your span,
If me you doubt, let Nature find a voice;
And will not Nature reason thus with man?
II
“Fools,” she will say, “whose petulant hearts and speechDare to arraign, and long to overreach,
Mine ordinance—I see two schools of fools.
Silent be both, and I will speak with each.
29
III
“And first for thee, whose whimpering lips complainThat all life's wine for thee is poured in vain,
That each hour spills it like a broken cup—
Life is for thee the loss, and Death the gain.
IV
“Death shall not mock thee. Death at last shall slakeYour life's thirst from a cup that will not break.
Cease then your mutterings. Drain that wine-cup dry,
Nor fear the wine. Why should you wish to wake?
V
“And next for thee, who hast eaten and drunk with zestAt my most delicate table of the best,
Yet when the long feast ends art loth to go,
Why not, oh fool, rise like a sated guest—
30
VI
“Rise like some guest who has drunk well and deep,And now no longer can his eyelids keep
From closing; rise and hie thee home to rest,
And enter calmly on the unending sleep?
VII
“What, will you strive with me, and say me ‘No,’Like some distempered child; and whisper low,
‘Give me but one life more, one hour, to drink
One draught of some new sweetness ere I go’?
VIII
“Oh three times fool! For could I only doThe impossible thing you ask, and give to you
Not one life more, but many, 'twere in vain.
You would find nothing sweet, and nothing new.
31
IX
“Pleasure and power, the friend's, the lover's kiss,Would bring you weariness in place of bliss.
You would turn aside, and say, ‘I have known them all,
And am long tired of this, and this, and this.’
X
“Nature can nothing do she has not done—Nature, to whom a thousand lives are one:
And though a thousand lives were yours to endure,
You would find no new thing beneath the Sun.
XI
“Children of ended joy, and ended care,I tell you both, take back, take back your prayer;
For one life's joys and loves, or one life's load,
Are all, are all, that one man's bones can bear.”
32
XII
Such, if the mute Omnipotence were freeTo speak, which it is not, its words would be.
Could you gainsay them? Lend your ears once more,
Not to the mute Omnipotence, but me.
| Lucretius on life and death | |