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Original / primary: Perseus Eng1
4.1
I wander afield, thriving in sturdy thought,
4.1
Through unpathed haunts of the Pierides,
4.1
Trodden by step of none before. I joy
4.1
To come on undefiled fountains there,
4.1
To drain them deep; I joy to pluck new flowers,
4.1
To seek for this my head a signal crown
4.1
From regions where the Muses never yet
4.1
Have garlanded the temples of a man:
4.1
First, since I teach concerning mighty things,
4.1
And go right on to loose from round the mind
4.1
The tightened coils of dread religion;
4.1
Next, since, concerning themes so dark, I frame
4.1
Song so pellucid, touching all throughout
4.1
Even with the Muses' charm- which, as 'twould seem,
4.1
Is not without a reasonable ground:
4.1
For as physicians, when they seek to give
4.1
Young boys the nauseous wormwood, first do touch
4.1
The brim around the cup with the sweet juice
4.1
And yellow of the honey, in order that
4.1
The thoughtless age of boyhood be cajoled
4.1
As far as the lips, and meanwhile swallow down
4.1
The wormwood's bitter draught, and, though befooled,
4.1
Be yet not merely duped, but rather thus
4.1
Grow strong again with recreated health:
4.1
So now I too (since this my doctrine seems
4.1
In general somewhat woeful unto those
4.1
Who've had it not in hand, and since the crowd
4.1
Starts back from it in horror) have desired
4.1
To expound our doctrine unto thee in song
4.1
Soft-speaking and Pierian, and, as 'twere,
4.1
To touch it with sweet honey of the Muse-
4.1
If by such method haply I might hold
4.1
The mind of thee upon these lines of ours,
4.1
Till thou dost learn the nature of all things
4.1
And understandest their utility.
4.26
But since I've taught already of what sort
4.26
The seeds of all things are, and how distinct
4.26
In divers forms they flit of own accord,
4.26
Stirred with a motion everlasting on,
4.26
And in what mode things be from them create,
4.26
And since I've taught what the mind's nature is,
4.26
And of what things 'tis with the body knit
4.26
And thrives in strength, and by what mode uptorn
4.26
That mind returns to its primordials,
4.26
Now will I undertake an argument-
4.26
One for these matters of supreme concern-
4.26
That there exist those somewhats which we call
4.26
The images of things: these, like to films
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Scaled off the utmost outside of the things,
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Flit hither and thither through the atmosphere,
4.26
And the same terrify our intellects,
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Coming upon us waking or in sleep,
4.26
When oft we peer at wonderful strange shapes
4.26
And images of people lorn of light,
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Which oft have horribly roused us when we lay
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In slumber- that haply nevermore may we
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Suppose that souls get loose from Acheron,
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Or shades go floating in among the living,
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Or aught of us is left behind at death,
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When body and mind, destroyed together, each
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Back to its own primordials goes away.
4.26
And thus I say that effigies of things,
4.26
And tenuous shapes from off the things are sent,
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From off the utmost outside of the things,
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Which are like films or may be named a rind,
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Because the image bears like look and form
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With whatso body has shed it fluttering forth-
4.26
A fact thou mayst, however dull thy wits,
4.54
Well learn from this: mainly, because we see
4.54
Even 'mongst visible objects many be
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That send forth bodies, loosely some diffused-
4.54
Like smoke from oaken logs and heat from fires-
4.54
And some more interwoven and condensed-
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As when the locusts in the summertime
4.54
Put off their glossy tunics, or when calves
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At birth drop membranes from their body's surface,
4.54
Or when, again, the slippery serpent doffs
4.54
Its vestments 'mongst the thorns- for oft we see
4.54
The breres augmented with their flying spoils:
4.54
Since such takes place, 'tis likewise certain too
4.54
That tenuous images from things are sent,
4.54
From off the utmost outside of the things.
4.54
For why those kinds should drop and part from things,
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Rather than others tenuous and thin,
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No power has man to open mouth to tell;
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Especially, since on outsides of things
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Are bodies many and minute which could,
4.54
In the same order which they had before,
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And with the figure of their form preserved,
4.54
Be thrown abroad, and much more swiftly too,
4.54
Being less subject to impediments,
4.54
As few in number and placed along the front.
4.54
For truly many things we see discharge
4.54
Their stuff at large, not only from their cores
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Deep-set within, as we have said above,
4.54
But from their surfaces at times no less-
4.54
Their very colours too. And commonly
4.54
The awnings, saffron, red and dusky blue,
4.54
Stretched overhead in mighty theatres,
4.54
Upon their poles and cross-beams fluttering,
4.54
Have such an action quite; for there they dye
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And make to undulate with their every hue
4.54
The circled throng below, and all the stage,
4.54
And rich attire in the patrician seats.
4.54
And ever the more the theatre's dark walls
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Around them shut, the more all things within
4.54
Laugh in the bright suffusion of strange glints,
4.54
The daylight being withdrawn. And therefore, since
4.54
The canvas hangings thus discharge their dye
4.54
From off their surface, things in general must
4.54
Likewise their tenuous effigies discharge,
4.54
Because in either case they are off-thrown
4.54
From off the surface. So there are indeed
4.54
Such certain prints and vestiges of forms
4.54
Which flit around, of subtlest texture made,
4.54
Invisible, when separate, each and one.
4.90
Again, all odour, smoke, and heat, and such
4.90
Streams out of things diffusedly, because,
4.90
Whilst coming from the deeps of body forth
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And rising out, along their bending path
4.90
They're torn asunder, nor have gateways straight
4.90
Wherethrough to mass themselves and struggle abroad.
4.90
But contrariwise, when such a tenuous film
4.90
Of outside colour is thrown off, there's naught
4.90
Can rend it, since 'tis placed along the front
4.90
Ready to hand. Lastly those images
4.90
Which to our eyes in mirrors do appear,
4.90
In water, or in any shining surface,
4.90
Must be, since furnished with like look of things,
4.90
Fashioned from images of things sent out.
4.90
There are, then, tenuous effigies of forms,
4.90
Like unto them, which no one can divine
4.90
When taken singly, which do yet give back,
4.90
When by continued and recurrent discharge
4.90
Expelled, a picture from the mirrors' plane.
4.90
Nor otherwise, it seems, can they be kept
4.90
So well conserved that thus be given back
4.90
Figures so like each object.
4.110
Now then, learn
4.110
How tenuous is the nature of an image.
4.110
And in the first place, since primordials be
4.110
So far beneath our senses, and much less
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E'en than those objects which begin to grow
4.110
Too small for eyes to note, learn now in few
4.110
How nice are the beginnings of all things-
4.110
That this, too, I may yet confirm in proof:
4.110
First, living creatures are sometimes so small
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That even their third part can nowise be seen;
4.110
Judge, then, the size of any inward organ-
4.110
What of their sphered heart, their eyes, their limbs,
4.110
The skeleton?- How tiny thus they are!
4.110
And what besides of those first particles
4.110
Whence soul and mind must fashioned be?- Seest not
4.110
How nice and how minute? Besides, whatever
4.110
Exhales from out its body a sharp smell-
4.110
The nauseous absinth, or the panacea,
4.110
Strong southernwood, or bitter centaury-
4.110
If never so lightly with thy [fingers] twain
4.110
Perchance [thou touch] a one of them
4.110
. . . . . .
4.110
Then why not rather know that images
4.110
Flit hither and thither, many, in many modes,
4.110
Bodiless and invisible?
4.110
But lest
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Haply thou holdest that those images
4.110
Which come from objects are the sole that flit,
4.110
Others indeed there be of own accord
4.110
Begot, self-formed in earth's aery skies,
4.110
Which, moulded to innumerable shapes,
4.110
Are borne aloft, and, fluid as they are,
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Cease not to change appearance and to turn
4.110
Into new outlines of all sorts of forms;
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As we behold the clouds grow thick on high
4.110
And smirch the serene vision of the world,
4.110
Stroking the air with motions. For oft are seen
4.110
The giants' faces flying far along
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And trailing a spread of shadow; and at times
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The mighty mountains and mountain-sundered rocks
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Going before and crossing on the sun,
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Whereafter a monstrous beast dragging amain
4.110
And leading in the other thunderheads.
4.143
Now [hear] how easy and how swift they be
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Engendered, and perpetually flow off
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From things and gliding pass away....
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. . . . . .
4.143
For ever every outside streams away
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From off all objects, since discharge they may;
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And when this outside reaches other things,
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As chiefly glass, it passes through; but where
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It reaches the rough rocks or stuff of wood,
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There 'tis so rent that it cannot give back
4.143
An image. But when gleaming objects dense,
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As chiefly mirrors, have been set before it,
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Nothing of this sort happens. For it can't
4.143
Go, as through glass, nor yet be rent- its safety,
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By virtue of that smoothness, being sure.
4.143
'Tis therefore that from them the images
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Stream back to us; and howso suddenly
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Thou place, at any instant, anything
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Before a mirror, there an image shows;
4.143
Proving that ever from a body's surface
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Flow off thin textures and thin shapes of things.
4.143
Thus many images in little time
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Are gendered; so their origin is named
4.143
Rightly a speedy. And even as the sun
4.143
Must send below, in little time, to earth
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So many beams to keep all things so full
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Of light incessant; thus, on grounds the same,
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From things there must be borne, in many modes,
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To every quarter round, upon the moment,
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The many images of things; because
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Unto whatever face of things we turn
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The mirror, things of form and hue the same
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Respond. Besides, though but a moment since
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Serenest was the weather of the sky,
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So fiercely sudden is it foully thick
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That ye might think that round about all murk
4.143
Had parted forth from Acheron and filled
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The mighty vaults of sky- so grievously,
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As gathers thus the storm-clouds' gruesome night,
4.143
Do faces of black horror hang on high-
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Of which how small a part an image is
4.143
There's none to tell or reckon out in words.
4.176
Now come; with what swift motion they are borne,
4.176
These images, and what the speed assigned
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To them across the breezes swimming on-
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So that o'er lengths of space a little hour
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Alone is wasted, toward whatever region
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Each with its divers impulse tends- I'll tell
4.176
In verses sweeter than they many are;
4.176
Even as the swan's slight note is better far
4.176
Than that dispersed clamour of the cranes
4.176
Among the southwind's aery clouds. And first,
4.176
One oft may see that objects which are light
4.176
And made of tiny bodies are the swift;
4.176
In which class is the sun's light and his heat,
4.176
Since made from small primordial elements
4.176
Which, as it were, are forward knocked along
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And through the interspaces of the air
4.176
To pass delay not, urged by blows behind;
4.176
For light by light is instantly supplied
4.176
And gleam by following gleam is spurred and driven.
4.176
Thus likewise must the images have power
4.176
Through unimaginable space to speed
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Within a point of time,- first, since a cause
4.176
Exceeding small there is, which at their back
4.176
Far forward drives them and propels, where, too,
4.176
They're carried with such winged lightness on;
4.176
And, secondly, since furnished, when sent off,
4.176
With texture of such rareness that they can
4.176
Through objects whatsoever penetrate
4.176
And ooze, as 'twere, through intervening air.
4.199
Besides, if those fine particles of things
4.199
Which from so deep within are sent abroad,
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As light and heat of sun, are seen to glide
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And spread themselves through all the space of heaven
4.199
Upon one instant of the day, and fly
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O'er sea and lands and flood the heaven, what then
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Of those which on the outside stand prepared,
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When they're hurled off with not a thing to check
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Their going out? Dost thou not see indeed
4.199
How swifter and how farther must they go
4.199
And speed through manifold the length of space
4.199
In time the same that from the sun the rays
4.199
O'erspread the heaven? This also seems to be
4.199
Example chief and true with what swift speed
4.199
The images of things are borne about:
4.199
That soon as ever under open skies
4.199
Is spread the shining water, all at once,
4.199
If stars be out in heaven, upgleam from earth,
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Serene and radiant in the water there,
4.199
The constellations of the universe-
4.199
Now seest thou not in what a point of time
4.199
An image from the shores of ether falls
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Unto the shores of earth? Wherefore, again,
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And yet again, 'tis needful to confess
4.199
With wondrous...
4.199
. . . . . .
4.217
Bodies that strike the eyes, awaking sight.
4.217
From certain things flow odours evermore,
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As cold from rivers, heat from sun, and spray
4.217
From waves of ocean, eater-out of walls
4.217
Around the coasts. Nor ever cease to flit
4.217
The varied voices, sounds athrough the air.
4.217
Then too there comes into the mouth at times
4.217
The wet of a salt taste, when by the sea
4.217
We roam about; and so, whene'er we watch
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The wormword being mixed, its bitter stings.
4.217
To such degree from all things is each thing
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Borne streamingly along, and sent about
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To every region round; and nature grants
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Nor rest nor respite of the onward flow,
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Since 'tis incessantly we feeling have,
4.217
And all the time are suffered to descry
4.217
And smell all things at hand, and hear them sound.
4.230
Besides, since shape examined by our hands
4.230
Within the dark is known to be the same
4.230
As that by eyes perceived within the light
4.230
And lustrous day, both touch and sight must be
4.230
By one like cause aroused. So, if we test
4.230
A square and get its stimulus on us
4.230
Within the dark, within the light what square
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Can fall upon our sight, except a square
4.230
That images the things? Wherefore it seems
4.230
The source of seeing is in images,
4.230
Nor without these can anything be viewed.
4.230
Now these same films I name are borne about
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And tossed and scattered into regions all.
4.230
But since we do perceive alone through eyes,
4.230
It follows hence that whitherso we turn
4.230
Our sight, all things do strike against it there
4.230
With form and hue. And just how far from us
4.230
Each thing may be away, the image yields
4.230
To us the power to see and chance to tell:
4.230
For when 'tis sent, at once it shoves ahead
4.230
And drives along the air that's in the space
4.230
Betwixt it and our eyes. And thus this air
4.230
All glides athrough our eyeballs, and, as 'twere,
4.230
Brushes athrough our pupils and thuswise
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Passes across. Therefore it comes we see
4.230
How far from us each thing may be away,
4.230
And the more air there be that's driven before,
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And too the longer be the brushing breeze
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Against our eyes, the farther off removed
4.230
Each thing is seen to be: forsooth, this work
4.230
With mightily swift order all goes on,
4.230
So that upon one instant we may see
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What kind the object and how far away.
4.230
Nor over-marvellous must this be deemed
4.230
In these affairs that, though the films which strike
4.230
Upon the eyes cannot be singly seen,
4.230
The things themselves may be perceived. For thus
4.230
When the wind beats upon us stroke by stroke
4.230
And when the sharp cold streams, 'tis not our wont
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To feel each private particle of wind
4.230
Or of that cold, but rather all at once;
4.230
And so we see how blows affect our body,
4.230
As if one thing were beating on the same
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And giving us the feel of its own body
4.230
Outside of us. Again, whene'er we thump
4.230
With finger-tip upon a stone, we touch
4.230
But the rock's surface and the outer hue,
4.230
Nor feel that hue by contact- rather feel
4.230
The very hardness deep within the rock.
4.269
Now come, and why beyond a looking-glass
4.269
An image may be seen, perceive. For seen
4.269
It soothly is, removed far within.
4.269
'Tis the same sort as objects peered upon
4.269
Outside in their true shape, whene'er a door
4.269
Yields through itself an open peering-place,
4.269
And lets us see so many things outside
4.269
Beyond the house. Also that sight is made
4.269
By a twofold twin air: for first is seen
4.269
The air inside the door-posts; next the doors,
4.269
The twain to left and right; and afterwards
4.269
A light beyond comes brushing through our eyes,
4.269
Then other air, then objects peered upon
4.269
Outside in their true shape. And thus, when first
4.269
The image of the glass projects itself,
4.269
As to our gaze it comes, it shoves ahead
4.269
And drives along the air that's in the space
4.269
Betwixt it and our eyes, and brings to pass
4.269
That we perceive the air ere yet the glass.
4.269
But when we've also seen the glass itself,
4.269
Forthwith that image which from us is borne
4.269
Reaches the glass, and there thrown back again
4.269
Comes back unto our eyes, and driving rolls
4.269
Ahead of itself another air, that then
4.269
'Tis this we see before itself, and thus
4.269
It looks so far removed behind the glass.
4.269
Wherefore again, again, there's naught for wonder
4.269
. . . . . .
4.269
In those which render from the mirror's plane
4.269
A vision back, since each thing comes to pass
4.269
By means of the two airs. Now, in the glass
4.269
The right part of our members is observed
4.269
Upon the left, because, when comes the image
4.269
Hitting against the level of the glass,
4.269
'Tis not returned unshifted; but forced off
4.269
Backwards in line direct and not oblique,-
4.269
Exactly as whoso his plaster-mask
4.269
Should dash, before 'twere dry, on post or beam,
4.269
And it should straightway keep, at clinging there,
4.269
Its shape, reversed, facing him who threw,
4.269
And so remould the features it gives back:
4.269
It comes that now the right eye is the left,
4.269
The left the right.
4.302
An image too may be
4.302
From mirror into mirror handed on,
4.302
Until of idol-films even five or six
4.302
Have thus been gendered. For whatever things
4.302
Shall hide back yonder in the house, the same,
4.302
However far removed in twisting ways,
4.302
May still be all brought forth through bending paths
4.302
And by these several mirrors seen to be
4.302
Within the house, since nature so compels
4.302
All things to be borne backward and spring off
4.302
At equal angles from all other things.
4.302
To such degree the image gleams across
4.302
From mirror unto mirror; where 'twas left
4.302
It comes to be the right, and then again
4.302
Returns and changes round unto the left.
4.302
Again, those little sides of mirrors curved
4.302
Proportionate to the bulge of our own flank
4.302
Send back to us their idols with the right
4.302
Upon the right; and this is so because
4.302
Either the image is passed on along
4.302
From mirror unto mirror, and thereafter,
4.302
When twice dashed off, flies back unto ourselves;
4.302
Or else the image wheels itself around,
4.302
When once unto the mirror it has come,
4.302
Since the curved surface teaches it to turn
4.302
To usward. Further, thou might'st well believe
4.302
That these film-idols step along with us
4.302
And set their feet in unison with ours
4.302
And imitate our carriage, since from that
4.302
Part of a mirror whence thou hast withdrawn
4.302
Straightway no images can be returned.
4.302
Further, our eye-balls tend to flee the bright
4.302
And shun to gaze thereon; the sun even blinds,
4.302
If thou goest on to strain them unto him,
4.302
Because his strength is mighty, and the films
4.302
Heavily downward from on high are borne
4.302
Through the pure ether and the viewless winds,
4.302
And strike the eyes, disordering their joints.
4.302
So piecing lustre often burns the eyes,
4.302
Because it holdeth many seeds of fire
4.302
Which, working into eyes, engender pain.
4.302
Again, whatever jaundiced people view
4.302
Becomes wan-yellow, since from out their bodies
4.302
Flow many seeds wan-yellow forth to meet
4.302
The films of things, and many too are mixed
4.302
Within their eye, which by contagion paint
4.302
All things with sallowness.
4.337
Again, we view
4.337
From dark recesses things that stand in light,
4.337
Because, when first has entered and possessed
4.337
The open eyes this nearer darkling air,
4.337
Swiftly the shining air and luminous
4.337
Followeth in, which purges then the eyes
4.337
And scatters asunder of that other air
4.337
The sable shadows, for in large degrees
4.337
This air is nimbler, nicer, and more strong.
4.337
And soon as ever 'thas filled and oped with light
4.337
The pathways of the eyeballs, which before
4.337
Black air had blocked, there follow straightaway
4.337
Those films of things out-standing in the light,
4.337
Provoking vision- what we cannot do
4.337
From out the light with objects in the dark,
4.337
Because that denser darkling air behind
4.337
Followeth in, and fills each aperture
4.337
And thus blockades the pathways of the eyes
4.337
That there no images of any things
4.337
Can be thrown in and agitate the eyes.
4.337
And when from far away we do behold
4.337
The squared towers of a city, oft
4.337
Rounded they seem,- on this account because
4.337
Each distant angle is perceived obtuse,
4.337
Or rather it is not perceived at all;
4.337
And perishes its blow nor to our gaze
4.337
Arrives its stroke, since through such length of air
4.337
Are borne along the idols that the air
4.337
Makes blunt the idol of the angle's point
4.337
By numerous collidings. When thuswise
4.337
The angles of the tower each and all
4.337
Have quite escaped the sense, the stones appear
4.337
As rubbed and rounded on a turner's wheel-
4.337
Yet not like objects near and truly round,
4.337
But with a semblance to them, shadowily.
4.337
Likewise, our shadow in the sun appears
4.337
To move along and follow our own steps
4.337
And imitate our carriage- if thou thinkest
4.337
Air that is thus bereft of light can walk,
4.337
Following the gait and motion of mankind.
4.337
For what we use to name a shadow, sure
4.337
Is naught but air deprived of light. No marvel:
4.337
Because the earth from spot to spot is reft
4.337
Progressively of light of sun, whenever
4.337
In moving round we get within its way,
4.337
While any spot of earth by us abandoned
4.337
Is filled with light again, on this account
4.337
It comes to pass that what was body's shadow
4.337
Seems still the same to follow after us
4.337
In one straight course. Since, evermore pour in
4.337
New lights of rays, and perish then the old,
4.337
Just like the wool that's drawn into the flame.
4.337
Therefore the earth is easily spoiled of light
4.337
And easily refilled and from herself
4.337
Washeth the black shadows quite away.
4.379
And yet in this we don't at all concede
4.379
That eyes be cheated. For their task it is
4.379
To note in whatsoever place be light,
4.379
In what be shadow: whether or no the gleams
4.379
Be still the same, and whether the shadow which
4.379
Just now was here is that one passing thither,
4.379
Or whether the facts be what we said above,
4.379
'Tis after all the reasoning of mind
4.379
That must decide; nor can our eyeballs know
4.379
The nature of reality. And so
4.379
Attach thou not this fault of mind to eyes,
4.379
Nor lightly think our senses everywhere
4.379
Are tottering. The ship in which we sail
4.379
Is borne along, although it seems to stand;
4.379
The ship that bides in roadstead is supposed
4.379
There to be passing by. And hills and fields
4.379
Seem fleeing fast astern, past which we urge
4.379
The ship and fly under the bellying sails.
4.379
The stars, each one, do seem to pause, affixed
4.379
To the ethereal caverns, though they all
4.379
Forever are in motion, rising out
4.379
And thence revisiting their far descents
4.379
When they have measured with their bodies bright
4.379
The span of heaven. And likewise sun and moon
4.379
Seem biding in a roadstead,- objects which,
4.379
As plain fact proves, are really borne along.
4.379
Between two mountains far away aloft
4.379
From midst the whirl of waters open lies
4.379
A gaping exit for the fleet, and yet
4.379
They seem conjoined in a single isle.
4.379
When boys themselves have stopped their spinning round,
4.379
The halls still seem to whirl and posts to reel,
4.379
Until they now must almost think the roofs
4.379
Threaten to ruin down upon their heads.
4.379
And now, when nature begins to lift on high
4.379
The sun's red splendour and the tremulous fires,
4.379
And raise him o'er the mountain-tops, those mountains-
4.379
O'er which he seemeth then to thee to be,
4.379
His glowing self hard by atingeing them
4.379
With his own fire- are yet away from us
4.379
Scarcely two thousand arrow-shots, indeed
4.379
Oft scarce five hundred courses of a dart;
4.379
Although between those mountains and the sun
4.379
Lie the huge plains of ocean spread beneath
4.379
The vasty shores of ether, and intervene
4.379
A thousand lands, possessed by many a folk
4.379
And generations of wild beasts. Again,
4.414
A pool of water of but a finger's depth,
4.414
Which lies between the stones along the pave,
4.414
Offers a vision downward into earth
4.414
As far, as from the earth o'erspread on high
4.414
The gulfs of heaven; that thus thou seemest to view
4.414
Clouds down below and heavenly bodies plunged
4.414
Wondrously in heaven under earth.
4.414
Then too, when in the middle of the stream
4.414
Sticks fast our dashing horse, and down we gaze
4.414
Into the river's rapid waves, some force
4.414
Seems then to bear the body of the horse,
4.414
Though standing still, reversely from his course,
4.414
And swiftly push up-stream. And wheresoe'er
4.414
We cast our eyes across, all objects seem
4.414
Thus to be onward borne and flow along
4.414
In the same way as we. A portico,
4.414
Albeit it stands well propped from end to end
4.414
On equal columns, parallel and big,
4.414
Contracts by stages in a narrow cone,
4.414
When from one end the long, long whole is seen,-
4.414
Until, conjoining ceiling with the floor,
4.414
And the whole right side with the left, it draws
4.414
Together to a cone's nigh-viewless point.
4.414
To sailors on the main the sun he seems
4.414
From out the waves to rise, and in the waves
4.414
To set and bury his light- because indeed
4.414
They gaze on naught but water and the sky.
4.414
Again, to gazers ignorant of the sea,
4.414
Vessels in port seem, as with broken poops,
4.414
To lean upon the water, quite agog;
4.414
For any portion of the oars that's raised
4.414
Above the briny spray is straight, and straight
4.414
The rudders from above. But other parts,
4.414
Those sunk, immersed below the water-line,
4.414
Seem broken all and bended and inclined
4.414
Sloping to upwards, and turned back to float
4.414
Almost atop the water. And when the winds
4.414
Carry the scattered drifts along the sky
4.414
In the night-time, then seem to glide along
4.414
The radiant constellations 'gainst the clouds
4.414
And there on high to take far other course
4.414
From that whereon in truth they're borne. And then,
4.447
If haply our hand be set beneath one eye
4.447
And press below thereon, then to our gaze
4.447
Each object which we gaze on seems to be,
4.447
By some sensation twain- then twain the lights
4.447
Of lampions burgeoning in flowers of flame,
4.447
And twain the furniture in all the house,
4.447
Two-fold the visages of fellow-men,
4.447
And twain their bodies. And again, when sleep
4.447
Has bound our members down in slumber soft
4.447
And all the body lies in deep repose,
4.447
Yet then we seem to self to be awake
4.447
And move our members; and in night's blind gloom
4.447
We think to mark the daylight and the sun;
4.447
And, shut within a room, yet still we seem
4.447
To change our skies, our oceans, rivers, hills,
4.447
To cross the plains afoot, and hear new sounds,
4.447
Though still the austere silence of the night
4.447
Abides around us, and to speak replies,
4.447
Though voiceless. Other cases of the sort
4.447
Wondrously many do we see, which all
4.447
Seek, so to say, to injure faith in sense-
4.447
In vain, because the largest part of these
4.447
Deceives through mere opinions of the mind,
4.447
Which we do add ourselves, feigning to see
4.447
What by the senses are not seen at all.
4.447
For naught is harder than to separate
4.447
Plain facts from dubious, which the mind forthwith
4.447
Adds by itself.
4.469
Again, if one suppose
4.469
That naught is known, he knows not whether this
4.469
Itself is able to be known, since he
4.469
Confesses naught to know. Therefore with him
4.469
I waive discussion- who has set his head
4.469
Even where his feet should be. But let me grant
4.469
That this he knows,- I question: whence he knows
4.469
What 'tis to know and not-to-know in turn,
4.469
And what created concept of the truth,
4.469
And what device has proved the dubious
4.469
To differ from the certain?- since in things
4.469
He's heretofore seen naught of true. Thou'lt find
4.469
That from the senses first hath been create
4.469
Concept of truth, nor can the senses be
4.469
Rebutted. For criterion must be found
4.469
Worthy of greater trust, which shall defeat
4.469
Through own authority the false by true;
4.469
What, then, than these our senses must there be
4.469
Worthy a greater trust? Shall reason, sprung
4.469
From some false sense, prevail to contradict
4.469
Those senses, sprung as reason wholly is
4.469
From out the senses?- For lest these be true,
4.469
All reason also then is falsified.
4.469
Or shall the ears have power to blame the eyes,
4.469
Or yet the touch the ears? Again, shall taste
4.469
Accuse this touch or shall the nose confute
4.469
Or eyes defeat it? Methinks not so it is:
4.469
For unto each has been divided off
4.469
Its function quite apart, its power to each;
4.469
And thus we're still constrained to perceive
4.469
The soft, the cold, the hot apart, apart
4.469
All divers hues and whatso things there be
4.469
Conjoined with hues. Likewise the tasting tongue
4.469
Has its own power apart, and smells apart
4.469
And sounds apart are known. And thus it is
4.469
That no one sense can e'er convict another.
4.469
Nor shall one sense have power to blame itself,
4.469
Because it always must be deemed the same,
4.469
Worthy of equal trust. And therefore what
4.469
At any time unto these senses showed,
4.469
The same is true.
4.500
And if the reason be
4.500
Unable to unravel us the cause
4.500
Why objects, which at hand were square, afar
4.500
Seemed rounded, yet it more availeth us,
4.500
Lacking the reason, to pretend a cause
4.500
For each configuration, than to let
4.500
From out our hands escape the obvious things
4.500
And injure primal faith in sense, and wreck
4.500
All those foundations upon which do rest
4.500
Our life and safety. For not only reason
4.500
Would topple down; but even our very life
4.500
Would straightaway collapse, unless we dared
4.500
To trust our senses and to keep away
4.500
From headlong heights and places to be shunned
4.500
Of a like peril, and to seek with speed
4.500
Their opposites! Again, as in a building,
4.500
If the first plumb-line be askew, and if
4.500
The square deceiving swerve from lines exact,
4.500
And if the level waver but the least
4.500
In any part, the whole construction then
4.500
Must turn out faulty- shelving and askew,
4.500
Leaning to back and front, incongruous,
4.500
That now some portions seem about to fall,
4.500
And falls the whole ere long- betrayed indeed
4.500
By first deceiving estimates: so too
4.500
Thy calculations in affairs of life
4.500
Must be askew and false, if sprung for thee
4.500
From senses false. So all that troop of words
4.500
Marshalled against the senses is quite vain.
4.522
And now remains to demonstrate with ease
4.522
How other senses each their things perceive.
4.522
Firstly, a sound and every voice is heard,
4.522
When, getting into ears, they strike the sense
4.522
With their own body. For confess we must
4.522
Even voice and sound to be corporeal,
4.522
Because they're able on the sense to strike.
4.522
Besides voice often scrapes against the throat,
4.522
And screams in going out do make more rough
4.522
The wind-pipe- naturally enough, methinks,
4.522
When, through the narrow exit rising up
4.522
In larger throng, these primal germs of voice
4.522
Have thus begun to issue forth. In sooth,
4.522
Also the door of the mouth is scraped against
4.522
[By air blown outward] from distended [cheeks].
4.522
. . . . . .
4.522
And thus no doubt there is, that voice and words
4.522
Consist of elements corporeal,
4.522
With power to pain. Nor art thou unaware
4.522
Likewise how much of body's ta'en away,
4.522
How much from very thews and powers of men
4.522
May be withdrawn by steady talk, prolonged
4.522
Even from the rising splendour of the morn
4.522
To shadows of black evening,- above all
4.522
If 't be outpoured with most exceeding shouts.
4.522
Therefore the voice must be corporeal,
4.522
Since the long talker loses from his frame
4.522
A part.
4.522
Moreover, roughness in the sound
4.522
Comes from the roughness in the primal germs,
4.522
As a smooth sound from smooth ones is create;
4.522
Nor have these elements a form the same
4.522
When the trump rumbles with a hollow roar,
4.522
As when barbaric Berecynthian pipe
4.522
Buzzes with raucous boomings, or when swans
4.522
By night from icy shores of Helicon
4.522
With wailing voices raise their liquid dirge.
4.549
Thus, when from deep within our frame we force
4.549
These voices, and at mouth expel them forth,
4.549
The mobile tongue, artificer of words,
4.549
Makes them articulate, and too the lips
4.549
By their formations share in shaping them.
4.549
Hence when the space is short from starting-point
4.549
To where that voice arrives, the very words
4.549
Must too be plainly heard, distinctly marked.
4.549
For then the voice conserves its own formation,
4.549
Conserves its shape. But if the space between
4.549
Be longer than is fit, the words must be
4.549
Through the much air confounded, and the voice
4.549
Disordered in its flight across the winds-
4.549
And so it haps, that thou canst sound perceive,
4.549
Yet not determine what the words may mean;
4.549
To such degree confounded and encumbered
4.549
The voice approaches us. Again, one word,
4.549
Sent from the crier's mouth, may rouse all ears
4.549
Among the populace. And thus one voice
4.549
Scatters asunder into many voices,
4.549
Since it divides itself for separate ears,
4.549
Imprinting form of word and a clear tone.
4.549
But whatso part of voices fails to hit
4.549
The ears themselves perishes, borne beyond,
4.549
Idly diffused among the winds. A part,
4.549
Beating on solid porticoes, tossed back
4.549
Returns a sound; and sometimes mocks the ear
4.549
With a mere phantom of a word.
4.572
When this
4.572
Thou well hast noted, thou canst render count
4.572
Unto thyself and others why it is
4.572
Along the lonely places that the rocks
4.572
Give back like shapes of words in order like,
4.572
When search we after comrades wandering
4.572
Among the shady mountains, and aloud
4.572
Call unto them, the scattered. I have seen
4.572
Spots that gave back even voices six or seven
4.572
For one thrown forth- for so the very hills,
4.572
Dashing them back against the hills, kept on
4.572
With their reverberations. And these spots
4.572
The neighbouring country-side doth feign to be
4.572
Haunts of the goat-foot satyrs and the nymphs;
4.572
And tells ye there be fauns, by whose night noise
4.572
And antic revels yonder they declare
4.572
The voiceless silences are broken oft,
4.572
And tones of strings are made and wailings sweet
4.572
Which the pipe, beat by players' finger-tips,
4.572
Pours out; and far and wide the farmer-race
4.572
Begins to hear, when, shaking the garmentings
4.572
Of pine upon his half-beast head, god-Pan
4.572
With puckered lip oft runneth o'er and o'er
4.572
The open reeds,- lest flute should cease to pour
4.572
The woodland music! Other prodigies
4.572
And wonders of this ilk they love to tell,
4.572
Lest they be thought to dwell in lonely spots
4.572
And even by gods deserted. This is why
4.572
They boast of marvels in their story-tellings;
4.572
Or by some other reason are led on-
4.572
Greedy, as all mankind hath ever been,
4.572
To prattle fables into ears.
4.595
Again,
4.595
One need not wonder how it comes about
4.595
That through those places (through which eyes cannot
4.595
View objects manifest) sounds yet may pass
4.595
And assail the ears. For often we observe
4.595
People conversing, though the doors be closed;
4.595
No marvel either, since all voice unharmed
4.595
Can wind through bended apertures of things,
4.595
While idol-films decline to- for they're rent,
4.595
Unless along straight apertures they swim,
4.595
Like those in glass, through which all images
4.595
Do fly across. And yet this voice itself,
4.595
In passing through shut chambers of a house,
4.595
Is dulled, and in a jumble enters ears,
4.595
And sound we seem to hear far more than words.
4.595
Moreover, a voice is into all directions
4.595
Divided up, since off from one another
4.595
New voices are engendered, when one voice
4.595
Hath once leapt forth, outstarting into many-
4.595
As oft a spark of fire is wont to sprinkle
4.595
Itself into its several fires. And so,
4.595
Voices do fill those places hid behind,
4.595
Which all are in a hubbub round about,
4.595
Astir with sound. But idol-films do tend,
4.595
As once sent forth, in straight directions all;
4.595
Wherefore one can inside a wall see naught,
4.595
Yet catch the voices from beyond the same.
4.615
Nor tongue and palate, whereby we flavour feel,
4.615
Present more problems for more work of thought.
4.615
Firstly, we feel a flavour in the mouth,
4.615
When forth we squeeze it, in chewing up our food,-
4.615
As any one perchance begins to squeeze
4.615
With hand and dry a sponge with water soaked.
4.615
Next, all which forth we squeeze is spread about
4.615
Along the pores and intertwined paths
4.615
Of the loose-textured tongue. And so, when smooth
4.615
The bodies of the oozy flavour, then
4.615
Delightfully they touch, delightfully
4.615
They treat all spots, around the wet and trickling
4.615
Enclosures of the tongue. And contrariwise,
4.615
They sting and pain the sense with their assault,
4.615
According as with roughness they're supplied.
4.615
Next, only up to palate is the pleasure
4.615
Coming from flavour; for in truth when down
4.615
'Thas plunged along the throat, no pleasure is,
4.615
Whilst into all the frame it spreads around;
4.615
Nor aught it matters with what food is fed
4.615
The body, if only what thou take thou canst
4.615
Distribute well digested to the frame
4.615
And keep the stomach in a moist career.
4.615
Now, how it is we see some food for some,
4.615
Others for others....
4.615
. . . . . .
4.615
I will unfold, or wherefore what to some
4.615
Is foul and bitter, yet the same to others
4.615
Can seem delectable to eat,- why here
4.615
So great the distance and the difference is
4.615
That what is food to one to some becomes
4.615
Fierce poison, as a certain snake there is
4.615
Which, touched by spittle of a man, will waste
4.615
And end itself by gnawing up its coil.
4.615
Again, fierce poison is the hellebore
4.615
To us, but puts the fat on goats and quails.
4.615
That thou mayst know by what devices this
4.615
Is brought about, in chief thou must recall
4.615
What we have said before, that seeds are kept
4.615
Commixed in things in divers modes. Again,
4.615
As all the breathing creatures which take food
4.615
Are outwardly unlike, and outer cut
4.615
And contour of their members bounds them round,
4.615
Each differing kind by kind, they thus consist
4.615
Of seeds of varying shape. And furthermore,
4.615
Since seeds do differ, divers too must be
4.615
The interstices and paths (which we do call
4.615
The apertures) in all the members, even
4.615
In mouth and palate too. Thus some must be
4.615
More small or yet more large, three-cornered some
4.615
And others squared, and many others round,
4.615
And certain of them many-angled too
4.615
In many modes. For, as the combination
4.615
And motion of their divers shapes demand,
4.615
The shapes of apertures must be diverse
4.615
And paths must vary according to their walls
4.615
That bound them. Hence when what is sweet to some,
4.615
Becomes to others bitter, for him to whom
4.615
'Tis sweet, the smoothest particles must needs
4.615
Have entered caressingly the palate's pores.
4.615
And, contrariwise, with those to whom that sweet
4.615
Is sour within the mouth, beyond a doubt
4.615
The rough and barbed particles have got
4.615
Into the narrows of the apertures.
4.615
Now easy it is from these affairs to know
4.615
Whatever...
4.615
. . . . . .
4.615
Indeed, where one from o'er-abundant bile
4.615
Is stricken with fever, or in other wise
4.615
Feels the roused violence of some malady,
4.615
There the whole frame is now upset, and there
4.615
All the positions of the seeds are changed,-
4.615
So that the bodies which before were fit
4.615
To cause the savour, now are fit no more,
4.615
And now more apt are others which be able
4.615
To get within the pores and gender sour.
4.615
Both sorts, in sooth, are intermixed in honey-
4.615
What oft we've proved above to thee before.
4.673
Now come, and I will indicate what wise
4.673
Impact of odour on the nostrils touches.
4.673
And first, 'tis needful there be many things
4.673
From whence the streaming flow of varied odours
4.673
May roll along, and we're constrained to think
4.673
They stream and dart and sprinkle themselves about
4.673
Impartially. But for some breathing creatures
4.673
One odour is more apt, to others another-
4.673
Because of differing forms of seeds and pores.
4.673
Thus on and on along the zephyrs bees
4.673
Are led by odour of honey, vultures too
4.673
By carcasses. Again, the forward power
4.673
Of scent in dogs doth lead the hunter on
4.673
Whithersoever the splay-foot of wild beast
4.673
Hath hastened its career; and the white goose,
4.673
The saviour of the Roman citadel,
4.673
Forescents afar the odour of mankind.
4.673
Thus, diversly to divers ones is given
4.673
Peculiar smell that leadeth each along
4.673
To his own food or makes him start aback
4.673
From loathsome poison, and in this wise are
4.673
The generations of the wild preserved.
4.673
Yet is this pungence not alone in odours
4.673
Or in the class of flavours; but, likewise,
4.673
The look of things and hues agree not all
4.673
So well with senses unto all, but that
4.673
Some unto some will be, to gaze upon,
4.673
More keen and painful. Lo, the raving lions,
4.673
They dare not face and gaze upon the cock
4.673
Who's wont with wings to flap away the night
4.673
From off the stage, and call the beaming morn
4.673
With clarion voice- and lions straightway thus
4.673
Bethink themselves of flight, because, ye see,
4.673
Within the body of the cocks there be
4.673
Some certain seeds, which, into lions' eyes
4.673
Injected, bore into the pupils deep
4.673
And yield such piercing pain they can't hold out
4.673
Against the cocks, however fierce they be-
4.673
Whilst yet these seeds can't hurt our gaze the least,
4.673
Either because they do not penetrate,
4.673
Or since they have free exit from the eyes
4.673
As soon as penetrating, so that thus
4.673
They cannot hurt our eyes in any part
4.673
By there remaining.
4.673
To speak once more of odour;
4.673
Whatever assail the nostrils, some can travel
4.673
A longer way than others. None of them,
4.673
However, 's borne so far as sound or voice-
4.673
While I omit all mention of such things
4.673
As hit the eyesight and assail the vision.
4.673
For slowly on a wandering course it comes
4.673
And perishes sooner, by degrees absorbed
4.673
Easily into all the winds of air;-
4.673
And first, because from deep inside the thing
4.673
It is discharged with labour (for the fact
4.673
That every object, when 'tis shivered, ground,
4.673
Or crumbled by the fire, will smell the stronger
4.673
Is sign that odours flow and part away
4.673
From inner regions of the things). And next,
4.673
Thou mayest see that odour is create
4.673
Of larger primal germs than voice, because
4.673
It enters not through stony walls, wherethrough
4.673
Unfailingly the voice and sound are borne;
4.673
Wherefore, besides, thou wilt observe 'tis not
4.673
So easy to trace out in whatso place
4.673
The smelling object is. For, dallying on
4.673
Along the winds, the particles cool off,
4.673
And then the scurrying messengers of things
4.673
Arrive our senses, when no longer hot.
4.673
So dogs oft wander astray, and hunt the scent.
4.722
Now mark, and hear what objects move the mind,
4.722
And learn, in few, whence unto intellect
4.722
Do come what come. And first I tell thee this:
4.722
That many images of objects rove
4.722
In many modes to every region round-
4.722
So thin that easily the one with other,
4.722
When once they meet, uniteth in mid-air,
4.722
Like gossamer or gold-leaf. For, indeed,
4.722
Far thinner are they in their fabric than
4.722
Those images which take a hold on eyes
4.722
And smite the vision, since through body's pores
4.722
They penetrate, and inwardly stir up
4.722
The subtle nature of mind and smite the sense.
4.722
Thus, Centaurs and the limbs of Scyllas, thus
4.722
The Cerberus-visages of dogs we see,
4.722
And images of people gone before-
4.722
Dead men whose bones earth bosomed long ago;
4.722
Because the images of every kind
4.722
Are everywhere about us borne- in part
4.722
Those which are gendered in the very air
4.722
Of own accord, in part those others which
4.722
From divers things do part away, and those
4.722
Which are compounded, made from out their shapes.
4.722
For soothly from no living Centaur is
4.722
That phantom gendered, since no breed of beast
4.722
Like him was ever; but, when images
4.722
Of horse and man by chance have come together,
4.722
They easily cohere, as aforesaid,
4.722
At once, through subtle nature and fabric thin.
4.722
In the same fashion others of this ilk
4.722
Created are. And when they're quickly borne
4.722
In their exceeding lightness, easily
4.722
(As earlier I showed) one subtle image,
4.722
Compounded, moves by its one blow the mind,
4.722
Itself so subtle and so strangely quick.
4.722
That these things come to pass as I record,
4.722
From this thou easily canst understand:
4.722
So far as one is unto other like,
4.722
Seeing with mind as well as with the eyes
4.722
Must come to pass in fashion not unlike.
4.722
Well, now, since I have shown that I perceive
4.722
Haply a lion through those idol-films
4.722
Such as assail my eyes, 'tis thine to know
4.722
Also the mind is in like manner moved,
4.722
And sees, nor more nor less than eyes do see
4.722
(Except that it perceives more subtle films)
4.722
The lion and aught else through idol-films.
4.722
And when the sleep has overset our frame,
4.722
The mind's intelligence is now awake,
4.722
Still for no other reason, save that these-
4.722
The self-same films as when we are awake-
4.722
Assail our minds, to such degree indeed
4.722
That we do seem to see for sure the man
4.722
Whom, void of life, now death and earth have gained
4.722
Dominion over. And nature forces this
4.722
To come to pass because the body's senses
4.722
Are resting, thwarted through the members all,
4.722
Unable now to conquer false with true;
4.722
And memory lies prone and languishes
4.722
In slumber, nor protests that he, the man
4.722
Whom the mind feigns to see alive, long since
4.722
Hath been the gain of death and dissolution.
4.722
And further, 'tis no marvel idols move
4.722
And toss their arms and other members round
4.722
In rhythmic time- and often in men's sleeps
4.722
It haps an image this is seen to do;
4.722
In sooth, when perishes the former image,
4.722
And other is gendered of another pose,
4.722
That former seemeth to have changed its gestures.
4.722
Of course the change must be conceived as speedy;
4.722
So great the swiftness and so great the store
4.722
Of idol-things, and (in an instant brief
4.722
As mind can mark) so great, again, the store
4.722
Of separate idol-parts to bring supplies.
4.722
It happens also that there is supplied
4.722
Sometimes an image not of kind the same;
4.722
But what before was woman, now at hand
4.722
Is seen to stand there, altered into male;
4.722
Or other visage, other age succeeds;
4.722
But slumber and oblivion take care
4.722
That we shall feel no wonder at the thing.
4.777
And much in these affairs demands inquiry,
4.777
And much, illumination- if we crave
4.777
With plainness to exhibit facts. And first,
4.777
Why doth the mind of one to whom the whim
4.777
To think has come behold forthwith that thing?
4.777
Or do the idols watch upon our will,
4.777
And doth an image unto us occur,
4.777
Directly we desire- if heart prefer
4.777
The sea, the land, or after all the sky?
4.777
Assemblies of the citizens, parades,
4.777
Banquets, and battles, these and all doth she,
4.777
Nature, create and furnish at our word?-
4.777
Maugre the fact that in same place and spot
4.777
Another's mind is meditating things
4.777
All far unlike. And what, again, of this:
4.777
When we in sleep behold the idols step,
4.777
In measure, forward, moving supple limbs,
4.777
Whilst forth they put each supple arm in turn
4.777
With speedy motion, and with eyeing heads
4.777
Repeat the movement, as the foot keeps time?
4.777
Forsooth, the idols they are steeped in art,
4.777
And wander to and fro well taught indeed,-
4.777
Thus to be able in the time of night
4.777
To make such games! Or will the truth be this:
4.777
Because in one least moment that we mark-
4.777
That is, the uttering of a single sound-
4.777
There lurk yet many moments, which the reason
4.777
Discovers to exist, therefore it comes
4.777
That, in a moment how so brief ye will,
4.777
The divers idols are hard by, and ready
4.777
Each in its place diverse? So great the swiftness,
4.777
So great, again, the store of idol-things,
4.777
And so, when perishes the former image,
4.777
And other is gendered of another pose,
4.777
The former seemeth to have changed its gestures.
4.777
And since they be so tenuous, mind can mark
4.777
Sharply alone the ones it strains to see;
4.777
And thus the rest do perish one and all,
4.777
Save those for which the mind prepares itself.
4.777
Further, it doth prepare itself indeed,
4.777
And hopes to see what follows after each-
4.777
Hence this result. For hast thou not observed
4.777
How eyes, essaying to perceive the fine,
4.777
Will strain in preparation, otherwise
4.777
Unable sharply to perceive at all?
4.777
Yet know thou canst that, even in objects plain,
4.777
If thou attendest not, 'tis just the same
4.777
As if 'twere all the time removed and far.
4.777
What marvel, then, that mind doth lose the rest,
4.777
Save those to which 'thas given up itself?
4.777
So 'tis that we conjecture from small signs
4.777
Things wide and weighty, and involve ourselves
4.777
In snarls of self-deceit.
4.823
In these affairs
4.823
We crave that thou wilt passionately flee
4.823
The one offence, and anxiously wilt shun
4.823
The error of presuming the clear lights
4.823
Of eyes created were that we might see;
4.823
Or thighs and knees, aprop upon the feet,
4.823
Thuswise can bended be, that we might step
4.823
With goodly strides ahead; or forearms joined
4.823
Unto the sturdy uppers, or serving hands
4.823
On either side were given, that we might do
4.823
Life's own demands. All such interpretation
4.823
Is aft-for-fore with inverse reasoning,
4.823
Since naught is born in body so that we
4.823
May use the same, but birth engenders use:
4.823
No seeing ere the lights of eyes were born,
4.823
No speaking ere the tongue created was;
4.823
But origin of tongue came long before
4.823
Discourse of words, and ears created were
4.823
Much earlier than any sound was heard;
4.823
And all the members, so meseems, were there
4.823
Before they got their use: and therefore, they
4.823
Could not be gendered for the sake of use.
4.823
But contrariwise, contending in the fight
4.823
With hand to hand, and rending of the joints,
4.823
And fouling of the limbs with gore, was there,
4.823
O long before the gleaming spears ere flew;
4.823
And nature prompted man to shun a wound,
4.823
Before the left arm by the aid of art
4.823
Opposed the shielding targe. And, verily,
4.823
Yielding the weary body to repose,
4.823
Far ancienter than cushions of soft beds,
4.823
And quenching thirst is earlier than cups.
4.823
These objects, therefore, which for use and life
4.823
Have been devised, can be conceived as found
4.823
For sake of using. But apart from such
4.823
Are all which first were born and afterwards
4.823
Gave knowledge of their own utility-
4.823
Chief in which sort we note the senses, limbs:
4.823
Wherefore, again, 'tis quite beyond thy power
4.823
To hold that these could thus have been create
4.823
For office of utility.
4.858
Likewise,
4.858
'Tis nothing strange that all the breathing creatures
4.858
Seek, even by nature of their frame, their food.
4.858
Yes, since I've taught thee that from off the things
4.858
Stream and depart innumerable bodies
4.858
In modes innumerable too; but most
4.858
Must be the bodies streaming from the living-
4.858
Which bodies, vexed by motion evermore,
4.858
Are through the mouth exhaled innumerable,
4.858
When weary creatures pant, or through the sweat
4.858
Squeezed forth innumerable from deep within.
4.858
Thus body rarefies, so undermined
4.858
In all its nature, and pain attends its state.
4.858
And so the food is taken to underprop
4.858
The tottering joints, and by its interfusion
4.858
To re-create their powers, and there stop up
4.858
The longing, open-mouthed through limbs and veins,
4.858
For eating. And the moist no less departs
4.858
Into all regions that demand the moist;
4.858
And many heaped-up particles of hot,
4.858
Which cause such burnings in these bellies of ours,
4.858
The liquid on arriving dissipates
4.858
And quenches like a fire, that parching heat
4.858
No longer now can scorch the frame. And so,
4.858
Thou seest how panting thirst is washed away
4.858
From off our body, how the hunger-pang
4.858
It, too, appeased.
4.877
Now, how it comes that we,
4.877
Whene'er we wish, can step with strides ahead,
4.877
And how 'tis given to move our limbs about,
4.877
And what device is wont to push ahead
4.877
This the big load of our corporeal frame,
4.877
I'll say to thee- do thou attend what's said.
4.877
I say that first some idol-films of walking
4.877
Into our mind do fall and smite the mind,
4.877
As said before. Thereafter will arises;
4.877
For no one starts to do a thing, before
4.877
The intellect previsions what it wills;
4.877
And what it there pre-visioneth depends
4.877
On what that image is. When, therefore, mind
4.877
Doth so bestir itself that it doth will
4.877
To go and step along, it strikes at once
4.877
That energy of soul that's sown about
4.877
In all the body through the limbs and frame-
4.877
And this is easy of performance, since
4.877
The soul is close conjoined with the mind.
4.877
Next, soul in turn strikes body, and by degrees
4.877
Thus the whole mass is pushed along and moved.
4.877
Then too the body rarefies, and air,
4.877
Forsooth as ever of such nimbleness,
4.877
Comes on and penetrates aboundingly
4.877
Through opened pores, and thus is sprinkled round
4.877
Unto all smallest places in our frame.
4.877
Thus then by these twain factors, severally,
4.877
Body is borne like ship with oars and wind.
4.877
Nor yet in these affairs is aught for wonder
4.877
That particles so fine can whirl around
4.877
So great a body and turn this weight of ours;
4.877
For wind, so tenuous with its subtle body,
4.877
Yet pushes, driving on the mighty ship
4.877
Of mighty bulk; one hand directs the same,
4.877
Whatever its momentum, and one helm
4.877
Whirls it around, whither ye please; and loads,
4.877
Many and huge, are moved and hoisted high
4.877
By enginery of pulley-blocks and wheels,
4.877
With but light strain.
4.907
Now, by what modes this sleep
4.907
Pours through our members waters of repose
4.907
And frees the breast from cares of mind, I'll tell
4.907
In verses sweeter than they many are;
4.907
Even as the swan's slight note is better far
4.907
Than that dispersed clamour of the cranes
4.907
Among the southwind's aery clouds. Do thou
4.907
Give me sharp ears and a sagacious mind,-
4.907
That thou mayst not deny the things to be
4.907
Whereof I'm speaking, nor depart away
4.907
With bosom scorning these the spoken truths,
4.907
Thyself at fault unable to perceive.
4.907
Sleep chiefly comes when energy of soul
4.907
Hath now been scattered through the frame, and part
4.907
Expelled abroad and gone away, and part
4.907
Crammed back and settling deep within the frame-
4.907
Whereafter then our loosened members droop.
4.907
For doubt is none that by the work of soul
4.907
Exist in us this sense, and when by slumber
4.907
That sense is thwarted, we are bound to think
4.907
The soul confounded and expelled abroad-
4.907
Yet not entirely, else the frame would lie
4.907
Drenched in the everlasting cold of death.
4.907
In sooth, where no one part of soul remained
4.907
Lurking among the members, even as fire
4.907
Lurks buried under many ashes, whence
4.907
Could sense amain rekindled be in members,
4.907
As flame can rise anew from unseen fire?
4.929
By what devices this strange state and new
4.929
May be occasioned, and by what the soul
4.929
Can be confounded and the frame grow faint,
4.929
I will untangle: see to it, thou, that I
4.929
Pour forth my words not unto empty winds.
4.929
In first place, body on its outer parts-
4.929
Since these are touched by neighbouring aery gusts-
4.929
Must there be thumped and strook by blows of air
4.929
Repeatedly. And therefore almost all
4.929
Are covered either with hides, or else with shells,
4.929
Or with the horny callus, or with bark.
4.929
Yet this same air lashes their inner parts,
4.929
When creatures draw a breath or blow it out.
4.929
Wherefore, since body thus is flogged alike
4.929
Upon the inside and the out, and blows
4.929
Come in upon us through the little pores
4.929
Even inward to our body's primal parts
4.929
And primal elements, there comes to pass
4.929
By slow degrees, along our members then,
4.929
A kind of overthrow; for then confounded
4.929
Are those arrangements of the primal germs
4.929
Of body and of mind. It comes to pass
4.929
That next a part of soul's expelled abroad,
4.929
A part retreateth in recesses hid,
4.929
A part, too, scattered all about the frame,
4.929
Cannot become united nor engage
4.929
In interchange of motion. Nature now
4.929
So hedges off approaches and the paths;
4.929
And thus the sense, its motions all deranged,
4.929
Retires down deep within; and since there's naught,
4.929
As 'twere, to prop the frame, the body weakens,
4.929
And all the members languish, and the arms
4.929
And eyelids fall, and, as ye lie abed,
4.929
Even there the houghs will sag and loose their powers.
4.929
Again, sleep follows after food, because
4.929
The food produces same result as air,
4.929
Whilst being scattered round through all the veins;
4.929
And much the heaviest is that slumber which,
4.929
Full or fatigued, thou takest; since 'tis then
4.929
That the most bodies disarrange themselves,
4.929
Bruised by labours hard. And in same wise,
4.929
This three-fold change: a forcing of the soul
4.929
Down deeper, more a casting-forth of it,
4.929
A moving more divided in its parts
4.929
And scattered more.
4.962
And to whate'er pursuit
4.962
A man most clings absorbed, or what the affairs
4.962
On which we theretofore have tarried much,
4.962
And mind hath strained upon the more, we seem
4.962
In sleep not rarely to go at the same.
4.962
The lawyers seem to plead and cite decrees,
4.962
Commanders they to fight and go at frays,
4.962
Sailors to live in combat with the winds,
4.962
And we ourselves indeed to make this book,
4.962
And still to seek the nature of the world
4.962
And set it down, when once discovered, here
4.962
In these my country's leaves. Thus all pursuits,
4.962
All arts in general seem in sleeps to mock
4.962
And master the minds of men. And whosoever
4.962
Day after day for long to games have given
4.962
Attention undivided, still they keep
4.962
(As oft we note), even when they've ceased to grasp
4.962
Those games with their own senses, open paths
4.962
Within the mind wherethrough the idol-films
4.962
Of just those games can come. And thus it is
4.962
For many a day thereafter those appear
4.962
Floating before the eyes, that even awake
4.962
They think they view the dancers moving round
4.962
Their supple limbs, and catch with both the ears
4.962
The liquid song of harp and speaking chords,
4.962
And view the same assembly on the seats,
4.962
And manifold bright glories of the stage-
4.962
So great the influence of pursuit and zest,
4.962
And of the affairs wherein 'thas been the wont
4.962
Of men to be engaged-nor only men,
4.962
But soothly all the animals. Behold,
4.962
Thou'lt see the sturdy horses, though outstretched,
4.962
Yet sweating in their sleep, and panting ever,
4.962
And straining utmost strength, as if for prize,
4.962
As if, with barriers opened now...
4.962
And hounds of huntsmen oft in soft repose
4.962
Yet toss asudden all their legs about,
4.962
And growl and bark, and with their nostrils sniff
4.962
The winds again, again, as though indeed
4.962
They'd caught the scented foot-prints of wild beasts,
4.962
And, even when wakened, often they pursue
4.962
The phantom images of stags, as though
4.962
They did perceive them fleeing on before,
4.962
Until the illusion's shaken off and dogs
4.962
Come to themselves again. And fawning breed
4.962
Of house-bred whelps do feel the sudden urge
4.962
To shake their bodies and start from off the ground,
4.962
As if beholding stranger-visages.
4.962
And ever the fiercer be the stock, the more
4.962
In sleep the same is ever bound to rage.
4.962
But flee the divers tribes of birds and vex
4.962
With sudden wings by night the groves of gods,
4.962
When in their gentle slumbers they have dreamed
4.962
Of hawks in chase, aswooping on for fight.
4.962
Again, the minds of mortals which perform
4.962
With mighty motions mighty enterprises,
4.962
Often in sleep will do and dare the same
4.962
In manner like. Kings take the towns by storm,
4.962
Succumb to capture, battle on the field,
4.962
Raise a wild cry as if their throats were cut
4.962
Even then and there. And many wrestle on
4.962
And groan with pains, and fill all regions round
4.962
With mighty cries and wild, as if then gnawed
4.962
By fangs of panther or of lion fierce.
4.962
Many amid their slumbers talk about
4.962
Their mighty enterprises, and have often
4.962
Enough become the proof of their own crimes.
4.962
Many meet death; many, as if headlong
4.962
From lofty mountains tumbling down to earth
4.962
With all their frame, are frenzied in their fright;
4.962
And after sleep, as if still mad in mind,
4.962
They scarce come to, confounded as they are
4.962
By ferment of their frame. The thirsty man,
4.962
Likewise, he sits beside delightful spring
4.962
Or river and gulpeth down with gaping throat
4.962
Nigh the whole stream. And oft the innocent young,
4.962
By sleep o'ermastered, think they lift their dress
4.962
By pail or public jordan and then void
4.962
The water filtered down their frame entire
4.962
And drench the Babylonian coverlets,
4.962
Magnificently bright. Again, those males
4.962
Into the surging channels of whose years
4.962
Now first has passed the seed (engendered
4.962
Within their members by the ripened days)
4.962
Are in their sleep confronted from without
4.962
By idol-images of some fair form-
4.962
Tidings of glorious face and lovely bloom,
4.962
Which stir and goad the regions turgid now
4.962
With seed abundant; so that, as it were
4.962
With all the matter acted duly out,
4.962
They pour the billows of a potent stream
4.962
And stain their garment.
4.1037
And as said before,
4.1037
That seed is roused in us when once ripe age
4.1037
Has made our body strong...
4.1037
As divers causes give to divers things
4.1037
Impulse and irritation, so one force
4.1037
In human kind rouses the human seed
4.1037
To spurt from man. As soon as ever it issues,
4.1037
Forced from its first abodes, it passes down
4.1037
In the whole body through the limbs and frame,
4.1037
Meeting in certain regions of our thews,
4.1037
And stirs amain the genitals of man.
4.1037
The goaded regions swell with seed, and then
4.1037
Comes the delight to dart the same at what
4.1037
The mad desire so yearns, and body seeks
4.1037
That object, whence the mind by love is pierced.
4.1037
For well-nigh each man falleth toward his wound,
4.1037
And our blood spurts even toward the spot from whence
4.1037
The stroke wherewith we are strook, and if indeed
4.1037
The foe be close, the red jet reaches him.
4.1037
Thus, one who gets a stroke from Venus' shafts-
4.1037
Whether a boy with limbs effeminate
4.1037
Assault him, or a woman darting love
4.1037
From all her body- that one strains to get
4.1037
Even to the thing whereby he's hit, and longs
4.1037
To join with it and cast into its frame
4.1037
The fluid drawn even from within its own.
4.1037
For the mute craving doth presage delight.
4.1058
This craving 'tis that's Venus unto us:
4.1058
From this, engender all the lures of love,
4.1058
From this, O first hath into human hearts
4.1058
Trickled that drop of joyance which ere long
4.1058
Is by chill care succeeded. Since, indeed,
4.1058
Though she thou lovest now be far away,
4.1058
Yet idol-images of her are near
4.1058
And the sweet name is floating in thy ear.
4.1058
But it behooves to flee those images;
4.1058
And scare afar whatever feeds thy love;
4.1058
And turn elsewhere thy mind; and vent the sperm,
4.1058
Within thee gathered, into sundry bodies,
4.1058
Nor, with thy thoughts still busied with one love,
4.1058
Keep it for one delight, and so store up
4.1058
Care for thyself and pain inevitable.
4.1058
For, lo, the ulcer just by nourishing
4.1058
Grows to more life with deep inveteracy,
4.1058
And day by day the fury swells aflame,
4.1058
And the woe waxes heavier day by day-
4.1058
Unless thou dost destroy even by new blows
4.1058
The former wounds of love, and curest them
4.1058
While yet they're fresh, by wandering freely round
4.1058
After the freely-wandering Venus, or
4.1058
Canst lead elsewhere the tumults of thy mind.
4.1073
Nor doth that man who keeps away from love
4.1073
Yet lack the fruits of Venus; rather takes
4.1073
Those pleasures which are free of penalties.
4.1073
For the delights of Venus, verily,
4.1073
Are more unmixed for mortals sane-of-soul
4.1073
Than for those sick-at-heart with love-pining.
4.1073
Yea, in the very moment of possessing,
4.1073
Surges the heat of lovers to and fro,
4.1073
Restive, uncertain; and they cannot fix
4.1073
On what to first enjoy with eyes and hands.
4.1073
The parts they sought for, those they squeeze so tight,
4.1073
And pain the creature's body, close their teeth
4.1073
Often against her lips, and smite with kiss
4.1073
Mouth into mouth,- because this same delight
4.1073
Is not unmixed; and underneath are stings
4.1073
Which goad a man to hurt the very thing,
4.1073
Whate'er it be, from whence arise for him
4.1073
Those germs of madness. But with gentle touch
4.1073
Venus subdues the pangs in midst of love,
4.1073
And the admixture of a fondling joy
4.1073
Doth curb the bites of passion. For they hope
4.1073
That by the very body whence they caught
4.1073
The heats of love their flames can be put out.
4.1073
But nature protests 'tis all quite otherwise;
4.1073
For this same love it is the one sole thing
4.1073
Of which, the more we have, the fiercer burns
4.1073
The breast with fell desire. For food and drink
4.1073
Are taken within our members; and, since they
4.1073
Can stop up certain parts, thus, easily
4.1073
Desire of water is glutted and of bread.
4.1073
But, lo, from human face and lovely bloom
4.1073
Naught penetrates our frame to be enjoyed
4.1073
Save flimsy idol-images and vain-
4.1073
A sorry hope which oft the winds disperse.
4.1073
As when the thirsty man in slumber seeks
4.1073
To drink, and water ne'er is granted him
4.1073
Wherewith to quench the heat within his members,
4.1073
But after idols of the liquids strives
4.1073
And toils in vain, and thirsts even whilst he gulps
4.1073
In middle of the torrent, thus in love
4.1073
Venus deludes with idol-images
4.1073
The lovers. Nor they cannot sate their lust
4.1073
By merely gazing on the bodies, nor
4.1073
They cannot with their palms and fingers rub
4.1073
Aught from each tender limb, the while they stray
4.1073
Uncertain over all the body. Then,
4.1073
At last, with members intertwined, when they
4.1073
Enjoy the flower of their age, when now
4.1073
Their bodies have sweet presage of keen joys,
4.1073
And Venus is about to sow the fields
4.1073
Of woman, greedily their frames they lock,
4.1073
And mingle the slaver of their mouths, and breathe
4.1073
Into each other, pressing teeth on mouths-
4.1073
Yet to no purpose, since they're powerless
4.1073
To rub off aught, or penetrate and pass
4.1073
With body entire into body- for oft
4.1073
They seem to strive and struggle thus to do;
4.1073
So eagerly they cling in Venus' bonds,
4.1073
Whilst melt away their members, overcome
4.1073
By violence of delight. But when at last
4.1073
Lust, gathered in the thews, hath spent itself,
4.1073
There come a brief pause in the raging heat-
4.1073
But then a madness just the same returns
4.1073
And that old fury visits them again,
4.1073
When once again they seek and crave to reach
4.1073
They know not what, all powerless to find
4.1073
The artifice to subjugate the bane.
4.1073
In such uncertain state they waste away
4.1073
With unseen wound.
4.1121
To which be added too,
4.1121
They squander powers and with the travail wane;
4.1121
Be added too, they spend their futile years
4.1121
Under another's beck and call; their duties
4.1121
Neglected languish and their honest name
4.1121
Reeleth sick, sick; and meantime their estates
4.1121
Are lost in Babylonian tapestries;
4.1121
And unguents and dainty Sicyonian shoes
4.1121
Laugh on her feet; and (as ye may be sure)
4.1121
Big emeralds of green light are set in gold;
4.1121
And rich sea-purple dress by constant wear
4.1121
Grows shabby and all soaked with Venus' sweat;
4.1121
And the well-earned ancestral property
4.1121
Becometh head-bands, coifs, and many a time
4.1121
The cloaks, or garments Alidensian
4.1121
Or of the Cean isle. And banquets, set
4.1121
With rarest cloth and viands, are prepared-
4.1121
And games of chance, and many a drinking cup,
4.1121
And unguents, crowns and garlands. All in vain,
4.1121
Since from amid the well-spring of delights
4.1121
Bubbles some drop of bitter to torment
4.1121
Among the very flowers- when haply mind
4.1121
Gnaws into self, now stricken with remorse
4.1121
For slothful years and ruin in baudels,
4.1121
Or else because she's left him all in doubt
4.1121
By launching some sly word, which still like fire
4.1121
Lives wildly, cleaving to his eager heart;
4.1121
Or else because he thinks she darts her eyes
4.1121
Too much about and gazes at another,-
4.1121
And in her face sees traces of a laugh.
4.1141
These ills are found in prospering love and true;
4.1141
But in crossed love and helpless there be such
4.1141
As through shut eyelids thou canst still take in-
4.1141
Uncounted ills; so that 'tis better far
4.1141
To watch beforehand, in the way I've shown,
4.1141
And guard against enticements. For to shun
4.1141
A fall into the hunting-snares of love
4.1141
Is not so hard, as to get out again,
4.1141
When tangled in the very nets, and burst
4.1141
The stoutly-knotted cords of Aphrodite.
4.1141
Yet even when there enmeshed with tangled feet,
4.1141
Still canst thou scape the danger-lest indeed
4.1141
Thou standest in the way of thine own good,
4.1141
And overlookest first all blemishes
4.1141
Of mind and body of thy much preferred,
4.1141
Desirable dame. For so men do,
4.1141
Eyeless with passion, and assign to them
4.1141
Graces not theirs in fact. And thus we see
4.1141
Creatures in many a wise crooked and ugly
4.1141
The prosperous sweethearts in a high esteem;
4.1141
And lovers gird each other and advise
4.1141
To placate Venus, since their friends are smit
4.1141
With a base passion- miserable dupes
4.1141
Who seldom mark their own worst bane of all.
4.1141
The black-skinned girl is "tawny like the honey";
4.1141
The filthy and the fetid's "negligee";
4.1141
The cat-eyed she's "a little Pallas," she;
4.1141
The sinewy and wizened's "a gazelle";
4.1141
The pudgy and the pigmy is "piquant,
4.1141
One of the Graces sure"; the big and bulky
4.1141
O she's "an Admiration, imposante";
4.1141
The stuttering and tongue-tied "sweetly lisps";
4.1141
The mute girl's "modest"; and the garrulous,
4.1141
The spiteful spit-fire, is "a sparkling wit";
4.1141
And she who scarcely lives for scrawniness
4.1141
Becomes "a slender darling"; "delicate"
4.1141
Is she who's nearly dead of coughing-fit;
4.1141
The pursy female with protuberant breasts
4.1141
She is "like Ceres when the goddess gave
4.1141
Young Bacchus suck"; the pug-nosed lady-love
4.1141
"A Satyress, a feminine Silenus";
4.1141
The blubber-lipped is "all one luscious kiss"-
4.1141
A weary while it were to tell the whole.
4.1141
But let her face possess what charm ye will,
4.1141
Let Venus' glory rise from all her limbs,-
4.1141
Forsooth there still are others; and forsooth
4.1141
We lived before without her; and forsooth
4.1141
She does the same things- and we know she does-
4.1141
All, as the ugly creature, and she scents,
4.1141
Yes she, her wretched self with vile perfumes;
4.1141
Whom even her handmaids flee and giggle at
4.1141
Behind her back. But he, the lover, in tears
4.1141
Because shut out, covers her threshold o'er
4.1141
Often with flowers and garlands, and anoints
4.1141
Her haughty door-posts with the marjoram,
4.1141
And prints, poor fellow, kisses on the doors-
4.1141
Admitted at last, if haply but one whiff
4.1141
Got to him on approaching, he would seek
4.1141
Decent excuses to go out forthwith;
4.1141
And his lament, long pondered, then would fall
4.1141
Down at his heels; and there he'd damn himself
4.1141
For his fatuity, observing how
4.1141
He had assigned to that same lady more-
4.1141
Than it is proper to concede to mortals.
4.1141
And these our Venuses are 'ware of this.
4.1141
Wherefore the more are they at pains to hide
4.1141
All the-behind-the-scenes of life from those
4.1141
Whom they desire to keep in bonds of love-
4.1141
In vain, since ne'ertheless thou canst by thought
4.1141
Drag all the matter forth into the light
4.1141
And well search out the cause of all these smiles;
4.1141
And if of graceful mind she be and kind,
4.1141
Do thou, in thy turn, overlook the same,
4.1141
And thus allow for poor mortality.
4.1192
Nor sighs the woman always with feigned love,
4.1192
Who links her body round man's body locked
4.1192
And holds him fast, making his kisses wet
4.1192
With lips sucked into lips; for oft she acts
4.1192
Even from desire, and, seeking mutual joys,
4.1192
Incites him there to run love's race-course through.
4.1192
Nor otherwise can cattle, birds, wild beasts,
4.1192
And sheep and mares submit unto the males,
4.1192
Except that their own nature is in heat,
4.1192
And burns abounding and with gladness takes
4.1192
Once more the Venus of the mounting males.
4.1192
And seest thou not how those whom mutual pleasure
4.1192
Hath bound are tortured in their common bonds?
4.1192
How often in the cross-roads dogs that pant
4.1192
To get apart strain eagerly asunder
4.1192
With utmost might?- When all the while they're fast
4.1192
In the stout links of Venus. But they'd ne'er
4.1192
So pull, except they knew those mutual joys-
4.1192
So powerful to cast them unto snares
4.1192
And hold them bound. Wherefore again, again,
4.1192
Even as I say, there is a joint delight.
4.1209
And when perchance, in mingling seed with his,
4.1209
The female hath o'erpowered the force of male
4.1209
And by a sudden fling hath seized it fast,
4.1209
Then are the offspring, more from mothers' seed,
4.1209
More like their mothers; as, from fathers' seed,
4.1209
They're like to fathers. But whom seest to be
4.1209
Partakers of each shape, one equal blend
4.1209
Of parents' features, these are generate
4.1209
From fathers' body and from mothers' blood,
4.1209
When mutual and harmonious heat hath dashed
4.1209
Together seeds, aroused along their frames
4.1209
By Venus' goads, and neither of the twain
4.1209
Mastereth or is mastered. Happens too
4.1209
That sometimes offspring can to being come
4.1209
In likeness of their grandsires, and bring back
4.1209
Often the shapes of grandsires' sires, because
4.1209
Their parents in their bodies oft retain
4.1209
Concealed many primal germs, commixed
4.1209
In many modes, which, starting with the stock,
4.1209
Sire handeth down to son, himself a sire;
4.1209
Whence Venus by a variable chance
4.1209
Engenders shapes, and diversely brings back
4.1209
Ancestral features, voices too, and hair.
4.1209
A female generation rises forth
4.1209
From seed paternal, and from mother's body
4.1209
Exist created males: since sex proceeds
4.1209
No more from singleness of seed than faces
4.1209
Or bodies or limbs of ours: for every birth
4.1209
Is from a twofold seed; and what's created
4.1209
Hath, of that parent which it is more like,
4.1209
More than its equal share; as thou canst mark,-
4.1209
Whether the breed be male or female stock.
4.1233
Nor do the powers divine grudge any man
4.1233
The fruits of his seed-sowing, so that never
4.1233
He be called "father" by sweet children his,
4.1233
And end his days in sterile love forever.
4.1233
What many men suppose; and gloomily
4.1233
They sprinkle the altars with abundant blood,
4.1233
And make the high platforms odorous with burnt gifts,
4.1233
To render big by plenteous seed their wives-
4.1233
And plague in vain godheads and sacred lots.
4.1233
For sterile are these men by seed too thick,
4.1233
Or else by far too watery and thin.
4.1233
Because the thin is powerless to cleave
4.1233
Fast to the proper places, straightaway
4.1233
It trickles from them, and, returned again,
4.1233
Retires abortively. And then since seed
4.1233
More gross and solid than will suit is spent
4.1233
By some men, either it flies not forth amain
4.1233
With spurt prolonged enough, or else it fails
4.1233
To enter suitably the proper places,
4.1233
Or, having entered, the seed is weakly mixed
4.1233
With seed of the woman: harmonies of Venus
4.1233
Are seen to matter vastly here; and some
4.1233
Impregnate some more readily, and from some
4.1233
Some women conceive more readily and become
4.1233
Pregnant. And many women, sterile before
4.1233
In several marriage-beds, have yet thereafter
4.1233
Obtained the mates from whom they could conceive
4.1233
The baby-boys, and with sweet progeny
4.1233
Grow rich. And even for husbands (whose own wives,
4.1233
Although of fertile wombs, have borne for them
4.1233
No babies in the house) are also found
4.1233
Concordant natures so that they at last
4.1233
Can bulwark their old age with goodly sons.
4.1233
A matter of great moment 'tis in truth,
4.1233
That seeds may mingle readily with seeds
4.1233
Suited for procreation, and that thick
4.1233
Should mix with fluid seeds, with thick the fluid.
4.1233
And in this business 'tis of some import
4.1233
Upon what diet life is nourished:
4.1233
For some foods thicken seeds within our members,
4.1233
And others thin them out and waste away.
4.1233
And in what modes the fond delight itself
4.1233
Is carried on- this too importeth vastly.
4.1233
For commonly 'tis thought that wives conceive
4.1233
More readily in manner of wild-beasts,
4.1233
After the custom of the four-foot breeds,
4.1233
Because so postured, with the breasts beneath
4.1233
And buttocks then upreared, the seeds can take
4.1233
Their proper places. Nor is need the least
4.1233
For wives to use the motions of blandishment;
4.1233
For thus the woman hinders and resists
4.1233
Her own conception, if too joyously
4.1233
Herself she treats the Venus of the man
4.1233
With haunches heaving, and with all her bosom
4.1233
Now yielding like the billows of the sea-
4.1233
Aye, from the ploughshare's even course and track
4.1233
She throws the furrow, and from proper places
4.1233
Deflects the spurt of seed. And courtesans
4.1233
Are thuswise wont to move for their own ends,
4.1233
To keep from pregnancy and lying in,
4.1233
And all the while to render Venus more
4.1233
A pleasure for the men- the which meseems
4.1233
Our wives have never need of.
4.1278
Sometimes too
4.1278
It happens- and through no divinity
4.1278
Nor arrows of Venus- that a sorry chit
4.1278
Of scanty grace will be beloved by man;
4.1278
For sometimes she herself by very deeds,
4.1278
By her complying ways, and tidy habits,
4.1278
Will easily accustom thee to pass
4.1278
With her thy life-time- and, moreover, lo,
4.1278
Long habitude can gender human love,
4.1278
Even as an object smitten o'er and o'er
4.1278
By blows, however lightly, yet at last
4.1278
Is overcome and wavers. Seest thou not,
4.1278
Besides, how drops of water falling down
4.1278
Against the stones at last bore through the stones?