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Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (vv. 1-43)                                                   

This is one of my favourites. It speaks of nature, how matter is made, of religion and how it affects people's attitude to life. It speaks of a sense of pessimism that surrounds man's life on earth and how his and her will and attitude can generate optimism and change things for the better. Here and there are interspersed hints that Lucretius liked his women, and this adds that little conspiracy that readers like to read about.   Of course Lucretius must be judged above all for his literature rather than for his account of the scientific postulates or axioms that he talks about. One must reflect on the fact that the physical sciences have only become clear in the last century or so, and increasingly clearer over the last few decades. When I graduated the atom consisted of electrons, neutrons and protons. In the last twenty years we discovered that those were not the primordial elements from which all other matter is made: we, I mean my illustrious peers in Physics and Engineering, discovered that there were other smaller elements called quarks and leptons, some up and some down, and some other quite strange names: it is somewhat sad that the confraternity of Phisicists has shown such scant attention to language.  Even as I write there is a major expectation of finding the missing element or particle, "God's particle", which together with the other up and down things, which they say are primordial, can explain how the world was made.   Doubtless we will know the name of the Nobel laureate working in the Geneva underground collider sometimes after the first high energy collisions are made public.   The matter is likely to remain still unresolved. Read on and enjoy Lucretius, especially the first line; five simple words that hide the blistering up and down particles power that created them. If you are interested in a representation of the Standard Model of Particle Physics then click here.

Liber Primus

1    Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divomque voluptas,

2    alma Venus, caeli subter labentia signa

3    quae mare navigerum, quae terras frugiferentis

4    concelebras, per te quonian genus omne animantum

5    concipitur visitque exortum lumina solis:

6    te, dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila caeli

7    adventumque tuum, tibi suavis daedala tellus

8    summittit flores, tibi rident aequora ponti

9    placatumque nitet diffuso lumine caelum.

10  nam simul ac species patefactast verna diei

11  et reserata viget genitabilis aura favoni,

12  aeriae primum volucres te, diva, tuumque

13  significant initum perculsae corda tua vi.

14  inde ferae pecudes persultant pabula laeta

15  et rapidos tranant amnis: ita capta lepore

16  te sequitur cupide quo quanque inducere pergis.

17  denique per maria ac montis fluviosque rapaces

18  frondiferasque domos avium camposque virentis

19  omnibus incutiens blandum per pectora amorem

20  efficis ut cupide generatim saecla propagent.

Notes:

First Book                            

1   Genitrix of the Romans, voluptuous satisfaction of men and gods,

2   and yet Mother, Venus, giver of life, thanks to you the stars move in the sky,

3   the sea moves vessels and the fertile lands are filled with creatures;

4   only through you every living creature can be conceived

5   and no sooner is one born that it beholds the light of the sun;

6   before you, o Goddess, winds run away and the mists vanish;

7   under your gentle stride fields come into flowers,

8   the immensity of the seas smile and the serene sky

9   shines its light over all things below.

10 then comes spring and fresh buds reappear, or, And then the face of Spring comes and fresh buds reappear,

11 the chains are broken and Zephyr's fertilizing soft blow begins its regeneration;

12 firstly the birds in the sky celebrate you, o Goddess, your coming,

13 as if their heart had been troubled by your presence. review this line

Notes: