太子爷小说网 > 英语电子书 > of the nature of things >

第29节

of the nature of things-第29节

小说: of the nature of things 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



Or; having entered; the seed is weakly mixed
With seed of the woman: harmonies of Venus
Are seen to matter vastly here; and some
Impregnate some more readily; and from some
Some women conceive more readily and become
Pregnant。 And many women; sterile before
In several marriage…beds; have yet thereafter
Obtained the mates from whom they could conceive
The baby…boys; and with sweet progeny
Grow rich。 And even for husbands (whose own wives;
Although of fertile wombs; have borne for them
No babies in the house) are also found
Concordant natures so that they at last
Can bulwark their old age with goodly sons。
A matter of great moment 'tis in truth;
That seeds may mingle readily with seeds
Suited for procreation; and that thick
Should mix with fluid seeds; with thick the fluid。
And in this business 'tis of some import
Upon what diet life is nourished:
For some foods thicken seeds within our members;
And others thin them out and waste away。
And in what modes the fond delight itself
Is carried on… this too importeth vastly。
For commonly 'tis thought that wives conceive
More readily in manner of wild…beasts;
After the custom of the four…foot breeds;
Because so postured; with the breasts beneath
And buttocks then upreared; the seeds can take
Their proper places。 Nor is need the least
For wives to use the motions of blandishment;
For thus the woman hinders and resists
Her own conception; if too joyously
Herself she treats the Venus of the man
With haunches heaving; and with all her bosom
Now yielding like the billows of the sea…
Aye; from the ploughshare's even course and track
She throws the furrow; and from proper places
Deflects the spurt of seed。 And courtesans
Are thuswise wont to move for their own ends;
To keep from pregnancy and lying in;
And all the while to render Venus more
A pleasure for the men… the which meseems
Our wives have never need of。
                              Sometimes too
It happens… and through no divinity
Nor arrows of Venus… that a sorry chit
Of scanty grace will be beloved by man;
For sometimes she herself by very deeds;
By her complying ways; and tidy habits;
Will easily accustom thee to pass
With her thy life…time… and; moreover; lo;
Long habitude can gender human love;
Even as an object smitten o'er and o'er
By blows; however lightly; yet at last
Is overcome and wavers。 Seest thou not;
Besides; how drops of water falling down
Against the stones at last bore through the stones?

BOOK V

PROEM
 
O WHO can build with puissant breast a song
Worthy the majesty of these great finds?
Or who in words so strong that he can frame
The fit laudations for deserts of him
Who left us heritors of such vast prizes;
By his own breast discovered and sought out?…
There shall be none; methinks; of mortal stock。
For if must needs be named for him the name
Demanded by the now known majesty
Of these high matters; then a god was he;…
Hear me; illustrious Memmius… a god;
Who first and chief found out that plan of life
Which now is called philosophy; and who
By cunning craft; out of such mighty waves;
Out of such mighty darkness; moored life
In havens so serene; in light so clear。
Compare those old discoveries divine
Of others: lo; according to the tale;
Ceres established for mortality
The grain; and Bacchus juice of vine…born grape;
Though life might yet without these things abide;
Even as report saith now some peoples live。
But man's well…being was impossible
Without a breast all free。 Wherefore the more
That man doth justly seem to us a god;
From whom sweet solaces of life; afar
Distributed o'er populous domains;
Now soothe the minds of men。 But if thou thinkest
Labours of Hercules excel the same;
Much farther from true reasoning thou farest。
For what could hurt us now that mighty maw
Of Nemeaean Lion; or what the Boar
Who bristled in Arcadia? Or; again;
O what could Cretan Bull; or Hydra; pest
Of Lerna; fenced with vipers venomous?
Or what the triple…breasted power of her
The three…fold Geryon。。。
The sojourners in the Stymphalian fens
So dreadfully offend us; or the Steeds
Of Thracian Diomedes breathing fire
From out their nostrils off along the zones
Bistonian and Ismarian? And the Snake;
The dread fierce gazer; guardian of the golden
And gleaming apples of the Hesperides;
Coiled round the tree…trunk with tremendous bulk;
O what; again; could he inflict on us
Along the Atlantic shore and wastes of sea?…
Where neither one of us approacheth nigh
Nor no barbarian ventures。 And the rest
Of all those monsters slain; even if alive;
Unconquered still; what injury could they do?
None; as I guess。 For so the glutted earth
Swarms even now with savage beasts; even now
Is filled with anxious terrors through the woods
And mighty mountains and the forest deeps…
Quarters 'tis ours in general to avoid。
But lest the breast be purged; what conflicts then;
What perils; must bosom; in our own despite!
O then how great and keen the cares of lust
That split the man distraught! How great the fears!
And lo; the pride; grim greed; and wantonness…
How great the slaughters in their train! and lo;
Debaucheries and every breed of sloth!
Therefore that man who subjugated these;
And from the mind expelled; by words indeed;
Not arms; O shall it not be seemly him
To dignify by ranking with the gods?…
And all the more since he was wont to give;
Concerning the immortal gods themselves;
Many pronouncements with a tongue divine;
And to unfold by his pronouncements all
The nature of the world。

ARGUMENT OF THE BOOK AND NEW PROEM
AGAINST A TELEOLOGICAL CONCEPT

                              And walking now
In his own footprints; I do follow through
His reasonings; and with pronouncements teach
The covenant whereby all things are framed;
How under that covenant they must abide
Nor ever prevail to abrogate the aeons'
Inexorable decrees;… how (as we've found);
In class of mortal objects; o'er all else;
The mind exists of earth…born frame create
And impotent unscathed to abide
Across the mighty aeons; and how come
In sleep those idol…apparitions;
That so befool intelligence when we
Do seem to view a man whom life has left。
Thus far we've gone; the order of my plan
Hath brought me now unto the point where I
Must make report how; too; the universe
Consists of mortal body; born in time;
And in what modes that congregated stuff
Established itself as earth and sky;
Ocean; and stars; and sun; and ball of moon;
And then what living creatures rose from out
The old telluric places; and what ones
Were never born at all; and in what mode
The human race began to name its things
And use the varied speech from man to man;
And in what modes hath bosomed in their breasts
That awe of gods; which halloweth in all lands
Fanes; altars; groves; lakes; idols of the gods。
Also I shall untangle by what power
The steersman nature guides the sun's courses;
And the meanderings of the moon; lest we;
Percase; should fancy that of own free will
They circle their perennial courses round;
Timing their motions for increase of crops
And living creatures; or lest we should think
They roll along by any plan of gods。
For even those men who have learned full well
That godheads lead a long life free of care;
If yet meanwhile they wonder by what plan
Things can go on (and chiefly yon high things
Observed o'erhead on the ethereal coasts);
Again are hurried back unto the fears
Of old religion and adopt again
Harsh masters; deemed almighty;… wretched men;
Unwitting what can be and what cannot;
And by what law to each its scope prescribed;
Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time。
  But for the rest;… lest we delay thee here
Longer by empty promises… behold;
Before all else; the seas; the lands; the sky:
O Memmius; their threefold nature; lo;
Their bodies three; three aspects so unlike;
Three frames so vast; a single day shall give
Unto annihilation! Then shall crash
That massive form and fabric of the world
Sustained so many aeons! Nor do I
Fail to perceive how strange and marvellous
This fact must strike the intellect of man;…
Annihilation of the sky and earth
That is to be;… and with what toil of words
'Tis mine to prove the same; as happens oft
When once ye offer to man's listening ears
Something before unheard of; but may not
Subject it to the view of eyes for him
Nor put it into hand… the sight and touch;
Whereby the opened highways of belief
Lead most directly into human breast
And regions of intelligence。 But yet
I will speak out。 The fact itself; perchance;
Will force belief in these my words; and thou
Mayst see; in little time; tremendously
With risen commotions of the lands all things
Quaking to pieces… which afar from us
May she; the steersman Nature; guide: and may
Reason; O rather than the fact itself;
Persuade us that all things can be o'erthrown
And sink with awful…sounding breakage down!
  But ere on this I take a step to utter
Oracles holier and soundlier based
Than ever the Pythian pronounced for men
From out the tripod and the Delphian laurel;
I will unfold for thee with learned words
Many a consolation; lest perchance;
Still bridled by religion; thou suppose
Lands; sun; and sk

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的