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of the nature of things-第46节

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

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With its own current 'gainst the iron's fabric
To dash and beat; by means whereof it spues
Forth from itself… and through the brass stirs up…
The things which otherwise without the brass
It sucks into itself。 In these affairs
Marvel thou not that from this stone the tide
Prevails not likewise other things to move
With its own blows: for some stand firm by weight;
As gold; and some cannot be moved forever;
Because so porous in their framework they
That there the tide streams through without a break;
Of which sort stuff of wood is seen to be。
Therefore; when iron (which lies between the two)
Hath taken in some atoms of the brass;
Then do the streams of that Magnesian rock
Move iron by their smitings。
                              Yet these things
Are not so alien from others; that I
Of this same sort am ill prepared to name
Ensamples still of things exclusively
To one another adapt。 Thou seest; first;
How lime alone cementeth stones: how wood
Only by glue…of…bull with wood is joined…
So firmly too that oftener the boards
Crack open along the weakness of the grain
Ere ever those taurine bonds will lax their hold。
The vine…born juices with the water…springs
Are bold to mix; though not the heavy pitch
With the light oil…of…olive。 And purple dye
Of shell…fish so uniteth with the wool's
Body alone that it cannot be ta'en
Away forever… nay; though thou gavest toil
To restore the same with the Neptunian flood;
Nay; though all ocean willed to wash it out
With all its waves。 Again; gold unto gold
Doth not one substance bind; and only one?
And is not brass by tin joined unto brass?
And other ensamples how many might one find!
What then? Nor is there unto thee a need
Of such long ways and roundabout; nor boots it
For me much toil on this to spend。 More fit
It is in few words briefly to embrace
Things many: things whose textures fall together
So mutually adapt; that cavities
To solids correspond; these cavities
Of this thing to the solid parts of that;
And those of that to solid parts of this…
Such joinings are the best。 Again; some things
Can be the one with other coupled and held;
Linked by hooks and eyes; as 'twere; and this
Seems more the fact with iron and this stone。
Now; of diseases what the law; and whence
The Influence of bane upgathering can
Upon the race of man and herds of cattle
Kindle a devastation fraught with death;
I will unfold。 And; first; I've taught above
That seeds there be of many things to us
Life…giving; and that; contrariwise; there must
Fly many round bringing disease and death。
When these have; haply; chanced to collect
And to derange the atmosphere of earth;
The air becometh baneful。 And; lo; all
That Influence of bane; that pestilence;
Or from Beyond down through our atmosphere;
Like clouds and mists; descends; or else collects
From earth herself and rises; when; a…soak
And beat by rains unseasonable and suns;
Our earth hath then contracted stench and rot。
Seest thou not; also; that whoso arrive
In region far from fatherland and home
Are by the strangeness of the clime and waters
Distempered?… since conditions vary much。
For in what else may we suppose the clime
Among the Britons to differ from Aegypt's own
(Where totters awry the axis of the world);
Or in what else to differ Pontic clime
From Gades' and from climes adown the south;
On to black generations of strong men
With sun…baked skins? Even as we thus do see
Four climes diverse under the four main…winds
And under the four main…regions of the sky;
So; too; are seen the colour and face of men
Vastly to disagree; and fixed diseases
To seize the generations; kind by kind:
There is the elephant…disease which down
In midmost Aegypt; hard by streams of Nile;
Engendered is… and never otherwhere。
In Attica the feet are oft attacked;
And in Achaean lands the eyes。 And so
The divers spots to divers parts and limbs
Are noxious; 'tis a variable air
That causes this。 Thus when an atmosphere;
Alien by chance to us; begins to heave;
And noxious airs begin to crawl along;
They creep and wind like unto mist and cloud;
Slowly; and everything upon their way
They disarrange and force to change its state。
It happens; too; that when they've come at last
Into this atmosphere of ours; they taint
And make it like themselves and alien。
Therefore; asudden this devastation strange;
This pestilence; upon the waters falls;
Or settles on the very crops of grain
Or other meat of men and feed of flocks。
Or it remains a subtle force; suspense
In the atmosphere itself; and when therefrom
We draw our inhalations of mixed air;
Into our body equally its bane
Also we must suck in。 In manner like;
Oft comes the pestilence upon the kine;
And sickness; too; upon the sluggish sheep。
Nor aught it matters whether journey we
To regions adverse to ourselves and change
The atmospheric cloak; or whether nature
Herself import a tainted atmosphere
To us or something strange to our own use
Which can attack us soon as ever it come。

 THE PLAGUE ATHENS

  'Twas such a manner of disease; 'twas such
Mortal miasma in Cecropian lands
Whilom reduced the plains to dead men's bones;
Unpeopled the highways; drained of citizens
The Athenian town。 For coming from afar;
Rising in lands of Aegypt; traversing
Reaches of air and floating fields of foam;
At last on all Pandion's folk it swooped;
Whereat by troops unto disease and death
Were they o'er…given。 At first; they'd bear about
A skull on fire with heat; and eyeballs twain
Red with suffusion of blank glare。 Their throats;
Black on the inside; sweated oozy blood;
And the walled pathway of the voice of man
Was clogged with ulcers; and the very tongue;
The mind's interpreter; would trickle gore;
Weakened by torments; tardy; rough to touch。
Next when that Influence of bane had chocked;
Down through the throat; the breast; and streamed had
E'en into sullen heart of those sick folk;
Then; verily; all the fences of man's life
Began to topple。 From the mouth the breath
Would roll a noisome stink; as stink to heaven
Rotting cadavers flung unburied out。
And; lo; thereafter; all the body's strength
And every power of mind would languish; now
In very doorway of destruction。
And anxious anguish and ululation (mixed
With many a groan) companioned alway
The intolerable torments。 Night and day;
Recurrent spasms of vomiting would rack
Alway their thews and members; breaking down
With sheer exhaustion men already spent。
And yet on no one's body couldst thou mark
The skin with o'er…much heat to burn aglow;
But rather the body unto touch of hands
Would offer a warmish feeling; and thereby
Show red all over; with ulcers; so to say;
Inbranded; like the 〃sacred fires〃 o'erspread
Along the members。 The inward parts of men;
In truth; would blaze unto the very bones;
A flame; like flame in furnaces; would blaze
Within the stomach。 Nor couldst aught apply
Unto their members light enough and thin
For shift of aid… but coolness and a breeze
Ever and ever。 Some would plunge those limbs
On fire with bane into the icy streams;
Hurling the body naked into the waves;
Many would headlong fling them deeply down
The water…pits; tumbling with eager mouth
Already agape。 The insatiable thirst
That whelmed their parched bodies; lo; would make
A goodly shower seem like to scanty drops。
Respite of torment was there none。 Their frames
Forspent lay prone。 With silent lips of fear
Would Medicine mumble low; the while she saw
So many a time men roll their eyeballs round;
Staring wide…open; unvisited of sleep;
The heralds of old death。 And in those months
Was given many another sign of death:
The intellect of mind by sorrow and dread
Deranged; the sad brow; the countenance
Fierce and delirious; the tormented ears
Beset with ringings; the breath quick and short
Or huge and intermittent; soaking sweat
A…glisten on neck; the spittle in fine gouts
Tainted with colour of crocus and so salt;
The cough scarce wheezing through the rattling throat。
Aye; and the sinews in the fingered hands
Were sure to contract; and sure the jointed frame
To shiver; and up from feet the cold to mount
Inch after inch: and toward the supreme hour
At last the pinched nostrils; nose's tip
A very point; eyes sunken; temples hollow;
Skin cold and hard; the shuddering grimace;
The pulled and puffy flesh above the brows!…
O not long after would their frames lie prone
In rigid death。 And by about the eighth
Resplendent light of sun; or at the most
On the ninth flaming of his flambeau; they
Would render up the life。 If any then
Had 'scaped the doom of that destruction; yet
Him there awaited in the after days
A wasting and a death from ulcers vile
And black discharges of the belly; or else
Through the clogged nostrils would there ooze along
Much fouled blood; oft with an aching head:
Hither would stream a man's whole strength and flesh。
And whoso had survived that virulent flow
Of the vile blood; yet into thews of him
And into his joints and very genitals
Would pass the old disease。 And some there were;
Dreading the doorways of destruction
So much; lived on; deprived by the knife
Of the male member; not a few; though lopped
Of hands and feet; would ye

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