第 31 节
作者:不受约束      更新:2021-02-25 00:19      字数:9321
  Streams up is ever straightway carried off;
  And thus it comes to pass that all in all
  There is no overflow; in part because
  The burly winds (that over…sweep amain)
  And skiey sun (that with his rays dissolves)
  Do minish the level seas; in part because
  The water is diffused underground
  Through all the lands。 The brine is filtered off;
  And then the liquid stuff seeps back again
  And all regathers at the river…heads;
  Whence in fresh…water currents on it flows
  Over the lands; adown the channels which
  Were cleft erstwhile and erstwhile bore along
  The liquid…footed floods。
  Now; then; of air
  I'll speak; which hour by hour in all its body
  Is changed innumerably。 For whatso'er
  Streams up in dust or vapour off of things;
  The same is all and always borne along
  Into the mighty ocean of the air;
  And did not air in turn restore to things
  Bodies; and thus recruit them as they stream;
  All things by this time had resolved been
  And changed into air。 Therefore it never
  Ceases to be engendered off of things
  And to return to things; since verily
  In constant flux do all things stream。
  Likewise;
  The abounding well…spring of the liquid light;
  The ethereal sun; doth flood the heaven o'er
  With constant flux of radiance ever new;
  And with fresh light supplies the place of light;
  Upon the instant。 For whatever effulgence
  Hath first streamed off; no matter where it falls;
  Is lost unto the sun。 And this 'tis thine
  To know from these examples: soon as clouds
  Have first begun to under…pass the sun;
  And; as it were; to rend the rays of light
  In twain; at once the lower part of them
  Is lost entire; and earth is overcast
  Where'er the thunderheads are rolled along…
  So know thou mayst that things forever need
  A fresh replenishment of gleam and glow;
  And each effulgence; foremost flashed forth;
  Perisheth one by one。 Nor otherwise
  Can things be seen in sunlight; lest alway
  The fountain…head of light supply new light。
  Indeed your earthly beacons of the night;
  The hanging lampions and the torches; bright
  With darting gleams and dense with livid soot;
  Do hurry in like manner to supply
  With ministering heat new light amain;
  Are all alive to quiver with their fires;…
  Are so alive; that thus the light ne'er leaves
  The spots it shines on; as if rent in twain:
  So speedily is its destruction veiled
  By the swift birth of flame from all the fires。
  Thus; then; we must suppose that sun and moon
  And stars dart forth their light from under…births
  Ever and ever new; and whatso flames
  First rise do perish always one by one…
  Lest; haply; thou shouldst think they each endure
  Inviolable。
  Again; perceivest not
  How stones are also conquered by Time?…
  Not how the lofty towers ruin down;
  And boulders crumble?… Not how shrines of gods
  And idols crack outworn?… Nor how indeed
  The holy Influence hath yet no power
  There to postpone the Terminals of Fate;
  Or headway make 'gainst Nature's fixed decrees?
  Again; behold we not the monuments
  Of heroes; now in ruins; asking us;
  In their turn likewise; if we don't believe
  They also age with eld? Behold we not
  The rended basalt ruining amain
  Down from the lofty mountains; powerless
  To dure and dree the mighty forces there
  Of finite time?… for they would never fall
  Rended asudden; if from infinite Past
  They had prevailed against all engin'ries
  Of the assaulting aeons; with no crash。
  Again; now look at This; which round; above;
  Contains the whole earth in its one embrace:
  If from itself it procreates all things…
  As some men tell… and takes them to itself
  When once destroyed; entirely must it be
  Of mortal birth and body; for whate'er
  From out itself giveth to other things
  Increase and food; the same perforce must be
  Minished; and then recruited when it takes
  Things back into itself。
  Besides all this;
  If there had been no origin…in…birth
  Of lands and sky; and they had ever been
  The everlasting; why; ere Theban war
  And obsequies of Troy; have other bards
  Not also chanted other high affairs?
  Whither have sunk so oft so many deeds
  Of heroes? Why do those deeds live no more;
  Ingrafted in eternal monuments
  Of glory? Verily; I guess; because
  The Sum is new; and of a recent date
  The nature of our universe; and had
  Not long ago its own exordium。
  Wherefore; even now some arts are being still
  Refined; still increased: now unto ships
  Is being added many a new device;
  And but the other day musician…folk
  Gave birth to melic sounds of organing;
  And; then; this nature; this account of things
  Hath been discovered latterly; and I
  Myself have been discovered only now;
  As first among the first; able to turn
  The same into ancestral Roman speech。
  Yet if; percase; thou deemest that ere this
  Existed all things even the same; but that
  Perished the cycles of the human race
  In fiery exhalations; or cities fell
  By some tremendous quaking of the world;
  Or rivers in fury; after constant rains;
  Had plunged forth across the lands of earth
  And whelmed the towns… then; all the more must thou
  Confess; defeated by the argument;
  That there shall be annihilation too
  Of lands and sky。 For at a time when things
  Were being taxed by maladies so great;
  And so great perils; if some cause more fell
  Had then assailed them; far and wide they would
  Have gone to disaster and supreme collapse。
  And by no other reasoning are we
  Seen to be mortal; save that all of us
  Sicken in turn with those same maladies
  With which have sickened in the past those men
  Whom nature hath removed from life。
  Again;
  Whatever abides eternal must indeed
  Either repel all strokes; because 'tis made
  Of solid body; and permit no entrance
  Of aught with power to sunder from within
  The parts compact… as are those seeds of stuff
  Whose nature we've exhibited before;
  Or else be able to endure through time
  For this: because they are from blows exempt;
  As is the void; the which abides untouched;
  Unsmit by any stroke; or else because
  There is no room around; whereto things can;
  As 'twere; depart in dissolution all;…
  Even as the sum of sums eternal is;
  Without or place beyond whereto things may
  Asunder fly; or bodies which can smite;
  And thus dissolve them by the blows of might。
  But not of solid body; as I've shown;
  Exists the nature of the world; because
  In things is intermingled there a void;
  Nor is the world yet as the void; nor are;
  Moreover; bodies lacking which; percase;
  Rising from out the infinite; can fell
  With fury…whirlwinds all this sum of things;
  Or bring upon them other cataclysm
  Of peril strange; and yonder; too; abides
  The infinite space and the profound abyss…
  Whereinto; lo; the ramparts of the world
  Can yet be shivered。 Or some other power
  Can pound upon them till they perish all。
  Thus is the door of doom; O nowise barred
  Against the sky; against the sun and earth
  And deep…sea waters; but wide open stands
  And gloats upon them; monstrous and agape。
  Wherefore; again; 'tis needful to confess
  That these same things are born in time; for things
  Which are of mortal body could indeed
  Never from infinite past until to…day
  Have spurned the multitudinous assaults
  Of the immeasurable aeons old。
  Again; since battle so fiercely one with other
  The four most mighty members the world;
  Aroused in an all unholy war;
  Seest not that there may be for them an end
  Of the long strife?… Or when the skiey sun
  And all the heat have won dominion o'er
  The sucked…up waters all?… And this they try
  Still to accomplish; though as yet they fail;…
  For so aboundingly the streams supply
  New store of waters that 'tis rather they
  Who menace the world with inundations vast
  From forth the unplumbed chasms of the sea。
  But vain… since winds (that over…sweep amain)
  And skiey sun (that with his rays dissolves)
  Do minish the level seas and trust their power
  To dry up all; before the waters can
  Arrive at the end of their endeavouring。
  Breathing such vasty warfare; they contend
  In balanced strife the one with other still
  Concerning mighty issues;… though indeed
  The fire was once the more victorious;
  And once… as goes the tale… the water won
  A kingdom in the fields。 For fire o'ermastered
  And licked up many things and burnt away;
  What time the impetuous horses of the Sun
  Snatched Phaethon headlong from his skiey road
  Down the whole ether and over all the lands。
  But the omnipotent Father in keen wrath
  Then with the sudden smite of thunderbolt
  Did hurl the mighty…minded hero off
  Those horses to the earth。 And Sol; his sire;
  Meeting him as he fell; caught up in hand
  The ever…blazing lampion of the world;
  And drave together the pell…mell horses there
  And yoked them all a…tremble; and amain;
  Steering them over along their own old road;
  Restored the cosmos;… as forsooth we hear
  From songs of ancient poets of the Greeks…
  A tale too far away from truth; meseems。
  For fire can win when from the infinite
  Has risen a larger throng of particles
  Of fiery stuff; and then its powers succumb;
  Somehow subdued again; or else at last
  It shrivels in torrid atmospheres the world。
  And whilom water too began to win…
  As goes the story… when it overwhelmed
  The