LUCRETIUS

De rerum natura

…..
A man leaves his great house because he's bored

With life at home, and suddenly returns,

Finding himself no happier abroad.

He rushes off to his villa driving like mad,

You'ld think he's going to a house on fire,

And yawns before he's put his foot inside,

Or falls asleep and seeks oblivion,

Or even rushes back to town again.

So each man flies from himself (vain hope, because

It clings to him the more closely against his will)

And hates himself because he is sick in mind

And does not know the cause of his disease.

…..
Nothing is more blissful than to occupy the heights effectively fortified by the teaching of the wise, tranquil sanctuaries from which you can look down upon others and see them wandering everywhere in their random search for the way of life, competing for intellectual eminence, disputing about rank, and striving night and day with prodigious effort to scale the summit of wealth and to secure power. O minds of mortals, blighted by your blindness! Amid what deep darkness and daunting dangers life’s little day is passed! To think that you should fail to see that nature importantly demands only that the body may be rid of pain, and that the mind, divorced from anxiety and fear, may enjoy a feeling of contentment!

…..
Trees don't live in the sky, and clouds don't swim

In the salt seas, and fish don't leap in wheatfields,

Blood isn't found in wood, nor sap in rocks.

By fixed arrangement, all that live and grows

Submits to limit and restrictions.

…..
You see that stones are worn away by time,

Rocks rot, and towers topple, even the shrines

And images of the gods grow very tired,

Develop crack or wrinkles, their holy wills

Unable to extend their fated term,

To litigate against the Laws of Nature.

And don't we see the monuments of men

Collapse, as if to ask us, "Are not we

As frail as those whom we commemorate?"?

Boulders come plunging down from the mountain heights,

Poor weaklings with no power to resist

The thrust that says to them, Your time has come!

But they would be rooted in steadfastness

Had they endured from time beyond all time,

As far back as infinity. Look about you!

Whatever it is that holds in its embrace

All earth, if it projects, as some men say,

All things out of itself, and takes them back

When they have perished, must itself consist

Of mortal elements. The parts must add

Up to the sum. Whatever gives away

Must lose in the procedure, and gain again

Whenever it takes back.

…..