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Titus Lucretius Carus (Lucretius) (c 99-55BC)
A Cow Mourning For Her Calf
Oft at some consecrated altar-side,
Where fragrant incense burns, a calf lies slain,
And from his breast breathes out the warm life-tide:
But the lone mother, o'er the grassy land
Far ranging, sees his cloven hoof-prints plain,
And leaves with roving eyes no spot unscanned
For her lost young, and fills with lowings wild
The shady wood; then tireless turns again
To the bare stall, sore stricken for her child.
Naught can the dewy grass, or tender leaf,
Or brimming river-bank, once fondly known,
Avail to bannish that o'er-mastering grief;
Nor by the sight of other calves, upgrown
In the fair fields, is her sad heart beguiled:
So deeply yearns she for her one, her own.
- De Rerum Natura, II, 352-366
translated by Henry S Salt ("Treasures of Lucretius", Watts & Co,
London 1912)
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revised 24 November 2005
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