Nīl igitur mors est ad nōs neque pertinet hīlum,830
quandōquidem nātūra animī mortālis habētur.
et vel ut ante āctō nihil tempore sēnsimus aegrī,
ad cōnflīgendum venientibus undique Poenīs,
omnia cum bellī trepidō concussa tumultū
horrida contremuēre sub altīs aetheris aurīs,835
in dubiōque fuēre utrōrum ad rēgna cadendum
omnibus hūmānīs esset terrāque marīque,
sīc, ubi nōn erimus, cum corporis atque animāī
discidium fuerit, quibus ē sumus ūniter aptī,
scīlicet haud nōbīs quicquam, quī nōn erimus tum,840
accidere omnīnō poterit sēnsumque movēre,
nōn sī terra marī miscēbitur et mare caelō.
et sī iam nostrō sentit dē corpore postquam
distractāst animī nātūra animaeque potestās,
nīl tamen est ad nōs, quī cōmptū coniugiōque845
corporis atque animae cōnsistimus ūniter aptī.
nec, sī māteriem nostram collēgerit aetās
post obitum rūrsumque redēgerit ut sita nunc est,
atque iterum nōbīs fuerint data lūmina vītae,
pertineat quicquam tamen ad nōs id quoque factum,850
interrupta semel cum sit repetentia nostrī.
et nunc nīl ad nōs dē nōbīs attinet, ante
quī fuimus,
nam cum respiciās inmēnsī temporis omne
praeteritum spatium, tum mōtus māteriāī855
multimodī quam sint, facile hoc adcrēdere possīs,
sēmina saepe in eōdem, ut nunc sunt, ōrdine posta
haec eadem, quibus ē nunc nōs sumus, ante fuisse.865
nec memorī tamen id quīmus reprehendere mente;858
inter enim īectast vītāī pausa vagēque
dēerrārunt passim mōtus ab sēnsibus omnēs.860
dēbet enim, miserē sī forte aegrēque futūrumst;
ipse quoque esse in eō tum tempore, cui male possit
accidere. id quoniam mors eximit, esseque prohibet
illum cui possint incommoda conciliārī,
scīre licet nōbīs nihil esse in morte timendum866
nec miserum fierī quī nōn est posse, neque hīlum
differre an nūllō fuerit iam tempore nātus,
mortālem vītam mors cum inmortālis adēmit.
notes
830—869: Since the soul is mortal, death matters nothing to us. Just as in the past we were not disturbed by the wars of Rome and Carthage, so, when the union of soul and body has once been dissolved, we shall not be affected even by the destruction of worlds.
831: mortalis (accusative plural) predicate adjective.
832: aegri partitive genitive with nihil (cf. aevi in line 904, etc.).
832-842: The main verb of the sentence is poterit (line 841). The overall structure is vel ut (line 832) . . . sic (line 838). A simplified schematic of the subordination is thus:
836: utrorum ... esset the indirect question is authorized by in dubioque fuere ~ "in doubt about whether ...". cadendum is impersonal: "there would have to be an assignment."
838: cum ... fuerit a circumstantial clause subordinate to the temporal clause headed by ubi (line 838).
842: si : On concessive clauses introduced by si see AG 527. The line expresses a common adynaton, but one especially apt here, for it describes exactly the atomic confusion that Lucr. argues will come about at the end of our world.
843: si iam: the iam is emphatic: "if indeed", "if even then."
847: collegerit future perfect, as are redegerit and fuerint data (= erint data), which together form the protasis of a conditional sentence expressing the impossible consequence of an impossible future condition.
848: sita ... est the subject is extracted from materiam (line 847).
850: id refers to the idea of our atoms be arranged again after our death exactly as they are now in this life.
851: repetentia nostri the recollection of our earlier selves (who existed before, but have now perished).
854: respicias the general second person singular: "one." inmensi "immeasurable" because it is infinite.
855: tum "and further"; correlative with cum (line 854).
856: multimodi quam sint the indirect question is in apposition to motus materiai (line 855), a paratactic (or cleft) formulation of quam multimodi motus materiai sint. hoc (accusative singular, scanning hōc) the deixis points forward to the following accusative and infinitive construction.
860: deerrarunt (syncopated = deërraverunt) scans as a trisyllable de- and -err- combining by synizesis.
861: futurumst impersonal active periphrastic construction = erit.
862: cui male possit / accidere relative clause of characteristic with an unreal antecedent.
864: prohibet scans as a disyllable, with pro- and -hib- combining by synizesis.
867: qui non est an emphatic relative clause of fact: this person does not exist; sit would cast doubt upon the important fact of non-existence