Six fragments of a single work: De rerum natura by Lucretius (c. 99-55 BC), a Latin poem that sets out the physics and ethics of Epicurus in verse.

This demanding text deserves the attention of a wider audience than specialists alone. Rediscovered in 1417 by Poggio Bracciolini, it deeply nourished Renaissance thought and, later, the modern philosophy of nature. Yet despite the vitality of its language and the continuing relevance of the questions it addresses, certain passages remain opaque to the contemporary reader.

These fragments are thus intended as a first attempt at transposition: to make the listener feel through sound what Lucretius meant the poem to make them feel. The choice of a musical medium is deliberate. It follows the spirit of the poet who smears honey on the rim of the cup of wormwood so that the bitterness of a salutary doctrine may be accepted.

Minimalist electronic music extends this sweetness: it heightens the sensory dimension of the experience Lucretius intended, and seeks to approach the poetic communion he establishes with Venus, the figure of the vital power of natura, whom he invokes as inspiration and companion of his writing. A goddess for the poet, a force for the physicist, Venus deliberately remains a double figure, and it is within this tension, from the exaltation of life to lucidity before the materiality of the world, that the proposed journey unfolds.

Each piece takes up one of the work's major motifs:

• The hymn to Venus;
• The praise of Epicurus;
• The principles of things;
• Atomism;
• The insignificance of pain and pleasure in the face of the world's materiality;
• The critique of romantic passion.

The famous passage on the sacrifice of Iphigenia (I, vv. 80-101) will be treated later, in the dialogue it allows with other texts of Antiquity.

Translations: Charles Nisard (ed.), De la nature des choses, Firmin-Didot Frères, 1868; André Lefèvre, 1876, revised 1899.

Alma Vénus

Book One §1.1.
Source: Charles Nisard. De la nature des choses, Firmin-Didot Frères, 1868

Triumph

Book One §1.x.
Source: Charles Nisard. De la nature des choses, Firmin-Didot Frères, 1868

Ex Nihilo

First axiom.
Book One §1.150
Source: Charles Nisard. De la nature des choses, Firmin-Didot Frères, 1868

Atom

Book One §1.610
Source: Charles Nisard. De la nature des choses, Firmin-Didot Frères, 1868

Order

Book XXX §X.X
Source: André Lefèvre (published 1876, revised 1899).

Love

Book Four §4.1050
Source: Charles Nisard. De la nature des choses, Firmin-Didot Frères, 1868