Metamorphosis of Animals (1806)

 

Now if your mind is prepared to venture upon the final

Step to this summit, give me your hand and view with an open

Gaze the abundance of Nature before you. Everywhere richly

Gifts she has lavished around, the Goddess, but never she worries

After the manner of mortal women, regarding the nurture

Offspring need in a steady supply, that isn't her wont, for

Doubly she has determined the ultimate law: with a limit,

Set to each life and need in its measure, and then without measure

Gifts she has scattered, easy to find, and she quietly favours

Motley toils for her children, seeing their needs are so many;

So they will flock and yearn, untrained, for the ends that are set them.

 

Every animal is an end in itself, it issues

Perfect from Nature's womb and its offspring are equally perfect.

All its organs are formed according to laws that are timeless,

Even a form very rare will hold to its type, though in secret.

Every mouth is designed to admit particular foodstuffs,

Such as befit the body; an animal feeble and toothless,

One with jaws that are toothed and massive – a suitable organ

Each will possess for channelling food to the rest of its body.

Also the feet, whether long or short, will always be moving

Tuned to the animal's every need and every intention.

 

Thus has the Mother ordained the health complete and unbroken

Each of her children enjoys, and the limbs of each, being vital,

Never conflicting the one with the other, have life as their function.

So the shape of an animal patterns its manner of living,

Likewise their manner of living, again, exerts on the animals'

Shapes a massive effect: all organized structures are solid,

Thus, which are prone to change under pressure from outward conditions.

Deep within the more noble creatures, indeed, a power

Dwells enclosed in the holy ring of vital formation.

Here are the limits no god can alter, honoured by Nature:

Only a limit enables a form to rise to perfection.

 

Deep within, however, a spirit may seem to be wrestling:

How shall he rupture the ring and cause the forms to be random,

Random the will? Yet all his efforts, they come to nothing;

For, if he burrows his way right through to this organ or that one,

Making it grander by far, then other organs will dwindle,

Disproportionate weight and excess of it quickly destroying

All the beauty of form and all pure litheness of movement.

So if you see that a creature possesses a certain advantage,

Put the question at once: What is the fault that afflicts it

Elsewhere? – and seek to discover the defect, always inquiring;

Then at once you will find the key to the world of formation.

 

For there has never existed an animal into whose jawbone

Teeth are pegged that had a horn sprout out of its forehead;

Therefore a lion with a horn the Eternal Mother could never

Possibly make, though she drew on all her potent resources;

For she has not measures sufficient to plant in a being

Rows of teeth, complete, together with horns or with antlers.

 

May this beautiful concept of power and limit, of random

Venture and law, freedom and measure, of order in motion,

Defect and benefit, bring you high pleasure; gently instructive,

Thus, the sacred Muse in her teaching tells you of harmonies.

Moral philosophers never attained to a concept sublimer,

Nor did men of affairs, nor artists imagining; rulers,

Worthy of power, enjoy their crowns on this account only.

So be glad of it, Nature's loftiest creature, now feeling

Able to follow her loftiest thought on her wings of Creation.

Stand where you are, be still, and looking behind you, backward,

All things consider, compare, and take from the lips of the Muse then,

So that you'll see, not dream it, a truth that is sweet and is certain.

 

 

Translated by Christopher Middleton