And generally to what pursuits soever
Each of us is attached and closely tied,
Or on whatever tasks we have been used
To spend much time, so that therein the mind
Has borne unwonted strain, in those same tasks
We mostly seem in sleep to be engaged.
Lawyers imagine they are pleading causes,
Or drafting deeds; generals that they are fighting
In some pitched battle; mariners that they still
Are waging with the winds their lifelong war;
And we that we are toiling at our task,
Questioning ever the nature of all things,
And setting our discoveries forth in books
Written in our native tongue. And thus in general
Do all other pursuits and arts appear
To fill men’s minds and mock them during sleep.
And with those who for many days together
Have watched stage shows with unremitting zeal,
We generally find that when they have ceased
To apprehend them with their senses, yet
Passages remain open in the mind
Through which the same images of things may enter.
Thus the same sights for many days keep passing
Before their eyes, so that even when awake
They seem to be beholding figures dancing
And moving supple limbs; also their ears
Seem to be listening clear-toned melodies
Of the lyre’s eloquent strings, while they behold
In fancy the same audience, the stage too,
Glowing with all its varied scenery.
So great the influence of zeal and pleasure,
And of those tasks whereon not only men
Are wont to spend their energies, but even
All living animals. Thus you will see
Strong horses, when their limbs are lying at rest,
Nevertheless in slumber sweat and pant
Continually, and as though to win some prize
Strain their strength to the utmost, or else struggle
To start, as if the barriers were thrown open.
And often hunters’ dogs while softly slumbering
Will yet suddenly toss their legs about
And utter hurried yelps, sniffing the air
Again and again, as though following the trail
Of wild beasts they have scented: and roused from sleep
They often chase the empty images
Of stags, as if they saw them in full flight,
Till having shaken their delusions off
They come back to themselves. But the tame brood
Of dogs reared in the house, will shake themselves
And start up from the ground, as if they saw
Unknown figures and faces: and the more savage
Each breed is, the more fierce must be its dreams.
And in the night-time birds of various kinds,
Suddenly taking flight, trouble with their wings
The groves of deities, when in gentle sleep
Hawks have appeared threatening them with havoc
Of battle, flying after them in pursuit.
Again the minds of men, which greatly labouring
Achieve great aims, will often during sleep
Act and perform the same. Kings take by storm,
Are made captive, join battle, cry aloud
As though assassinated then and there.
Many men struggle and utter groans in pain,
And as though mangled by a panther’s fangs
Or savage lion’s, fill the whole neighbourhood
With vehement clamourings. Many in their sleep
Discourse of great affairs, and often so
Have revealed their own guilt. Many meet death:
Many, as though falling with all their weight
From high cliffs to the ground, are scared with terror,
And like men reft of reason, hardly from sleep
Come to themselves again, being quite distraught
By the body’s tumult. Likewise a man will sit
Thirsting beside a river or pleasant spring
And gulp almost the whole stream down his throat.
Innocent children also, slumber-bound,
Often believe they are lifting up their dress
By a tank or broken vessel, and so pour
The liquid, drained from their whole body, forth,
Soaking the gorgeous-hued magnificence
Of Babylonian coverlets. Then too
To those into the currents of whose age
For the first time seed is entering, when the ripe
Fulness of time has formed it in their limbs,
From without there come images emanating
From some chance body, announcing a glorious face
And beautiful colouring, that excites and stirs
Those parts that have grown turgid with much seed,
So that, as if all things had been performed,
The full tide overflows and stains their vesture.

This seed whereof we spoke is stirred in us
When first ripening age confirms our frame.
For different causes move and stimulate
Different things. From man the influence
Of man alone rouses forth human seed.
So soon as, thus dislodged, it has retired
From its abodes throughout the limbs and frame,
It withdraws from the whole body, and assembling
At certain places in the system, straightway
Rouses at last the body’s genital parts.
These places, irritated, swell with seed;
And so the wish arises to eject it
Towards that whereto the fell desire tends;
While the body seeks that by which the mind
Is smitten by love. For all men generally
Fall towards the wound, and the blood glistens forth
In that direction whence the stroke was dealt us.
And if he is at close quarters, the red drops
Sprinkle the foe. Thus he who has been struck
By the missiles of Venus, whether a boy
With womanish limbs launches the shaft, or else
Some woman darting love from her whole body,
Yearns towards that whereby he has been wounded,
And longs to unite with it, and shoot the stream
Drawn from the one into the other body.
For dumb desire gives presage of the pleasure.

This desire we call Venus: from it came
The upon stones
After long lapse of time will pierce them through?