Great find! We need that full intro, eventually in English, but I guess the German is the place to start
Hmmm not quite as interesting as I had hoped....I wonder what that note [3] references?
Not sure I follow his reasoning why he thought that Lucretius seems more motivated by the physics than the stated purpose of freeing from religious oppression, or why the practical minded Roman would not appreciate that. From a "practical" point of view very little would be more efficient toward happiness than overthrowing religious oppression. Maybe he's saying the Roman would be looking for information to use for better farming or the like, but if there is one thing the poem is devoid of it's "practical" application like mechanics or hydraulics.
Maybe he's saying the Roman would be looking for information to use for better farming or the like, but if there is one thing the poem is devoid of it's "practical" application like mechanics or hydraulics.
I think that's what he's saying, that Lucretius is pushing atomism even though it doesn't seem practical to the typical Roman of his time. But he seems to be missing or ignoring how the understanding of atomism can free people from religious oppression. I read into this the idea of a spoonful of honey to help the wormwood go down but I don't see him saying this.
Interesting find!
“The work of Lucretius will work its magic on anyone who does not completely wrap himself in the spirit of our time and, in particular, occasionally feels like a spectator of the intellectual attitude of his contemporaries. One sees here how an independent man equipped with lively senses and reasoning, endowed with scientific and speculative curiosity, a man who has not even the faintest notion of the results of today’s science that we are taught in childhood, before we can consciously, much less critically, confront them, imagines the world.
The firm confidence that Lucretius, as a faithful disciple of Democritus and Epicurus, places in the intelligibility, in other words, int he casual connectedness of everything that happens in the world, must make a profound impression. He is firmly convinced, he even beleives he can prove, that everything is based on the the regular motion of immutable atoms, ascribing to atoms no qualities other than geometric-mechnaical ones. The sensual qualities warmth, coldenss, color, odor, taste, are to be attributed to the movements of atoms, likewise all phenomena of life. He conceives of the soul and mind as formed from especially light atoms, by assigning (in an inconsistent way) particular qualities of matter to particular characteristics of experience.
He states as the primary objective of his work the liberation of humanity from the slavish fear, induced by religion and superstition, that he sees as nourished and exploited by priests for thei own purposes. This certainly is a serious issue for him. Nonetheless, he does seem to have been guided mostly by the need to persuade his readers of the necessity for the atomistic-mechanical worldview, although he dare not say this openly to his much more practically oriented Roman readers. His reverence for Epicurus, Greek culture and language, which he considers greatly superior to Latin culture and language, is altogether moving. It redounds to the glory of the Romans that this could be said to them. Where is the modern nation that holds and expresses such noble sentiments with regard to one of its contemporary nations?
Diels’s verses read so naturally that one forget it is a translation.”
(Albert Einstein, Foreward in T. Lucretius Carus, De rerum natura, Vol. 2, Lukrez, Von der Natur, trans. by Hermann Diels, Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1924, pp. via-vib)
Diels’s verses read so naturally that one forget it is a translation.”
In my opinion it's still the best translation to German and it is still used in academia (as it is also in public domain). Diels did a great job. Especially Lucretius' hyms proclaiming Epicurus as saviour and his philosophy as the path to light sound impressive. Diels was definitively a friend of Epicurean Philosophy.
Diels was definitively a friend of Epicurean Philosophy.
Presuming you are right about that (and I have no reason to doubt!) then it would be really interesting to read Diels' commentaries on Lucretius in particular or Epicurus in general. Anyone who spends the time to translate the entire poem has to be dedicated. There's a great deal of interesting commentary in Munro's translation, and the same thing for Bailey (although I don't trust Bailey's views as much as I trust Monroe's).
Do you think any of that is available?
I wonder if it would be worth going from German to English to pick up any twists that Diels might have seen in some of the key passages, such as around line 62 in book one. Is it worth a look to try to track things like this down:
Humana ante oculos foede cum vita iaceret 62
in terris oppressa gravi sub religione,
quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat
horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans, 65
primum Graius homo mortalis tollere contra
est oculos ausus primusque obsistere contra;
quem neque fama deum nec fulmina nec minitanti
murmure compressit caelum, sed eo magis acrem
inritat animi virtutem, effringere ut arta 70
naturae primus portarum claustra cupiret.
ergo vivida vis animi pervicit et extra
processit longe flammantia moenia mundi
atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque,
unde refert nobis victor quid possit oriri, 75
quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique
qua nam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens.
quare religio pedibus subiecta vicissim
opteritur, nos exaequat victoria caelo.
Presuming you are right about that (and I have no reason to doubt!) then it would be really interesting to read Diels' commentaries on Lucretius in particular or Epicurus in general.
I just decided to do so because I really appreciate Diels colourful and powerful art of writing 
. I cannot imagine to do so without a positive attitude. My edition doesn't include any commentary by him and there may be none as he passed away before publication. I checked Wikipedia for further information and it seems he exchanged letters with Usener (!) and did a university lecture on Greek philosophy. Both were published some years ago and might be of interest.
I wonder if it would be worth going from German to English to pick up any twists that Diels might have seen in some of the key passages, such as around line 62 in book one.
For detailed discussions it might be of interest listening to another voice. One could use translation software to translate foreign translations into English. On the other hand, there are already many professional English translations available (Bailey, Munro etc.). The translation of a translation (especially by software) also may have some issues. For your passage, Diels sounds this way:
When, before the eyes of men, life was ignominious on earth
Bowed down by the burden of heavy-weighted religion,
That stretched out its head from the lofty heights of heaven
And with a hideous grimace dreadfully afflicts mankind,
Then first a Greek dared to turn the mortal eye
Against the monster, and boldly to oppose it.
Not the fable of the gods, not the lightning and thunder of the sky
Scared him with their threat. No, only the stronger rose
Higher and higher his courage. So first he dared the locked doors.
the closed gates of Mother Nature in a mighty storm.
And so it happened. His courageous spirit remained victorious, and boldly
He set foot far above the flaming walls of the universe
And he penetrated the infinite universe with an inquiring spirit.
From there he brought back the truth as the spoils of victory:
What can become, what cannot? And how is everyone surrounded
Its working power and the fundamentally resting landmark?
Thus, as if in retaliation, religion lies at our feet
Completely defeated, but us, triumph lifts us to heaven.
Traducido con DeepL
These links could be of interest:
Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine
PS: The links are to Diels' works on Internet Archive and Google Scholar. Just realized there was no automatic description on those.
Thanks for catching that, 
