The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Resting her body a little while on the wet earth,
she came back again to Noah, bearing an olive twig,
a sign, the token of great news. Courage filled everyone,
and great joy, since now they hoped to see the land.
And then after that another bird, black-winged,
he swiftly sent out; and it, trusting in its wings,
flew on eagerly, and coming to the land it stayed there.
And Noah knew that the land was near, close by.
But when upon the rushing waves, here and there,
the ark of wondrous craft went floating on the swells of the sea,
it settled fast, made firm, upon a narrow shore.
There is a place on the dark mainland of Phrygia,
a towering, long-stretching mountain, and it is called Ararat,
since indeed upon it all were destined to be saved;
and in that place there was a great and cherished longing—
for there the springs of the great river Marsyas rise.
On this the ark came to rest, upon its lofty peaks,
when the waters had subsided; and then again from heaven above
the awful voice of the great God cried out once more,
speaking this word: "Noah, well-guarded, faithful, righteous one,
go forth boldly with your sons and with your wife
and the three brides, and fill the whole earth,
increasing, multiplying, dealing out justice
to one another, generation after generation, until the judgment comes
upon every race of men, since judgment shall be for all."
So spoke the immortal voice. And Noah from his resting place
rushed forth, taking courage, onto the earth, and with him his sons
and his wife and the brides, and creeping things and winged things,
the races of four-footed beasts, and all the rest together
went out of the wooden house into one place.
And then indeed Noah, most righteous of men,
came forth on the eighth, the forty-first dawn,
once it had been filled with waters, through the counsels of the great God.
There again a new generation of life sprang up,
the golden race, the first, which is the sixth, and the best,
since the first-formed man came to be; and its name
is Heavenly, because it shall be wholly devoted to God.
O first race of the sixth generation, O great joy,
which fell to me afterward, when I escaped steep destruction,
tossed much upon the waves with my own husband and my husband's brothers
and my father-in-law and mother-in-law and the wives of my husband's brothers, suffering terrible things.
Fitting things I shall foretell: there shall be a many-colored flower
upon a fig tree; and time shall come to its middle course; a kingly rule,
scepter-bearing, it shall hold. For three great-hearted kings,
most righteous men, shall bring destruction upon their portions;
and for many years they shall rule, dealing out justice
to men who care for labor and for lovely works.
And the earth again exults in its own self-grown fruits,
springing up abundantly, overflowing in harvest for that generation.
And their nurturers, ageless through all their days,