The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
who seized the god-built temple and burned its people,
the crowds that entered it, whom I rightly praised in song;
for when he appeared, all creation was shaken,
and kings perished, and among them the rule remained,
they laid waste the mighty city and its righteous folk.
But when, in the fourth year, a great star shall blaze,
which alone shall level all the earth for the sake of honor —
the very ones who first set it up for Poseidon of the sea —
there shall come from heaven a great star into the divine sea,
and it shall burn the deep ocean and Babylon itself,
and the land of Italy, for whose sake many perished,
the holy faithful of the Hebrews and the true people.
You shall be, among mortals, one who has wrought evils upon evils,
but you will remain utterly desolate through ages upon ages,
[it shall be so, and it shall remain forever utterly desolate,]
your own ground hating you, because you longed after sorcery;
adulteries are yours, and unlawful mingling of children,
female-born and unjust — evil city, most wretched of all.
Ah, city wholly unclean of the Latin land,
raving, viper-loving, sit as a widow beside your banks,
and the river Tiber shall weep for you, whom it took as its bride,
you who have a blood-polluted heart and an impious spirit.
You did not know what God can do, what he can devise;
but you said, "I alone am, and no one shall lay me waste."
But now God who exists forever shall destroy you and all your people,
and no longer shall any sign of you remain on that land,
as of old — since the great God has found again his own honors.
Remain, lawless one, alone; mingled with blazing fire,
go dwell in the tartarean, lawless realm of Hades.
But now again, Egypt, I mourn your ruin;
Memphis, you shall be the source of your own toils, your sinews struck;
in you the pyramids shall utter a shameless voice.
Pytho, once rightly called the twin city,
be silent for ages, that you may cease from your wickedness.
Insolence, treasury of evil toils, raving one full of laments,
grievously suffering, full of tears, you will remain a widow forever.
For many years you alone ruled over the world.
But when Barce puts on her tunic,
white over filthy — may I neither be nor have been born to see it.
O Thebes, where is your great strength now? A savage man
shall destroy your people; and you, clad in gray garments,
shall mourn, wretched one, alone, and pay for everything,
all that you did before with a shameless spirit.
and they shall see mourning for the lawless deeds.
May the great man of the Ethiopians destroy Syene;
the black-skinned Indians shall dwell in Teuchira by force.
Pentapolis, you shall weep; a man of great might shall destroy you.
Who shall tell of your ruins, all-lamented Libya?
and who shall weep piteous tears for you, Cyrene, among mortals?
you shall not cease from hateful lament until the hour of your ruin.