The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Instead of the cold season, warmth shall reign upon that very day.
And then thereafter it shall come to pass for mortal men:
for the high-thunderer shall destroy all the shameless,
with thunders and lightnings and blazing bolts,
the men who hate him, and shall wreck the impious utterly,
so that the corpses lying under earth outnumber the sand.
For Smyrna too shall come weeping for her wolf-slaying lord,
to the gates of Ephesus, and she herself shall perish the more.
And foolish Cyme, with her god-inspired waters,
cast down into the hands of godless, lawless, unjust men,
shall no longer send her chariot so high into the sky,
but shall lie dead amid the Cymaean streams.
And then they shall wail together, awaiting their misery.
The harsh people of Cyme shall know the sign they bear,
in payment for what they have suffered, that shameless race.
Then, when they wail over their evil land turned to ash,
Lesbos, by the Eridanus, shall be destroyed forever.
Woe to you, Corcyra, fair city, cease your revelry.
And Hierapolis, land alone joined in marriage to Pluto,
you shall get, just as you yearned to get, a country of endless weeping,
heaping earth upon yourself beside the streams of Thermodon.
And rock-built Tripolis, beside the waters of Maeander,
allotted to the shore by the waves of night,
this providence of God shall someday utterly destroy you.
Let it not wish to seize the land neighboring Phoebus's own;
delicate Miletus a whirlwind from above shall one day destroy,
in payment for choosing Phoebus's deceitful song
and the clever study of men and their prudent counsel.
Be gracious, all-begetter, to the delicate, fruitful land,
great Judaea, that we may see your purposes fulfilled.
For this land first, O God, you knew among all in grace,
so that it might seem your foremost gift to all mankind,
and be held in honor, as God bestowed it.
Thrice-wretched, I long to see the deeds of the Thracians,
and the wall between two seas, in the dust beneath Ares,
dragged along like a river toward the fish-teeming strait.
Wretched Hellespont, an Assyrian's son shall one day yoke you,
and against you the mighty strength of the Thracians shall wage war and be laid waste.
And Macedonia the Egyptian king shall seize,
and shall cast down upon the barbarian region the strength of its rulers.
Lydians and Galatians, Pamphylians together with Pisidians,
armed in full array, shall wage their evil strife.
Thrice-wretched Italy, you shall remain wholly desolate, unwept,
in your flourishing land, consumed by a deadly plague.
And there shall be, from the broad heaven above,
a thunderous roaring, so that God's voice may be heard,
and the sun's own unfading flames shall be no more,
nor shall the moon's bright light shine again,
in the last time, when God shall take command.
All shall grow dark, and darkness shall cover the earth,