The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
From the seventh book
O wretched Rhodes—you I will weep for first,
you will be first of cities, and first to perish,
widowed of men, and utterly bereft of life.
Delos, you will sail, unstable even upon the water;
Cyprus, a wave of the grey sea will one day destroy you;
Sicily, the fire that burns against you will scorch you.
This, I say, is God's fearful and encroaching water.
A certain Noah, alone of all men, came forth a fugitive.
The earth will sail, the mountains will sail, and the sky too will sail;
all will be water, and all will perish in the waters;
the winds will cease, and a second age will come to be.
O Phrygia, you will be first to rise from the water's crest,
and first, into impiety, you yourself will deny God,
delighting in speechless idols—which, wretched one,
will destroy you, as many years come round.
Wretched Ethiopians, suffering pitiful pains,
will be struck by swords, crouching low beneath their flesh.
Rich Egypt, ever tended by her grain,
whom the Nile drenches with his seven flowing streams,
civil strife among her own will destroy—whence, beyond hope,
men will drive out Apis, who is no god to men.
Alas, Laodicea, you who never saw the true God
will speak falsely, bold one—the wave of the Lycus will overwhelm you.
He himself, the begotten one, the great God, who will make
many stars, and will hang the middle axis through the sky,
will set before men a great terror to behold on high—
a pillar measured out in vast fire, whose sparks
will destroy the races of men who have wrought evil.
For there will come, just once, that time, when men
will seek to appease God, but will not bring their griefs to an end,
unfulfilled. And through David's house all is accomplished.
For to him God himself gave the throne, placing it in his hands;
and the messengers will lie down beneath his feet,
those who kindle beacon-fires and those who point out the rivers,
those who guard the cities and those who send the winds.
But again a harsh life comes upon many men,
sinking into their souls and changing the minds of men.
But when from the root a new shoot puts forth its eyes,
the creation which once gave abundant nourishment to all,
and what surrounds it in time will grow greater. But when others,
the Persians, a warlike tribe, begin to rule, at once dreadful
will be the bridal chambers, because of lawless tribes.
For a mother will have her own son also as husband; a son
will violate his mother; and a daughter, lying with her father,
will sleep under this barbarous law; but afterward, for them,
the Roman War-god will blaze forth from many a spear;
and with the blood of men they will drench much land.
And then the champion of Italy will flee from the strength of the spear.
And they will leave upon the earth a flower stamped in gold