The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Rugged Mygdonia, torch of the sea hard to escape,
you will boast through an age, but through ages you shall perish,
all of you, in hot breath, and go mad with many pains.
Land of the Celts, upon your mountain, by the impassable Alps,
deep sand will bury you whole; you will pay tribute no more,
no grain, no grass; you will be utterly emptied of peoples
forever, thickened over with icy frosts,
you will pay for the outrage you never understood, unholy one.
Rome of the strong heart, after the Macedonian spear
you will flash lightning up to Olympus; but God will make you
utterly unheard of, just when you think it far better
to stand fixed in view; then I will cry such things to you:
perishing, you will one day cry out radiantly — and shine like marble.
a second time, Rome, I am about to speak a second time to you.
But now, wretched Syria, I mourn for you piteously.
Ill-counseled Thebes, an evil sound shall come upon you
of pipes sounding, and upon you the trumpet's evil sound
shall ring, and you shall see the whole land perishing.
Ah, wretched one, ah, evil-hearted sea.
you shall be devoured wholly by fire, and destroy your people with brine.
For there shall be so great a raging fire upon the earth,
as much as water, and it shall flow and destroy the whole earth.
It shall burn the mountains, scorch the rivers, and empty the springs.
The world shall become a world unworlded, as men perish.
Burning miserably then, the wretched shall look up
at heaven, not at the stars, but weary in fire.
Nor do they perish quickly; but as their flesh is destroyed,
burning in spirit for years upon years,
forever, in hard trials, they shall come to know God's law,
that it is not to be mocked; and the earth, compelled,
having dared to receive whichever god upon its altars,
falsely, saw smoke rise through the sky in anguish.
and those shall suffer greatly who for gain
prophesy shameful things, fattening an evil age.
Those who, having donned the shaggy hide of sheep,
call themselves Hebrews falsely, a race they never were born to,
but speaking words for profit amid others' pains,
shall not change their life, nor persuade the righteous,
who propitiate God most faithfully in their hearts.
And in the third portion of the revolving years
of the first ogdoad, another world again is seen.
There shall be night everywhere — long, and disobedient.
And then a dread smell of sulfur shall spread about,
announcing slaughters, when those men shall perish
by night and by famine; then a pure mind shall be born
in men, and your race shall be established, as it was before for you;
no one shall cut a deep furrow with the curved plow anymore;
no oxen shall plunge the guiding iron into the ground;
there shall be no vine-shoots nor grain; but all together
shall eat the dewy manna with white teeth.
And with them then there shall also be God, who will teach you,
as he taught me, the wretched one. For all the evils I did before,
knowing them, and I toiled wickedly at many other things besides, careless.
Countless were my beds, but no marriage was ever my concern;
and I, utterly faithless, brought a savage oath upon all.
I shut out the needy, and going forth among those who came to me
as into a likeness of a glen, I did not understand God's word.
Therefore fire devoured me and shall devour me; for I myself
shall not live, but an evil time shall destroy me, where men
shall build me a tomb, passing by me on the sea.
And they shall destroy me with stones; for concerning my own father,
speaking, I gave up my own dear son. Cast at me, cast, all of you;
for thus shall I live, and fix my eyes upon the heavens.