The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Fate, driven on by force, will fill your name to the full.
Woe is me, thrice wretched, when shall I see that day —
yours at last, Rome — and above all the Latins' day?
Revel on, if you will, over him hidden in secret childbed,
who from the land of Asia mounted the Trojan chariot,
carrying the spirit of a blazing beast. But when he cuts through the isthmus,
gazing about him, advancing against all, having crossed the sea,
then he will go after the great beast for its dark blood.
A hound will hunt down the lion that was destroying the shepherds.
They will strip him of his scepters, and he will pass into Hades.
Evil will come upon the Rhodians too, last of all but greatest,
and for Thebes an evil capture still waits, later on.
Egypt will perish through the wickedness of its rulers.
[And as for the mortals who afterward fled the sheer destruction,
thrice blessed and four times fortunate was that man.]
Rome will become a lane, and Delos undelian,
and Samos will be sand — — — — — — —
and later still, after that, evil will come upon the Persians too,
in return for their arrogance; all their insolence will perish.
And then a holy lord will hold the scepter of the whole earth
for all ages, raising up those who had perished.
Three men the Most High will lead to Rome, then, to a pitiful fate,
and all people will perish, each in his own house.
But they will not be persuaded — which would have been far better.
But when at last the evil day has grown to its full for all,
with famine and plague past enduring, and uproar of war,
then again that wretched ruler, as before,
will call together his council and take counsel how he may destroy —
dry things will bloom, leaves appearing along with them;
and the vault of heaven will show, over solid rock,
rain and burning heat and a great blast of wind upon the earth,
and a multitude of locusts moving over all the land. —
But again they will act with shameless hearts,
fearing neither the wrath of god nor of men,
abandoning reverence, craving shamelessness instead,
tyrants in their factions, sinners and violent men,
liars, faithless lovers, evildoers, in nothing true,
breakers of trust, sophists spinning words, pouring out blasphemies —
and no surfeit of wealth will ever be enough for them; but shamelessly
they will gather still more; and once made tyrants, they will perish.
All the stars will fall, prows turned against the sea,
many stars in succession, and the radiant comet
that men call a star — a sign of much toil
coming on, of war and of slaughter.
Never may I live to see the day that filthy woman reigns,
but rather that day when the heavenly grace comes to reign,
and when the holy child, at last, the deceiver of all,
destroys him, opening the deadly abyss in chains,
and suddenly a house of wood covers mortals over.
But when the tenth generation enters the house of Hades,