Book 7
1 O Rhodes, thou art unhappy; for first thee,
2 Thee will I mourn; and thou shalt be the first
3 Of cities, and first shalt thou be destroyed,
4 Bereft of men, but of the means of life
5 Not wholly destitute. And thou shalt sail,
6 Delos, and be unstable on the water;
7 Cyprus, a billow of thy gleaming sea
8 Shall sometime thee destroy; thee, Sicily,
9 The fire that burns within thee shall consume.
10 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}…….
11 Nor heed God’s terrible and foreign water.
12 …….
13 Noah sole fugitive from all men came.
14 …….
15 Earth shall float, hills float, and even sky shall float,
16 Everything shall be water and all things
17 Shall be destroyed by waters. And the winds
18 Shall stand still and a second age shall be.
19 O Phrygia, first shalt thou flame from the crest
20 Of the water; and first in impiety
21 Thou shalt deny God himself, courting favor
22 With false gods, which shall utterly destroy
23 Thee, wretched one, while many years roll round.
24 The hapless Ethiopians under pain,
25 Suffering things lamentable, shall by swords.
26 Be smitten whilst they crouch upon the ground.
27 Rich Egypt ever caring for her corn,
28 Which Nilus by his seven swimming streams
29 Intoxicates, shall an intestine strife
30 Destroy; and thence men unexpectedly
31 Shall drive out Apis, not the god for men.
32 Alas, alas, Laodicea! thou
33 Not ever seeing God shalt lie, bold one;
34 And over thee shall dash a wave of Lycus.
35 …….
36 He himself who is born the mighty God,
37 Who shall work many signs, shall through heaven hang
38 An axle in the midst, and place for men
39 A mighty terror to be seen on high,
40 Measuring a column with a mighty fire
41 Whose drops shall slay the races of mankind
42 That have dared evils. But a common Lord
43 There shall at some time be, and then shall men
44 Propitiate God, but shall not make an end
45 Of fruitless sorrows. And through David’s house
46 Shall all things come to pass. For God himself
47 Gave him the power and put it in his hand;
48 Under his feet shall sleep his messengers,
49 And some shall kindle fires, and some shall make
50 Rivers appear, and some shall rescue towns,
51 And some shall send forth winds. But furthermore
52 A grievous life shall come on many men,
53 Entering their souls and changing human hearts.
54 But when a new shoot shall out of a root
55 Put forth eyes, the creation, which to all
56 Once gave abundant food .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}…
57 …….
58 And it shall with the times be full. But when
59 Others shall rule, a tribe of warlike Persians,
60 Bride-chambers straightway shall be terrible
61 Because of lawless deeds. For her own son
62 Will mother have as husband; son will be
63 The ruin of his mother; and with sire
64 Shall daughter lie down and shall put to sleep
65 This foreign law. But to them afterwards
66 Shall Roman Ares flash from many a spear;
67 And they shall mix much land with human blood.
68 But then a chief of Italy shall flee
69 From the force of the spear. But they shall leave
70 Upon the land a lance inscribed with gold,
71 Which as the signal ensign of their rule
72 The foremost fighters carry constantly.
73 And it shall be, when evil and ill-starred
74 Ilias shall piteously complete for all
75 A tomb, not marriage, then shall brides weep sore,
76 Because they knew not God, but always gave
77 By kettle-drums and cymbals boisterous sound.
78 Consult the oracle, O Colophon;
79 For a great fearful fire hangs over thee.
80 Ill-wedded Thessaly, the earth no more.
81 Shall see thee, nor thy ashes, and alone
82 Escaping from the mainland thou shalt swim;
83 Thus, O thou wretched one, shalt thou of war
84 Be melancholy refuse, having fallen
85 By swiftly flowing rivers and by swords.
86 And thou, O wretched Corinth, shalt receive
87 Around thyself stern Ares, hapless one,
88 And ye shall perish one upon another.
89 Tyre, thon, unhappy, shalt be left alone;
90 For, made a widow by the feebleness
91 Of pious men, thou shalt be brought to naught.
92 Ah, Cœle-Syria, of Phœnician men
93 The last hold, upon whom the briny sea
94 Of Berytus disgorging is poured forth,
95 O wretched one, thou didst not know thy God,
96 Who once in the mouth of Jordan washed himself,
97 —And the Spirit spread his wings in flight towards him—
98 Who before both the earth and starry heaven
99 Was, actual Word, begotten by his Father,
100 And by the Holy Spirit donning flesh
101 He quickly flew unto his Father’s house.
102 And for him three towers did the mighty heaven
103 Establish, in which dwell God’s noble guides,
104 Hope, piety, and reverence much-desired,
105 Not having in gold or in silver joy,
106 But in the reverential acts of men—
107 Both sacrifices and most righteous thoughts.
108 And thou shalt sacrifice to the immortal
109 And mighty God august, not melting grains
110 Of frankincense in fire, nor with the sword
111 Slaying the shaggy-haired lamb, but with all
112 Who bear thy blood take wild fowls, offer prayer,
113 And fixing eyes on heaven send them away;
114 And thou shalt sprinkle water on pure fire
115 Having cried: “As the Father did beget
116 Thee, the Word, Father, I sent forth a bird,
117 Swift messenger of words, with holy waters.
118 Besprinkling thy baptism, O Word, through which
119 Thou didst make thyself manifest in fire.”
120 Thou shalt not shut thy door, when there shall come
121 A stranger unto thee in need to curb
122 His hunger which comes from his poverty,
123 But taking hold of that man sprinkle him
124 With water and pray thrice; and to thy God
125 Do thou thus cry: “I do not long for wealth;
126 A suppliant I once publicly received
127 A suppliant; Father, thou provider, hear.”
128 When thou hast prayed thou shalt give unto him;
129 And the man went away thereafter…
130 …….
131 Do not afflict me, holy fear of God.
132 And righteous, as to birth pure, unenslaved,
133 Attested…
134 Do thou, O Father, make my wretched heart
135 Stand still; to thee have I looked, unto thee,
136 The undefiled, whom hands did not produce.
137 Sardinia, weighty now, thou shalt be changed
138 To ashes. Thou shalt be no more an isle,
139 When the tenth time shall come. Amid the waves
140 Shall sailors seek thee when thou art no more,
141 And o’er thee shall kingfishers wail sad dirge.
142 Rugged Mygdonia, beacon of the sea
143 Hard to get out of, ages shalt thou boast
144 And unto ages shalt be all destroyed
145 With a hot wind, and rave with many woos.
146 O Celtic land, on mountain range so great,
147 Beyond impassable Alp, thee deep sand
148 Shall altogether bury; thou shalt give
149 Tribute no more, nor corn, nor pasturage;
150 And thou from peoples ever far away
151 Shalt be all-desolate, and becoming thick
152 With chill ice thou shalt for an outrage pay,
153 Which thou didst not perceive, unholy one.
154 Stout-hearted Rome, thou to Olympus shalt
155 Flash lightning after Macedonian spears;
156 But God shall make thee utterly unknown,
157 When thou wouldst to the eye seem to remain
158 Much more firm. Then to thee, such things I’ll cry.
159 Perishing thou shalt then cry out and boil
160 In pain; a second time to thee, O Rome,
161 Again a second time I am to speak.
162 And now for thee, O wretched Syria,
163 Do I wail bitterly in pitying grief.
164 O Thebans ill-advised, an evil sound
165 Is over you while flutes speak out their tones;
166 For you shall trumpet sound an evil sound
167 And ye shall see the entire land destroyed.
168 Alas, alas for thee, thou wretched one;
169 Alas, alas thou evil-minded sea!
170 Thou shalt be wholly eaten up of fire
171 And people with thy brine shalt thou destroy.
172 For there shall be such raging fire on earth
173 As flows like water, and it shall destroy
174 The whole land. It shall set the hills on fire,
175 Shall burn the rivers, and exhaust the springs.
176 The world shall be disordered whilst mankind
177 Are perishing. And then the wretched ones,
178 Burned badly, shall look unto heaven inwrought
179 Not with stars, but with fire. Not speedily
180 Shall they be made to perish, but dissolved
181 From under flesh, and burning in the spirit
182 For age-long years, they shall know that God’s law
183 Is always hard to put to test and not
184 To be deceived; and then earth, seized by foree,
185 Daring whatever god she did admit
186 Unto her altars, cheated, turned to smoke
187 Through the changed air; and they shall undergo
188 Much suffering who for gain shall prophesy
189 Shameful things, nourishing the evil time.
190 And the Hebrews who put on the shaggy skins
191 Of sheep shall prove false, in which race themselves
192 Obtained no portion by inheritance,
193 But talking mere words over sorrows they
194 Are misers, who shall change their course of life
195 And not mislead the just, who through the heart
196 All-faithfully propitiate their God.
197 But in the third lot of revolving years,
198 Eighth the first, shall another world appear.
199 Night shall be all … long and without light.
200 And then shall pass around the dreadful stench
201 Of brimstone, messenger of homicides,
202 When they shall be by night and hunger slain.
203 Then a pure mind shall God beget in men,
204 And shall the race establish, as it was
205 Aforetime; longer shall not any one
206 Deep furrow cut with round plow, nor two oxen
207 Straight guiding dip the iron down; nor vines
208 Shall be not ears of corn; but all shall eat
209 Together dewy manna with white teeth.
210 And then among them God shall also be,
211 And he shall teach them as he has taught me,
212 The sad one. For how many evil things
213 I did with knowledge onee, and many things
214 Heedless I also wickedly performed.
215 Countless my couches, but no marriage-bond
216 Was cared for; and I, all-unfaithful, brought
217 To all a savage oath. I turned away
218 Those in need and among the foremost went
219 Into like glen and minded not God’s word.
220 Therefore did fire consume me and shall gnaw;
221 For I shall not live always, but a time
222 Of evil shall destroy me, when for me
223 Men shall beside the margin of the sea
224 Construct a tomb, and shall slay me with stones;
225 For lying with my father a dear son
226 Did I present him. Smite me, smite me all;
227 For thus shall I live and fix eyes on heaven.