The Prophecies

by Nostradamus

  A Libyan prince with influence in the West

  Shall so inflame François for Arab matters

  That in his knowledge of letters he shall abet

  The translation of its language into French. (3.27)

  The traditional emblem of the French monarchy, the fleur-de-lis—which recalls the lily of the valley of the Song of Songs—will in turn transform France into an Arcadia akin to the “green and pleasant land” of Blake’s redeemed Albion :

  There peace & abundance shall find its land,

  With the lily growing wild everywhere :

  The dead shall be brought in by sea and land,

  In the vain hope of being buried there. (4.20)

  As in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, everything in Nostradamus’s poem happens (at least) twice: every event past or present is parsed as an advent of the future. Toward the very end of the Prophecies, Nostradamus quotes the dying Augustus’s boast that “I found a Rome of bricks and left it to you of marble,” while predicting that his fifty-seven-year reign as emperor will provide the paradigm for a great Pax Augusta to come :

  In marble shall the walls of brick now rise,

  Seven & fifty years of lasting peace,

  Aqueducts restored, joy to all mankind,

  Health, abundant fruit, blissful honeyed times. (10.89)

  In Virgil’s celebrated Fourth Eclogue, the imminent return of the golden age under Saturn’s sway was interpreted in the Middle Ages as announcing the coming of Christ—born under the reign of Augustus. This soteriological figure, however, is virtually absent from the Prophecies. The poem contains but a single glancing mention of the Messiah (“The great Messiah shall rule through the Sun,” 5.53) and but a single quatrain that might possibly allude to his brief and ultimately imperiled parousia as a “shepherd”:

  Lost, found, in hiding for so long a while,

  Shepherd as demigod shall be honored :

  Before the moon completes its full cycle,

  By other vows shall he be dishonored. (1.25)

  In the meantime, in a world whose God is at best inscrutable and at worst utterly riven by religious schism—the word “God” occurs only three times over the course of the entire poem—the only fitting response is therefore a watchful silence, in the patient expectation that, sooner or later, the awaited one might arrive, always imminent, always deferred :

  The rose at the core of the greater world,

  New allegations civic bloodshed feed :

  One’s mouth shall be closed, if the truth be told,

  The awaited one late in time of need. (5.96)

  RICHARD SIEBURTH

  A Note on the Translation

  Translations are always fated to be clearer than their originals. In the case of Nostradamus, I have taken the smudged and almost indecipherable woodcuts of his quatrains and tried to sharpen their quality of (Latin) epigrammatic incision, always seeking to imagine what, in his mind’s eye, the seer might have actually “seen.” I have cleaved close to his French decasyllabic meter, attempting to re-create in English the measures and caesurae of nonaccentual verse: the syllable has therefore been (as Charles Olson put it) the “kingpin” of my prosody. Nostradamus’s prophecies are unthinkable in a universe without rhyme: in addition to his standard alternating scheme (abab), I have played with couplets, monorhyme, and all the resources of assonance, consonance, cross-, near-, slant-, and eye-rhyme in order to register a cosmos where homophony and homology constantly collide. If many of the quatrains therefore come out sounding like the doggerel of disaster (or like the nonsense stanzas of Edward Lear), this, too, is part of the popular culture from which they emerged.

  Nostradamus himself started out as a translator: his first literary work (unpublished) was a casting of Horapollo’s treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphics into rhymed “epigrams.” His Prophecies can in turn be approached as a massive translation machine, in which Latin word order is literally transferred into vernacular French and in which the past is continually ferried into the future in the service of a vast vision of translatio imperii. The poem has in turn called up myriads of further translations over the centuries—if one includes under this broad rubric not only rewordings into other languages (including modern French), but also all forms of plagiarism, imitation, exegesis, commentary, and outright hermeneutic delirium (still proliferating on the World Wide Web). My new verse version is thus merely the latest afterlife (Nachleben) of Nostradamus’s serial work-in-progress.

  As was the case for my previous translation of Scève’s Délie, my worn copy of Cotgrave’s 1611 Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues has never been far from my side. Also on my desk: Edgar Leoni’s 1961 Nostradamus and His Prophecies and Peter Lemesurier’s 2003 Nostradamus: The Illustrated Prophecies. Leoni provides a literal, word-for-word account of the poem, based on a rather corrupt version of the original text. Although his readings are therefore far from dependable, his edition of the complete Prophecies—especially its indices and appendices—contains much that will be of interest to the serious student of the prophet. Lemesurier’s Illustrated Prophecies provides a “New and Authoritative Translation” of the poem to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of Nostradamus’s birth. While certainly an interpretative advance on Leoni’s humble literalism and informed by admirable scholarship, Lemesurier’s verse translation addresses itself primarily to British ears of a bygone Edwardian era. I have tried to look further back—and forward.

  RICHARD SIEBURTH

  A Note on the Text

  The original from which a translation—or any interpretation—derives is usually assumed to be in some sense authoritative. Nothing could be further from the truth in Nostradamus’s case. The original texts of his Prophecies are notoriously unstable, laced as they are with printer’s errors that arose during the oral dictation of the fair copies to harried compositors plucking type from dwindling sets of font. Given the distance between Nostradamus’s hometown of Salon and the publishing epicenter of Lyon, the proofreading of his texts was often desultory, if not downright garbled. There is therefore no truly credible “original” of his Prophecies—just a welter of different printings (or different “translations”), which philologists have attempted to collate.

  The first modern critical edition of the 1555 Macé Bonhomme printing of the initial 353 quatrains was provided by the late Pierre Brind’Amour in 1996. This Canadian scholar brilliantly reconstructed Nostradamus’s (hypothetical) original, reimagining and, above all, rehearing its meanings behind all the acoustic distortions of the typographers. In a somewhat controversial move, Brind’Amour also repunctuated the text, occasionally inserting additional (spaced out) colons to clarify the rhythmic and semantic phrasing of the quatrains—a practice I have followed in my English versions. His philology in turn established the basis for Bruno Petey-Girard’s 2003 Garnier-Flammarion version of Les Prophéties, which brought the poem up to its second 1557 printing by Antoine du Rosne (i.e., to the end of its seventh Century). This is the edition on which I have based my en-face translation, even though the punctuation of the quatrains occasionally varies, preferring as I do Brind’Amour’s (and du Rosne’s) sense of the Nostradamian colon. In addition, I have restored all the ampersands Petey-Girard silently corrects into the French et: the ampersand (where “&” can at once mean “and” and “or”—as in “soon & late”) is absolutely crucial to the poem’s logic and visual prosody. The final installment of the Prophecies—Centuries 8 through 10—still awaits editing. In the absence of such an edition, I have followed (with minimal modernization of its spelling) what is thought to be the most reliable extant printing: the posthumous edition of the “complete” poem (with its intercalated prefatory matter), published by Benoist Rigaud in 1568. Its lackadaisical orthography and punctuation have proved to be at once a nightmare and an inspiration. In my annotations to this edition, I have underscored Nostradamus’s references to actual historical events of his times and to real geographical places. Above all, I have t
ried to be attentive to his onomastics, for the Prophecies are founded on the poetics of the Proper Name—the only stable (and magically eucharistic) symbol left in a world torn asunder by religious and political schism.

  RICHARD SIEBURTH

  Chronology

  1503 December 14: Michel de Nostredame is born in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He is the eldest child of Jaume de Nostredame, a notary and occasional moneylender, and Reynière de Saint-Rémy. His paternal side includes converted Jews, probably of Spanish origin, who changed the family name to Nostredame.

  1515 François I succeeds Louis XII as king of France.

  1517 Martin Luther posts his Ninety-Five Theses against papal indulgences on a church door in Wittenberg.

  ca. 1518–21 Nostradamus studies the humanities at the University of Avignon.

  1519–56 Reign of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

  ca. 1521 Nostradamus begins medical studies at the University of Montpellier. Interrupts them to travel and study botany across southern France. Reenrolls in 1529 and probably graduates in 1532.

  1521–59 Intermittent wars between France and the Spanish Hapsburgs, who win the Italian war of 1521–26. Spanish troops enter Provence in 1526 and 1536.

  1524 February: Great planetary conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars under the sign of Pisces generates fears of a universal, apocalyptic deluge.

  ca. 1530–46 Nostradamus travels throughout southern France and northern Italy. Practices medicine, collects plants, and helps people afflicted by the plague. Among other cities, lives in Toulouse and Agen, where he befriends and then quarrels with the scholar and physician Julius Caesar Scaliger. Loses his wife and two children, probably to the plague, in 1539.

  1533 Caterina de’ Medici, daughter of Lorenzo II de’ Medici, marries the future Henri II of France.

  1536 John Calvin publishes his Institutes of the Christian Religion in Geneva. Alliance between François I and Turkish ruler Süleyman the Magnificent against Charles V. Joint military operations in the 1540s and 1550s. Ottoman fleet winters in Toulon in1543/44.

  1545–63 Council of Trent, called to examine Roman Catholic doctrine in response to the Protestant Reformation.

  ca. 1545 Nostradamus writes a long and personal poetic rendering (in French) of the hieroglyphics of Horapollo. The eighty-six-page manuscript was rediscovered in 1967.

  1546 Aix-en-Provence summons him for medical assistance during a plague epidemic.

  1547 Small Provençal town of Salon de Craux (now called Salon-de-Provence) calls upon Nostradamus when the plague hits. In November, he marries the local widow Anne Ponsarde Gemelle, with whom he has six children between ca. 1551 and 1561. Their eldest son, César, will become a respected magistrate, historian, and mayor of Salon.

  1547 François I dies, succeeded by Henri II.

  1547–50 Nostradamus travels in France and Italy, but grows more sedentary and settles in Salon. Practices medicine and opens a successful horoscope practice, with clients visiting and writing from all corners of western Europe.

  1548 Violent tax riots and repression in southwestern France.

  1550 Nostradamus presumably publishes his first almanac. Other annual almanacs and prognostications signed “Nostradamus” or “Nostredame” follow until his death, sometimes more than one per year.

  1552 Publishes a collection of recipes for jams, preserves, love philters, and cosmetics (Le vray & parfaict embellissement de la Face, & la manière de faire des confitures).

  1555 Publishes the first edition of the Prophecies in Lyon (pub. Macé Bonhomme). It contains 353 quatrains, divided into four Centuries, and a preface addressed to César. Summer: Catherine de Médicis invites Nostradamus to the court to provide horoscopes of her children. He reportedly predicts that all of her sons will accede to the throne.

  ca. 1556–58 First translations of Nostradamus’s almanacs into German, Italian, and English.

  1556 Antoine Couillard’s Les Prophéties du seigneur du Pavillon les Lorriz (published in 1560) lambastes the all-too-popular Nostradamus. Other French and English detractors join the fray during the following years.

  1557 Second edition of the Prophecies, published in Lyon by Antoine du Rosne. Contains 642 quatrains. Nostradamus also writes a French adaptation of a treatise by the Greek physician Galen.

  1559 Publishes a short essay on the plague (An Excellent Tretise, Shevving Suche Perillous, and Contagious Infirmities). The English translation alone has survived. Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis marks the end of hostilities between France and Spain and England. That summer, Henri II dies following an accident in a jousting tournament in Paris (he is succeeded by his son François II). At court and elsewhere, people claim that Nostradamus had predicted this calamity.

  Tensions between French Protestants (the Huguenots), Catholics, and the crown grow more acute. Secret Protestant synod; arrest and execution of Protestant leaders. Violence intensifies during the following years.

  Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Henri II and Catherine de Médicis, consults Nostradamus.

  1560 Poet Pierre de Ronsard vindicates Nostradamus as a Catholic poet whose prophecies have been confirmed by recent marvels. December: François II dies, succeeded by his ten-year-old brother Charles IX. Catherine de Médicis appointed regent. People in France link Nostradamus’s quatrains to these events.

  1560s–70s Several forgers and imitators publish works attributed to Nostradamus or one of his kin.

  1560–61 Catholic peasants from Salon hound local Protestants. Some accuse Nostradamus of being a covert Huguenot. He takes refuge in Avignon for two months.

  1562 French Wars of Religion begin. Intermittent strife between Catholics and Protestants until 1598.

  1564 October 17: The French court makes an overnight stop in Salon while traveling across the provinces. Catherine de Médicis summons Nostradamus for a private audience and names him Counselor and Physician in Ordinary to the King. Charles IX reportedly consults him during ensuing months.

  1566 Afflicted by arthritis, dropsy, and arteriosclerosis, Nostradamus writes his will on June 17. He dies in his Salon home on July 2. His secretary, Jean-Aimé de Chavigny, later claims that Nostradamus had predicted his death a day earlier.

  1568 First complete edition of the Prophecies, containing 942 quatrains divided into ten Centuries and a second preface (to the late French king Henri II). Published in Lyon by Benoist Rigaud.

  1594 Chavigny publishes the first biographical sketch and book-length interpretation of Nostradamian quatrains, taken from his almanacs as well as the Prophecies (La première face du Janus françois).

  1605 Some editions of the Prophecies incorporate fifty-eight six-line poems (sixains) under the title Admirable Predictions for the Current Years of This Century. Reportedly recovered by a doctor and flour merchant named Vincent Seve, these verses were most likely forgeries. Still, they have entered the Nostradamian corpus.

  1672 First complete English translation of the Prophecies, by the French-born apothecary Theophilus de Garencières, published in London.

  The Prophecies

  Preface of

  M. Michel Nostradamus

  To his Prophecies

  To César Nostradamus His Son

  LONG LIFE & HAPPINESS

  Your late arrival, César Nostradame my son, has caused me to devote a great deal of time, spent in continual nightly vigils, to reveal in writing & to leave behind to you as a memory, after my own physical demise, & for the common benefit of mankind, such knowledge as the Divine Being has granted me, thanks to the revolutions of the stars.

  And since it has pleased God that you should have appeared on this goodly earth, but that your years are still too small to number, adding only up to two successive months of March, your tender understanding cannot yet fathom what it is I am compelled to bring to completion at my death :

  & seeing that it is possible to leave something behind to you in writing which would otherwise have been obliterated by time, for this hereditary gift of p
rophecy shall not survive me :

  & considering that all human ventures come to an uncertain end & that everything is ruled & governed by the incalculable power of God, finding our inspiration not in Dionysian frenzy, nor in the furor of madness, but in astrological considerations, Only those who are inspired by the divine spirit & the prophetic breath can predict particular things.

  Given that I have for a long time repeatedly predicted well in advance what has since come to pass & in what particular region, attributing this accomplishment to God’s power & inspiration, as well as having predicted on a more short-term basis other fortunate & unfortunate events that were to take place throughout the world,

  & having wanted, for fear of causing offense, to keep my silence & refrain from putting into writing the majority of these events, not only those of the present but also those of the future, because kingdoms, sects, & religions shall undergo such dramatic changes, changes so diametrically opposed to the present state of things, that if I were to reveal what the future brings, the people of the kingdoms, sects, religions & faiths would find it so discordant to the fancy of their ears that they would condemn that which in centuries to come will be recognized as having been actually seen & witnessed.

  Also considering this dictum by our True Savior, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, & turn again & rend you, which has been the cause of my withholding my tongue from the vulgar & my pen from paper, I have since then decided to extend myself, declaring to the common assembly by means of abstruse & puzzling utterances the things of the future, even the most imminent ones, & those that I have seen, however much these might disrupt & scandalize their fragile ears, & the whole thing written in nebulous figures rather than palpably prophetic.