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The Prophecies

Page 29

by Nostradamus


  After Piombino, the breeze good & stiff.

  9.27

  Palace of wood, covered bridge against winds,

  The honored guest shall tap the young Dauphin :

  The old operator then boards his fleet

  And sails away, beyond the duke’s demesne.

  9.28

  The allied fleet in the ports of Marseille

  And Venice to march on Pannonia :

  They’ll sail from the gulf & Illyrian bay

  To rape Sicily, bombard Liguria.

  9.29

  When he who is unrivaled near & far

  Decides to cede a place but half-taken :

  Fire, ship, swamp, Charlieu, hot tar,

  Saint-Quentin, Calais shall be retaken.

  9.30

  At the port of PULA & Saint Nicholas,

  Normans shall perish in Phanatic Bay :

  Cap. Byzance’s streets full of screams alas,

  Saved by Cádiz & the Philippine great.

  9.31

  All around Mortara the earth shall quake,

  St. George Caltagirone half laid waste :

  Peace now slumbering, war shall again awake :

  In church at Easter the abyss agape.

  9.32

  A porphyry column found buried deep,

  Beneath its base, writings capitoline :

  Rome shall overpower the scraggly beards,

  Fleet riled up in the port of Mytilene.

  9.33

  King of Rome & Denmark Hercules shall be,

  And surnamed leader of tripartite Gaul :

  Italy trembles as do St. Mark’s seas :

  He’ll be renowned as monarch over all.

  9.34

  The mitered one furious at the breach of faith,

  War swirls up again among roofs of tile :

  By five hundred the treacherous one is blamed,

  At Narbonne & Salces, we’ll have oil for knives.

  9.35

  Ferdinand, escorting the fair-haired one,

  Shall quit the flower to follow Macedon :

  In his hour of need he shall swerve off course,

  And end up marching against the Myrmidon.

  9.36

  A great King in the clutches of a youth,

  Near Easter much confusion, flash of knives :

  Lightning striking topmast, captives for life,

  When three brothers each other kill & wound.

  9.37

  Bridge & mills in December overturned,

  So high shall crest the flooding Garonne :

  Walls, buildings all throughout Toulouse upturned,

  Destroyed beyond recall, like the Matronne.

  9.38

  The English entry at Rochelle & Blaye

  Shall pass well beyond the Macedonian :

  Not far from Agen the Gaul shall wait :

  Fed up with parlays, he’ll seek Narbonne’s aid.

  9.39

  At Albisola, Veront, Carcari,

  To entrap Savona, a night sortie :

  Brisk Gascon at Turbie, & La Scerry

  New palace behind old wall shall besiege.

  9.40

  Near Saint-Quentin, deep in the Bourlon woods,

  In the abbey Flemings shall be cut dead :

  The two younger brothers knocked for a loop,

  Their train hard pressed & their guard hacked to shreds.

  9.41

  The great Chyren shall go seize Avignon,

  From Rome honeyed acrimonious letters :

  Diplomatic word sent from Chanignon,

  Carpentras seized by black duke with red feather.

  9.42

  Plague from Barcelona, Genoa, Venice

  And Sicily to Monaco shall race :

  Against the Barbar fleet they’ll take their aim,

  And back to Tunis chase Barbar away.

  9.43

  Ready to land, the Crusader army

  Shall be ambushed by the Ishmaelites :

  Marauding ships beset them on all sides,

  Ten elite galleys take them by surprise.

  9.44

  Flee, flee, O Geneva, every last one,

  Saturn’s gold for iron shall be exchanged :

  RAYPOZ shall wipe out all opposition,

  Before his advent, the sky’s signs shall change.

  9.45

  Nothing satisfying his immense demands,

  Great Mendosus shall acquire full control :

  Far from court, he’ll issue countermands,

  Bad for Piedmont, Paris, Picard, Tyrron.

  9.46

  Be gone, flee from the red ones of Toulouse,

  Perform your sacrificial expiation :

  The evil lord, in the shadow of the gourds,

  Lies strangled, foretold by haruspication.

  9.47

  The signers of the disgraceful treaty

  Shall find the people otherwise inclined :

  Changing kings can cost a pretty penny :

  Shut in a cage, they shall see eye to eye.

  9.48

  The great maritime city of the sea

  Surrounded by marshes of crystal rime

  At the winter solstice & in springtime

  Shall by gale-force winds buffeted be.

  9.49

  Ghent & Brussels shall march against Antwerp,

  The senate of London its king shall slay :

  Wine & salt contribute to his reverse,

  Thus throwing the realm into disarray.

  9.50

  Mandosus taking power on a grand scale

  Shall grab a goodly part of Norlaris :

  The pale red one, the interregnum’s male,

  So young, so fearful of the Barbaries.

  9.51

  The sects shall all conspire against the reds :

  Fire, flood, sword, rope by peace are laid to rest :

  The intriguers shall all end up near dead,

  Save one who’ll bring the world down upon our heads.

  9.52

  Peace nigh on one side, but never was war

  Pursued with such unparalleled vengeance :

  Pity all the men & women, the gore

  Of innocents spilled throughout all of France.

  9.53

  The youthful Nero three fires shall fashion

  In which to cremate his page boys alive :

  Happy he who lives far from such cruel times,

  Ambushed to death by three of his kinsmen.

  9.54

  At Porto Corsini near Ravenna,

  Shall arrive the despoiler of the lady :

  Far out at sea, the legate of Lisboa :

  Hidden in the rocks, they’ll kidnap seventy.

  9.55

  Dreadful war in the offing in the west :

  The following year expect pestilence

  So great nor young nor old nor beast is exempt :

  Blood, fire, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter in France.

  9.56

  Past Goussonville, Houdan the army rides,

  To display its standard at Maiotes :

  Thousands converted in the blink of an eye,

  Seeking to chain the two to the pyre post.

  9.57

  In the place of DRUX a King shall find rest

  And try to redress the curse upon his head :

  Meanwhile the sky rumbles loud overhead :

  After new brood, King kills himself instead.

  9.58

  To the left of the place known as Vitry

  They’ll lie in ambush for the three reds of France :

  The reds all die, the black one goes scot-free,

  And the Bretons regain their assurance.

  9.59

  At La Ferté the Vidame he shall seize,

  Nicholas, red-robed, who had sired a kid,

  The newborn Louise with her hearty screams :

  Burgundy ceded to Bretons on a whim.

  9.60

  Barbarians at war in black headdres
s,

  Bloodshed affrighting all Dalmatia :

  Mighty Ishmael reaping swift success,

  Frightened frogs seek help from Lusitania.

  9.61

  Pillaged shall be the shores along the sea :

  To Cittanova & its like are sent

  Many Maltese by Messina’s decree

  And clapped into chains, a poor recompense.

  9.62

  For the lord of Cheramon’s marketplace

  Crusaders shall be chained by their degree :

  For long-working opium & mandrake,

  An October ransom shall set a third free.

  9.63

  Wailings & tears & great howlings & screams

  At Bayonne & Foix & near to Narbonne :

  O what dread changes & calamities

  Before Mars has completed several rounds.

  9.64

  The Macedonian crosses the Pyrenees,

  In March Narbonne offers no resistance :

  So quick shall he bound over land & sea,

  Cap. shall find no safe place of residence.

  9.65

  Into a corner of Luna he’ll amble

  Where he’ll be seized & sent to foreign land :

  The unripe fruits subject to great scandal,

  Blame heaped on one, praise on the other hand.

  9.66

  Peace, unity shall reign, yet many a change :

  Estates, offices : high fall, low are raised :

  First fruit of turmoil, travel tough to arrange :

  War over : civil suits, public debates.

  9.67

  From the mountain heights around the Isère,

  At Valence rock, one hundred assembled :

  From Châteauneuf, Pierrelatte & Donzère,

  Against Crest, Romans, in faith assembled.

  9.68

  Dimmed is Montélimar’s most noble light :

  The disaster shall strike where Saône meets Rhône :

  On Lucy’s day troops in woods hid from sight :

  Never was there so horrible a throne.

  9.69

  On the mounts of Sain-Bel & L’Arbresle,

  The pride of Grenoble shall hide away :

  Beyond Lyon, Vienne, a storm of hail,

  Locusts in fields : a mere third remains.

  9.70

  Within the torches sharp swords shall be hid,

  In Lyon on the day of Sacrament :

  Those of Vienne shall all be cut to shreds :

  By Latin cantons Mâcon doesn’t fib.

  9.71

  Hairy beasts shall be seen in holy places,

  With him who shall not dare to face the day :

  At Carcassonne suitable for disgrace,

  He shall be set for a more ample stay.

  9.72

  Again the holy churches shall be defiled

  And plundered by the Toulousan Senate :

  Saturn having completed two three cycles,

  In April, May, folk of a new leaven.

  9.73

  Into Foix shall enter the blue-turbaned King

  And reign less than one of Saturn’s turns :

  White-turbaned king Byzance heart shall convince,

  Sun, Mars & Mercury within the Urn.

  9.74

  In the city of Fertsod most murderous,

  Where plow-ox risks sacrifice on altar,

  They’ll return to the worship of Artemis,

  And bury their dead in Vulcan’s honor.

  9.75

  From Ambracia & the country of Thrace,

  Seafarers, a boon & bane to the Gauls :

  In Provence so everlasting their trace,

  With vestiges of their customs & laws.

  9.76

  With the rapacious & bloodthirsty black,

  Brothel-spawn of the inhuman Nero :

  Between two rivers, on army’s left flank,

  He shall be murdered by the young bald one.

  9.77

  The realm seized, the King shall invite them by,

  His lady seized, condemned to death by lot :

  The life of the Queen’s son they shall deny,

  The wife with the mistress sharing the fort.

  9.78

  The damsel Greek, lovelier than Lais,

  In dalliance with suitors without end,

  Shall be transported to Hispanic climes,

  Taken captive & die a wretched death.

  9.79

  The admiral by trickery & deceit

  Shall coax the timid to quit their galleys :

  Badly bruised by this chrism-denying chief,

  They’ll ambush him, paying back his salary.

  9.80

  The Duke, wanting to wipe out all his kin,

  Shall dispatch the strongest to foreign climes :

  As tyrant he shall do Pisa, Lucca in :

  Then the Barbarian harvest without wine.

  9.81

  The wily King intends by ambushes

  To assail his enemy on three sides :

  A strange amount of tears from coqueluches :

  Translator shall fail in his enterprise.

  9.82

  With floods & plagues raging throughout the land,

  The mighty city shall be long besieged :

  The watch & sentries strangled by bare hand,

  Its fall sudden, but by none mistreated.

  9.83

  Sun in Taurus at twenty, a quake so great

  A crowded theater shall come tumbling down :

  The sky, air & earth shall darken & frown,

  The infidel calling on his God & saints.

  9.84

  The King shall reenact the hecatomb,

  Having discovered its original trace :

  The flood unearths the lead & marble tomb

  Of a great Roman with Medusan face.

  9.85

  To pass Guyenne, Languedoc & the Rhône,

  From Agen holding Marmande & La Réole :

  By hook by crook Phocaean lord holds the throne :

  There’ll be fighting near Saint-Paul-de-Mausole.

  9.86

  From Bourg-la-Reine to Chartres they shall come

  And near Pont d’Antony shall seek repose :

  Seven proposing peace, sly as martens,

  Shall penetrate Paris though it be closed.

  9.87

  In the Torfou woods, off the beaten path,

  Near the hermitage a church they’ll erect :

  By this wily ruse shall the Duke d’Estampes

  The prelate of Montlhéry disrespect.

  9.88

  Calais, Arras, succor to Thérouanne,

  All’s fair & well according to the lookout :

  Savoy soldiers descending by Roanne,

  Deterring those who would end the rout.

  9.89

  Fortune shall favor Philip seven years,

  He shall put the Arabs back in their place :

  Then down south he shall suffer a reverse :

  A young Ogmion his power shall erase.

  9.90

  A captain of greater Germania

  Shall pretend to deliver to the King

  Of Kings the support of Pannonia,

  His revolt achieving massive bleeding.

  9.91

  A plague on Perinthus, Nicopolis,

  Chersonese & all of Macedony,

  Ravaging Thessaly, Amphipolis :

  Unknown evil, denied by Anthony.

  9.92

  Into the new city the King would go,

  So they’ve agreed to capture the enemy :

  They lie to one freed from captivity,

  The King staying outside, far from the foe.

  9.93

  Far from enemy fortifications,

  They move up wagons to the bastion :

  Atop Bourges’ crumbling crenellations,

  When Hercules defeats the Macedon.

  9.94

  The weakest fleets shall make
common cause,

  Treacherous foes over ramparts shall preside :

  The weak assailed, Bratislava shall pause :

  Lübeck & Meissen on the Muslim side.

  9.95

  The newly appointed shall lead his men

  Near the riverbank, almost disengaged :

  Aid tendered by the elite of Milan,

  Where blinded Duke sits in an iron cage.

  9.96

  The army denied access to the city,

  The Duke shall use subterfuge instead :

  Led to its weakest gates in secrecy,

  The troops shall torch it, cause untold bloodshed.

  9.97

  The forces of the sea split into three,

  The second fleet shall run out of supplies,

  Looking in vain for the Elysian Fields :

  Victory to the first to enter the breach.

  9.98

  Stained by a single one’s dishonesty,

  They’ll break their word to the opposite side :

  He’ll tell the people of Lyon they’ll be

  Forced to surrender the chief of Molite.

  9.99

  The north wind shall cause the siege to be raised,

  Ash, lime & dust they’ll shower from the walls :

  The rain thereafter shall cause great dismay,

  Their last chance to bring the siege to a stall.

  9.100

  Night shall overtake the battle at sea,

  Fire shall devastate the Western ships :

  Newly ruddled red shall the galleon be :

  Merciless defeat : victors in the mist.

  __________

  CENTURIE IX

  9.1

  Dans la maison du traducteur de Bourc

  Seront les lettres trouvees sus la table,

  Bourgne, roux, blanc, chanu tiendra de cours,

  Qui changera au nouveau connestable.

  9.2

  Du hault du mont Aventin voix ouye,

 

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