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Les dieux seront aux humains apparence
Ce qu’ils seront auteurs de grand conflict :
Avant ceil veu serain espée & lance
Que vers main gauche sera plus grand affit.
The lances in the sky seems to indicate rockets. Most commentators from the 1830's onward have translated the third line to be weapons and rockets. The main damage is on the left of the map; this seems to indicate Western Europe or the Americas. The first two lines are almost poetic in their accuracy. People even today are closing their eyes, claiming that as long as they select their selfish leaders and keep their eyes closed to what their leaders are doing, nothing will happen.
Sous un la paix par tout sera claimée,
Mais non long temps pillé & rebellion :
Par refus ville, terre & mer entamée,
Mors & captives le tiers d’un million.
The number of casualties and captives seems to indicate the Franco-Prussian War.
The war started because France refused to accept the declaration of King Wilhelm of Prussia concerning the Spanish Succession. The Prussian King had acceded to the French demands regarding a Hohenzollern on the Spanish throne, preserving the peace. However, France would not accept the king’s statement; they demanded assurances. This guaranteed war, as the French were determined to go to war if the Prussians did not accede to the demands, and Bismarck was able to make the French demands sound particular insulting to the King.
There were some naval engagements, but the vast majority of the action was by the armies. The army of the French monarch, Napoléon III, surrendered at Sedan. The French revolted and established the Third Republic. Paris refused to surrender, being besieged for a while by Prussian troops. And the casualty and prisoner list was approximately a third of a million.
Terre Italique pres des monts tremblera,
Lyon & coq non trop confederés :
En lieu de peur l’un l’autre s’aidera,
Seul, Castulon & Celtes moderés.
As the Second World War was preparing to sprang to life, Italy was trembling. Mussolini knew that he could not fight the war at the moment. His army on the French border, in the Alpine mountains, needed major improvement. He asked for, and got from Hitler, the right to be neutral. The British (Lion) and French (Cock) were not too friendly to each other. But in the face of Hitler, they shook off the fear that had ruled them for a number of years and finally stood tall, even though it would cost France it’s liberty and Britain would stand alone for 16 months. Castilon here refers to Spain, whose leader, Franco, pursued a shrewd policy that kept Spain neutral during the war. The Celts can only refer to the Irish, the last of the pure blooded Celtic peoples – all the rest of the Celtic peoples (Gauls, Britons, etc) had Germanic blood in them. The Irish were also neutral in the war.
Au port Selin le tyran mis à mort,
La liberté non pourtant recouvrée :
Le nouveau Mars par vindicte & remort,
Dame par force de frayeur honorée.
Note on Interpretation: Mars here is obviously to be interpreted by reference to the God of War, not the planet. Selin here represents an Islamic port.
The quatrain reads like an open book. However, many details are unknown to us. All we can say is that in an Islamic port a tyrant is put to death. However, his death does not bring the killers the freedom for their people they desired. A new warlord arises. The only ambiguous part concerns the lady, is it a real lady, a republic or an inept government? And who is the tyrant and the new warlord? These are questions that cannot be answered until the quatrain is fulfilled.
At the time I was doing a final editing of this book, revolutions has sprung to life in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria and Yemen, with revolutions threatened in Saudi Arabia. The future may be here.
Devant monstier trouvé enfant besson,
D’heroic sang de moine & vestuisque :
Son bruit par secte langue & puissance son,
Qu’on dira fort eslevé le vopisque.
The Rigaud edition of 1568 used the word moustier instead of monstier. But I hesitate to use it here. Most translators, including Theophilus de Garenciéres interpret the word to be monk, or monastery. But I have found that Monstier is a French surname. I therefore leave it in thinking that it will refer to someone with exactly that name.
I was also unable to translate vopisque which is obviously altered to rhyme with vestuisque. I used Garenciéres translation of Vopisk.
I apologize, but I am unable to interpret this. I must leave it to the reader to figure out.
Celuy qu’aura la charge de destruire,
Temples & sectes, changés par fantasie :
Plus aux rochiers qu’aux viuans viendra nuire,
Par langue ornée d’oreilles ressasies.
Note on Translation and Interpretation: Ressasies is not a word that exists, it is obviously a word that was altered to rhyme with fantasie. To solve the quatrain, I had to find a word that was close yet fit the context. I found the word ressasir, rally.
The last line was the clue that separated Hitler from the others, like Robespierre, Napoléon, etc. Hitler was a great orator, probably the greatest of the 20th century. His life’s work was built around his oratory, which was second to none. Even today, people who listen to and understand his speeches can be moved by the passion and eloquence of his voice. Simply by standing in the rain, talking about a garden that some children created he could move grownups to tears. No other orator had his skill to manipulate the masses that Hitler did. It was through his oratory that he rallied himself and rallied the German people around him.
The rest of the quatrain flows from this like an open book. He was the great destroyer. He tried to create a sort of a primal German religion in Germany based on the old Nordic - Germanic gods. In doing so, he also tried to destroy the various Christian churches. Nostradamus indicates that his fantasy ruled him, as indeed it did. And, as much as there was human destruction, the structures suffered greater. Though seventy million people lost their lives, it is also true that whole cities were wiped out. The economies of Europe was set back by years.
Ce que fer flamme n’a secu paracheur,
La doulce langue au conseil viendra faire :
Par repos, songe, le roy fera resuer,
Plus l’ennemy en feu, fang, militaire.
Assuming that Nostradamus used king to describe what we would nowadays call a dictator, this could be used to refer to Adolf Hitler. He tried the fires and weapons of revolution to achieve his power but was shot down when the famous Beer Hall Putsch went sour. Later, after he was released from prison, he swore he would not use armed force or revolt to achieve power, instead preferring to speak to the people and be elected through them. It was an effective ploy and with the exception of the SA who were used as bodyguards and in somewhat violent roles, he kept his promise – he achieved his power legally. Once he achieved power, he had several years of reflection before he launched his actual invasions (starting with Austria in 1938). Remarkably successful in peace, he risked all in open warfare in 1939, losing all.
La chef qu’aura conduit peuple infiny,
Loing de son ceil, de meurs & langue estrange :
Cinq mil en Crete & Thessalie finy,
Le chef fuyant sauvé en marine grange.
The fact that Crete and Thessaly are mentioned places this in Greece. The marine barn sounds a lot like a container ship. Just who the shifty leader of the fourth line and the chief of the first line are is unknown. While I cannot be certain, I am of the opinion that this quatrain will find its fulfillment in the future.
Le grand monarque que sera compaignie,
Avec deux roys unis par amitié :
O quel souspit fera la grand mesnie,
Enfants Narbonne à l’entour quel pitie!
Line one ties this to the Great King, Louis XIV of France. Line two dictates that this is the last of the wars he fought, the War of the Spanish Succession.
The great monarch, Louis XIV of France, was allied to two kings during this war: his grandson Felipe V of Spain and Maximilian II Emanuel the Prince-Elector of Bavaria. Everyone else was against him, necessitating dangers which the last two lines of the quatrain so eloquently express.
Long temps au ceil sera veu gris oiseau,
Au pres Dole & de Tousquane terre,
Tenant au bec un vendoyant ramaeu,
Mourra rost grand & finera la guerre.
Dole here has to refer to the town of Dole, in the Jura department of France. The Tuscan lands are obviously Tuscany, northern Italy.
The quatrain seems to indicate that it is the bird that holds in its beak a flowering branch of peace. Then, peace is obtained after a great one dies.
The grey bird is actually a reference to the various aircraft of the United Nations that flew in 1945. Seen from ground level, the aircraft looked like high flying grey birds. France and Italy was where the preponderance of aircraft flew, though in 1945 they were targeting Germany itself. It is ironic, but it was the air power of the United States and Britain that played the largest part in bringing the war to its end, so the flowering branch in the beak is an accurate, if symbolic, observation.
The great one is Adolph Hitler. He was not great due to what he did, but due to the position he held: as Furher and Reich’s Chancellor, he led the German people with absolute authority. His death led, within a week, to the end of the war.