¹ Who can please God in the Last Times
With the varied distinctions of the orders of Truth,
Except those who despise. This present world?

² The high Creator, ancient of Days and unbegotten,
Existed without beginning,
Foundation, or starting point,
Exists now, and will exist forever,
Through endless ages of eternity.

³ To whom belongs the Only-Begotten,
Christ, and the Holy Spirit,
Coeternal in the glory
Of perpetual divinity.

⁴ We do not proclaim three gods,
But we declare one God,
Preserving faith in the persons
Of the three most glorious.

⁵ He created good Angels,
Orders and Archangels of Principalities and Thrones,
Powers, Virtues,
So that the goodness and majesty of the Trinity
Would not be idle in all the gifts of generosity,
But might have celestial beings
In which He could greatly reveal His privileges
By possible expression.

⁶ From the summit of the kingdom of heaven,
The station of the angelic host,
With the brightness of splendor,
And the beauty of appearance.

⁷ Lucifer fell in his pride,
Whom the Creator had formed,
And the apostate angels with him,
In the same mournful fall.

⁸ Through the vanity of their maker,
Through their stubborn envy,
While the others remained
In their own principalities.

⁹ The great and most loathsome dragon,
Terrible and ancient,
Who was the slippery serpent,
Wiser than all
The beasts and wild creatures
Of the earth.

¹⁰ Dragged with him a third part
Of the stars into the abyss
Of infernal places
And various prisons,
Fugitives from the true light,
Hurled headlong as parasites.

¹¹ The Exalted One, foreseeing
The structure of the world and its harmony,
Created heaven and earth,
Formed the sea and waters.

¹² The shoots of plants as well,
Shrubs and little trees,
The sun, moon, and stars,
Fire and necessary things.

¹³ Birds, fish, and livestock,
Beasts and living creatures,
And finally, to rule them,
Man, the first-formed, by design.

¹⁴ When the stars were made,
The lights of the heavens,
The angels together praised
The Creator for the wondrous work
Of the vast structure,
The Lord, the Maker of the heavens.

¹⁵ With due and unchanging
Harmony and outstanding song,
They gave thanks to the Lord
Out of love and free will,
Not as a gift of nature.

¹⁶ With the first two wandering astray
And the parents deceived,
The devil fell a second time
With his followers.

¹⁷ Whose horrifying faces
And the sound of their flight
Would terrify frail humans,
Shaken with fear.

¹⁸ Unable with mortal sight
To behold these things,
Who are now bound in chains,
In the bonds of dungeons.

¹⁹ He, removed from the midst,
Was cast down by the Lord,
Whose domain of the air
Is crowded with his followers.

²⁰ A turbulent mass of
Invisible rebels,
So that humans might not be corrupted
By their evil examples
And crimes never concealed
By any walls or barriers.

²¹ Nor might they fornicate
Openly before the eyes of all.

²² The clouds bring rains
From wintry fountains
Of the three deeper parts
Of the ocean’s expanses.

²³ Through the climates of the sea and sky,
By azure whirlwinds,
To benefit the crops,
The vineyards, and the plants.

²⁴ Driven by the winds
And emerging from their treasures,
Which also drain the tidal marshes
That ebb and flow.

²⁵ Fleeting and tyrannical,
The momentary glory of the kings
Of this world is cast down
By the will of God.

²⁶ Behold, the giants are made to groan
Beneath the waters with great torment,
Proven to burn in flames
And punishment.

²⁷ Choked in the whirlpools
Of Cocytus swelling violently,
Covered by the waves of Scylla,
They are crushed against the rocks.

²⁸ The Lord often restrains the waters
Bound in the clouds,
So that they do not break forth
At once when their barriers are seized.

²⁹ From their fuller veins,
Like flowing udders,
Gradually they drift
Through the regions of the earth.

³⁰ In cold and hot seasons
At different times,
Flowing everywhere as rivers
Never failing.

³¹ By the great virtues of God,
The globe of the earth and its circle
Are suspended upon
The depths of the great abyss.

³² Supported by the powerful right hand
Of the Almighty God.
Columns and bars
Sustain it.

³³ Along with promontories and cliffs,
Solid in their foundations,
Like certain bases
Established immovably.

³⁴ It seems doubtful to no one
That in the depths lies hell,
Where darkness is found,
Worms and dreadful beasts.

³⁵ Where a sulphurous fire
Burns with devouring flames,
Where there is the roaring of men,
Weeping and gnashing of teeth.

³⁶ Where the groaning of Gehenna
Is terrible and ancient,
Where the fiery heat burns,
And the horror of thirst and hunger reigns.

³⁷ We read that below the globe,
There are inhabitants we know of,
Whose knees humbly
Are often bent before the Lord.

³⁸ To them it is impossible
To unroll the written book,
Sealed with seven seals,
As foretold by Christ’s teachings.

³⁹ Which He Himself unsealed,
After He had become victorious,
Fulfilling His foretellings
Of prophetic arrival.

⁴⁰ We read that from the beginning,
Paradise was planted by the Lord
In the most noble outset
Of Genesis.

⁴¹ From whose source flow
Four rivers,
In whose blooming midst stands
The tree of life.

⁴² Whose leaves never wither,
Healing for the nations,
Whose indescribable delights
Are fruitful and abundant.

⁴³ Who, at the command of the Lord,
Ascended Mount Sinai?
Who heard the thunderings
Resounding beyond measure?

⁴⁴ Who heard the blaring
Of the immense trumpet?
Who saw the lightning
Flashing all around.

⁴⁵ The torches and bolts
And the rocks colliding,
Other than Moses,
The judge of the Israelite people?

⁴⁶ The day of the Lord,
The King of kings most righteous,
Is near,
A day of wrath and vengeance,
Of darkness and cloud.

⁴⁷ A day of wonders
And mighty thunderings,
A day of anguish,
On which will cease the love
And desire of women.

⁴⁸ As well as the strife of men,
And the greed of this world.

⁴⁹ We will stand trembling
Before the judgment seat of the Lord,
And we will give an account
Of all our inclinations.

⁵⁰ Seeing also laid bare
Our sins before our eyes,
And the books of conscience
Opened before us.

⁵¹ We will break forth
Into the bitterest tears and sighs,
Bereft of the necessary means
For doing good works.

⁵² At the sound of the wondrous cry
Of the first archangel,
The strongest barriers and tombs
Will burst open.

⁵³ The remains of this present world,
The luminous ashes of men,
Will everywhere gather together,
Bones joining to their frames.

⁵⁴ As ethereal souls
Meet them again,
And return once more
To their rightful dwellings.

⁵⁵ Orion wanders from its height,
Leaving the pole of heaven,
Abandoning Virgo,
The brightest of the stars.

⁵⁶ Through the bounds of Thetis
In the uncharted eastern circle;
Revolving in fixed courses,
It returns to its ancient paths.

⁵⁷ Rising as the Evening Star
After two years into evening,
Its motions discerned
In the tropic spheres of understanding.

⁵⁸ When Christ, the Lord,
Descends from the highest heavens,
The sign of the cross and the banner
will shine most brightly.

⁵⁹ And with the covering of
The two principal lights,
The stars will fall to the earth
As figs shaken from the fig tree.

⁶⁰ The expanse of the world
will be like the blaze of a furnace;
Then, in the caves of the mountains,
The armies will hide themselves.

⁶¹ With hymns and songs
Resounding diligently,
With holy dances of thousands
Of angels blooming in glory.

⁶² And the four living creatures,
Full of eyes,
Along with the twenty-four
Blessed elders.

⁶³ Casting their crowns
At the feet of the Lamb of God,
The Trinity eternal
Is praised threefold.

⁶⁴ The jealous fire will consume
The raging adversaries
Who refuse to believe
That Christ came from God the Father.

⁶⁵ But we will fly upward,
To meet Him immediately,
And so we will be with Him
In various ranks.

⁶⁶ According to merits of dignity,
With eternal rewards,
Remaining in glory
From age to age.