2.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Smith, George Adam and Nicoll, W. Robertson (William Robertson), Sir
Woe to the City of Blood,
All of her guile, robbery-full, ceaseless rapine!
Hark the whip,
And the rumbling of the wheel,
And horses galloping,
And the rattling dance of the chariot![297]
Cavalry at the charge,[298] and flash of sabres,
And lightning of lances,
Mass of slain and weight of corpses,
Endless dead bodies—
They stumble on their dead!
—For the manifold harlotries of the Harlot,
The well-favoured, mistress of charms,
She who sold nations with her harlotries
And races by her witchcrafts!
Lo, I am at thee (oracle of Jehovah of Hosts):
I will uncover thy skirts to thy face;[299]
Give nations to look on thy nakedness,
And kingdoms upon thy shame;
Will have thee pelted with filth, and disgrace thee,
And set thee for a gazingstock;
So that every one seeing thee shall shrink from thee
and say,
“Shattered is Niniveh—who will pity her?
Whence shall I seek for comforters to thee?”
Shalt thou be better than No-Amon,[300]
Which sat upon the Nile streams[301]—waters were
round her—
Whose rampart was the sea,[302] and waters her wall?[303]
Kush was her strength and Miṣraim without end;
Phut and the Lybians were there to assist her.[304]
Even she was for exile, she went to captivity:
Even her children were dashed on every street
corner;
For her nobles they cast lots,
And all her great men were fastened with fetters.
Thou too shalt stagger,[305] shalt grow faint;
Thou too shalt seek help from[306] the foe!
All thy fortresses are fig-trees with figs early-ripe:
Be they shaken they fall on the mouth of the eater.