A Non-Gloomy Prediction: The gloominess is in the eye of the beholder

I often notice that most predictions seem so gloomy, so end-of-the-worldish. And when people are interpreting famous precogs or famous prophets (like Nostradamus) that they tend to see something terrible in it even if it's something good in a prediction.

My favorite that I like to point out is Nostradamus' Century III, Quatrain 18.

from the 1555 Lyon Bonhomme edition (1st print)

Apres la pluie laict assés longuete,
En plusieurs lieux de Reims le ciel touché
Helas quel meurtre de seng pres d'eux s'apreste,
Peres & filz rois n'oseront aprocher.

My translation from Old French to English

After the rain milk longed for,
In places several of Reims the sky touched
Alas the death of blood nearby is prepared,
Fathers & sons kings will not dare (or cease) to approach.

Most people translating try to interpret line 3 as "bloody murder" prepared nearby, but it doesn't really say that. It does say "death of blood". So in the eyes of the beholder-- many pessimists see this as something bad-- something terrible. Some interpreting might claim it's a prediction about someone being murdered. Others might claim that it's a prediction about acid rain in Reims, France. So much negativity.

But...the prediction is a good prediction. It is a prediction about PEACE. Nostradamus was a poet and poets use metaphors. When it's raining "blood" -- that in metaphor means it's raining "war". When it's raining "milk & honey" -- that in metaphor means "peace & prosperity." So to make a statement that it's "raining milk" means PEACE. A prediction about PEACE IN REIMS. To say "the death of blood" - in metaphor means the END OF WAR. And to say, that fathers & sons kings not dare, or cease to approach, means in metaphor that the armies & generals stop approaching.

Was there ever PEACE IN REIMS? Yes. That's where the Allied Powers (England, the U.S. & Russia) met with Germany to sign the treaty ending WWII. And historically, there's not much else that has happened in Reims, France. It's champagne country, why it was the location chosen to end WWII.

So Nostradamus got it right. He saw in the 1500s that there would be some major war in Europe, but the war would end and PEACE "raining milk" would happen in Reims, France. And it did in 1945.

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How can so many people claiming to interpret Nostradamus read the very same quatrain and see such terrible things like "acid rain" or "bloody murders" when reading about a beautiful metaphor predicting peace? It's in the eye-of-the-beholder. Some people see the end-of-the-world in everything, even when someone is making a good prediction for the future.

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So I like to think that I'm sometimes a bit of a precog myself. I predict that humanity will still be around 50,000 years from now into the next Ice Age. Some of us will be living in space when the northern hemisphere is covered by glaciers again and some of us will still be living on the planet in 50,000 years.

And that's what I see.

i really dont like hearing how im doomed for gloom. whats wrong with a little peace?
but most would rather hear about fire falling from the sky cause its just more interesting then nothing but peace and quite happening.

but thats just the problem , his writings were so cryptic that they could be translated in so many different ways .
mother shipton,s writings were clearer and more to the point , but even those have been said to be fake.
there was even one book by victor dunston called the invisible hand that everyone was raving about
but that turned out to be total rubbish .

Originally posted by tom.farnhill
but thats just the problem , his writings were so cryptic that they could be translated in so many different ways .

Actually, it's not that Nostradamus' can be interpreted any way a person wants to, but I will agree that there are all kinds of problems with translation from the Old French into English. Some translations are worse than others. Technically, it's not meant to be translated into English at all.

Nostradamus and others in the 1500s came from a school of thought-- a sort of French movement. They wanted to make the French language live forever and to become as important as Latin or Greek. Even though no one speaks Latin anymore-- all sorts of people have to study it: doctors, scientists, all sorts of different backgrounds. Because it's necessary to know Latin to understand a uniformity in different languages. Same for Greek. And that was what Nostradamus and others of his time were trying to achieve. They were trying to make Old French of the time as important as Greek and Latin. That you NEED to read it in French, understand the French, understand the poetry and metaphors in French-- then interpret it into whatever your native (primary) language is.

Some just do translations of the English on top of the English. Leaving for all kinds of translation errors.

As for the metaphors-- they are pretty much uniform in their meaning throughout the centuries. Blood is always a metaphor for war. Milk is always a metaphor for peace. Nostradamus also uses honey as a metaphor for prosperity in a few quatrains. Once you get the basics in metaphors...and understand that there's no deviation from them...yes it is a fixed "interpretation" rather than translation.