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Comments on this translation

The purpose of the translation is to provide a basis for an objective understanding of the Nostradamus prophecies, that is, to restitute the prophet's meanings. The poetic aspects of the text were put aside and there is no attempt to reproduce the rhymes. The translation is as literal as possible. As a result, most parts will seem awkward. But the French original text is worse and it should be clear that an easily readable translation of the Centuries is always a phony or a bad interpretation.

The brackets enclose some translation alternatives or relate the difficulties encountered by the translator; meanwhile, the text exempt of brackets best represents the seer's original thoughts. Puns and anagrams are also enclosed within brackets as well as Latin, Provencal and other foreign languages translations. Quite a few words make no more sense in old than modern French and cannot be given an English equivalence. In these cases, they are given in the original text with their possible interpretations specified between brackets.

“Tc” stands for “Translator’s comment”.

Text numbering

The French text can be checked against the English translation in the Library by recalling its quatrain number. The numbers in the Epistle to Henry and the Letter to Cesar were added to the original text to enable quick references and queries. Here' s how it works:

Axxxx

xx.xx

Cxxx

Hxxx

A = Almanach
First 2 digits = the 15th Century year
Next 2 = the month
00 and 13 concern the entire year

Centuries
First 1 or 2digits represent the Century
Next 2 are the Quatrain number
Last is the line number

C = Letter to Cesar

xxx is the section number

H = Epistle to Henry

xxx is the section number

Credit for this numbering system belongs to cercle. nostra.online.fr/sommaire.htm that used it first in its French transcription of the Centuries.

Accuracy

You may submit your comments online anytime and propose an alternative translation, which will be published within 24 hours. Also, if you encounter any difficulty with the vocabulary, you may check the (free) online Nostradamia Library dictionary (only available on the French side at this point). Finally, you may post your comments live in the forum, or in an article and the quatrains collections. There is no censorship on Nostradamia.

The translation of the Centuries proposed here was made possible with the help of some existing translations and interpretations. Many corrections were made to keep the resulting text as close to the original one. As for "The Almanachs", they are a purely original translation by Nostradamia, at this point only rendered to a preliminary state that will shortly improve.

Coming soon, the Sixtains and other Nostradamus texts

Copyright note to webmasters: A translation is an original work, and unlike the French original text of the Centuries it does not belong to the public domain. You may display and offer the above texts for download, but you must give credit to its authors with a link in a visible place on your download page.

In the background: The Study - Moriso

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Comments on this translation

Text numbering

Accuracy