The Oracles of Leo the Wise

To the City of Rhodes.

The original text plays on the name "Rhodes" (Rhodos) and the word for "Rose" (rhodon).

And truly, see with the mind, behold this element;
Behold this first element from the cutting of a rose.
Taking the scythes for what the earth intends to be,
It will not say "no" to you, even as everything stands at the beginning.
Behold him, a tender root?,
To bring a rose to all is his end.
In the pole he labored, hating at once the end?.
For the stars are good and stable things of the goddess;
But winter is a burden, and the beasts are shameful strangers.
Likewise, the deeds of the first equals are shameful.
Behold how great was the manner of the past:
A great sickle and the rose which it carries about.
The third is the doubled first element,
Tearing them apart to make them like gleanings of the harvest.

To the King.

Having received the four-month rule of these places,
The fear of original Latin: "Iram Dei" (the wrath of God) shall fall upon you.
You shall be withered like a rose when a rose is cut,
Moved in circles; for the third is indeed
The element of the hand and the scythe itself.
You bear the scythe, the four-month thing of which I write;
But first you shall overturn everything of your own.
Having raised the temples of idols for a little while,
And having lived three times three cycles in life as an old man,
✝ You go to the underworld, leaving two in the middle.

To the City of Rhodes.

Moreover, behold this hostile element;
Let this first element cut down the rose.
For taking the scythe to cut the earth,
It will not spare you, though you persist in the beginning.
See how he begins to reap;
Bearing the rose, he has the end in all things.
In which place he later sows as if in vain.
It brings good things, and the spring is stable.
But winter is troublesome, and the wild beasts are foreign.
Oh, how much more base are the third things than the first!
See then, again, even in the manner of a strange spring,
A great scythe, and the rose which it carries.
The third element is the first one doubled;
Those things which were gathered of old are scattered again.

To the King.

But to the one receiving the four-month rule, O miserable one,
The fear of God's wrath shall fall upon you.
You shall be dried up like a rose when a rose is cut,
Moved in cycles; for it is the third
Element of the hand and the scythe itself.
O scythe-bearer, I write to you of a four-month period;
When you have consumed all the first spoils with the sword,
You shall raise the temples of Idols for a short time.
But when you have lived three times three cycles in life as an old man,
Go to the underworld, leaving two in the middle.