CENTURIA I · QUATRAIN XXIV
The Bird of Prey
A citu00e9 neufve pensif pour condamner,
L'oisel de proye au ciel se vient offrir:
Apres victoire u00e0 captifs pardonner,
Cremone & Mantoue grands maux aura souffert.
At the new city, thoughtful, to condemn,
the bird of prey offers itself to the sky:
after victory, to pardon the captives,
Cremona & Mantua will have suffered great ills.
THE MASTER SAYS…
This quatrain relates to the United States and World War I. Americans have a reputation for being generous and diverse peoples who are unable to profit from it. The end of this verse refers to the economic difficulties and social upheaval that will come between the world wars. The “New City” may refer to the United States. “The bird of prey offering itself to the gods” — if you look at one of your coins, you can see an eagle and the phrase: “In God We Trust.” The eagle is a vulture, i.e., the American condor. The US military presence was very noticeable in Italy during World War I, since Italy was on the same side as the United States. Translators say this quatrain is connected with Napoleon and the siege of Mantua because that name is mentioned. This is one of many examples where Nostradamus used city names to indicate a country. The quatrains were systematically misinterpreted because translators often believed he was referring to an event that would occur in a certain city, while he used these names as symbolic designations of countries.