O foremost of men, O conqueror of hostile cities, fattened by the noose, the fish towed the ark with great force over the salt water. O best of men, it dragged him in that vessel in the roaring and bellowing sea. Tossed by the tempest on the great ocean, the vessel reeled about like a drunken harlot. O conqueror of hostile cities, neither land nor the four cardinal points of the horizon could be then distinguished.