I think it is about the world as it is today, with parallels to the Genesis Babel story. It begins with the people united, and not wanting to part on gods command. They are a curious people and attempt to reach the sky, god, the limit.
In the second and third couplet the changing of the people becomes apparent, and it slowly leads to the climax in the fourth couplet in which the god figure decides to destroy Babel and scatter its people.
The parallel to the modern age could be that we are estranging from each other, retreating into our own worlds, a thing which I for the sake of this interpretation will take for granted as to allready being apparent in 1971, and how we will have to start over by throwing out some of the given, another parallel (the language difference), so we can start with a new system from the ground up.
I think it is about the world as it is today, with parallels to the Genesis Babel story. It begins with the people united, and not wanting to part on gods command. They are a curious people and attempt to reach the sky, god, the limit. In the second and third couplet the changing of the people becomes apparent, and it slowly leads to the climax in the fourth couplet in which the god figure decides to destroy Babel and scatter its people. The parallel to the modern age could be that we are estranging from each other, retreating into our own worlds, a thing which I for the sake of this interpretation will take for granted as to allready being apparent in 1971, and how we will have to start over by throwing out some of the given, another parallel (the language difference), so we can start with a new system from the ground up.