Variation on Akhenaton's Hymn to the Sun 
ca. 1370 B.C.E.

Ingrid Shafer

Your dawning overwhelms me with its beauty, 
O living Sun, creator of life. 
When you rise in the eastern horizon, 
you fill every land with your radiance.

You are unique, tremendous, glowing, 
high above every land,
you spread your rays over everything you have created. 
You captivate them all, binding them with your love. 
You are distant, but your rays are on the earth; 
you are on high but your footprints are the day.

As you sink into the western horizon, 
the earth wraps herself in the dark shroud of the dead 
who sleep in their chambers, their heads wrapped up, 
their nostrils plugged, blind to each other. 
Thieves snatch the treasures 
from under their heads, 
and they don't know or care.

Lions emerge from their dens, 
vipers sting, 
and the world sleeps in silence, 
while the One-Who-Made-Them 
rests below the evening horizon.

Bright is the earth when you rise in the horizon, 
and drive away the darkness. 
People cheer wherever you send your rays. 
Their limbs bathed, they get dressed, 
and raise their arms to celebrate your dawning. 
All over the world they do their work.

The cattle browse on the grassland, 
trees and other plants flourish, 
birds flutter in the marshes, 
their wings raised in cheerful adoration. 
Lambs dance with nimble feet, 
all winged things fly, 
for you have given them life.

Barges sail upstream and downstream. 
The highways are open because you have dawned. 
In the river fish leap their greeting to you. 
Your brightness reflects from the emerald sea.

Creator of germ in woman, 
maker of sperm in man, 
you give life to the son in his mother's belly, 
keeping him snugly safe, 
nurse even in the womb, 
your breath animates all creatures
and on the day of his birth, 
you open his mouth in a lusty scream, 
soon to be speech; 
you supply his necessities.

When the fledgling chirps in the egg, 
you give it air for life. 
When you have brought it to the moment 
of cracking the shell, it emerges from the egg,
to chirp loudly and prance on two feet.

How numerous are your works, 
both known and unknown,
O sole God, most powerful one, 
you created the earth 
according to your heart 
when you were all alone: 
people, cattle large and small, 
creatures that run on the ground with legs, 
and  the others in the sky that fly with their wings.

The foreign countries and our land, you put 
all humans into their proper place, 
you supply their necessities....

You make the realm beyond death, 
to preserve people alive....

How excellent are your designs, 
O Lord of all eternity!

There is even a guiding river in the sky 
to show travelers the path . . .

Your rays nourish every garden; 
When you rise the plants live, 
you let them grow. 
You make the seasons 
In order to support your creatures: 
winter to bring them bracing cold,
and summer to give them a taste of your warmth. .
You made the distant sky for yourself to rise, 
so you and your creatures 
could see your works,
You alone, shining as the living Sun.

Dawning, glittering, going far off and returning,
you produce millions of forms
out of your essence; 
Cities, towns and nations,highways and rivers.
all eyes are raised to you,
because you illuminate the earth.

You are in my heart,
there is no one who knows you as well as I do.

You have deliberately made me wise in your might.
All creatures dwell safely in the palm of your hand,
just as you have made them.
When you rise they live,when you set they die,
for your course marks the span of life.

People live through you,
their eyes on your beauty
until you sink and work ceases
when you set in the west....

Thank you for making the world
for your son Akhenaton
and for his beloved wife
Mistress of the Two Lands,
Nefertiti, who will live 
and flourish for ever and ever.