Nor Aught nor Naught existed; yon bright sky
Was not, nor heaven’s broad woof outstretched above.
What covered all? what sheltered? what concealed?
Was it the water’s fathomless abyss?
There was not death — yet there was naught immortal.
There was no confine betwixt day and night;
The Only One breathed breathless by itself,
Other than it there nothing since has been.
Darkness there was and all at first was veiled
In gloom profound — an ocean without light —
The Germ that still laid covered in the husk
Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat.
Then first came Love upon it, the new Spring
Of mind — yea, poets in their hearts discerned,
Pondering, this bond between created things
And uncreated. Comes this spark from the earth
Piercing and all pervading, or from heaven?
Then seeds were sown and mighty powers arose —
Nature below and power and Will above —
Who knows the secret? Who proclaimed it here?
Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang?
The gods themselves came later into being —
Who knows from whence this great creation sprang?
He from whom all this great creation came,
Whether his will created or was mute,
The Most-High Seer that is in highest heaven
He knows it — or perchance even he knows not.”