Hymn+of+Ra

Hymn of Ra

"Three lyres. One sun in the east. The image of grace in my two eyes. One glad body. A day. The wind which moves the barques, moves them. The strident sun is walking through a field of stars. The beautiful one is singing in two halves of the sky. A child speaks. An old man nods and dreams.

The people have come from their houses to sit in doorways to sniff the air. O Sun, O Ra. O child climbing along mother's back, laughing. Two men in a bark barque, rowing, stop to hear your mother singing. Be quiet. Ra is in the wind. He speaks when the earth is silent and he alone existed until he named the names of things.

River, he said, and River lived. Nile. Mountain. Scarab. Fisherman. From his tongue spring words of water. The river quakes with the sound of his voice. Air escaping from his nose. Breathe deep.

The wind a sigh from his mother. Such things are made everyday: Duck, Mandrake, Raisin. Grape, Pomegranate, Melon. Cypress, Palm, Osiris."

Hymns of Ra