Book 1, Hymn 49, Dawn
Come to us, come down, to our realm
from beyond the bright sky. Come, o dawn,
drawn by fiery horses, come to the house
where he pours out fragrant juice.
Your bright chariot, pulled by fiery horses,
is shaped to please the eye, light and agile,
o dawn. And you climb in it, coming here,
coming to aid mortals with noble aims.
O dawn, bright sky being, your coming
awakens creatures to wander earth,
stirs flocks of birds into sky, flying now
to all the boundaries of heaven.
Your radiant light, o dawn, grows bright,
the sky above and around us grows bright,
your beauty brought to earth. We call you,
just as you are, with our sacred songs.
(adaptation of a hymn from Ralph T. H. Griffith’s translation of the Rig Veda)
Comment transferred from old blog
You’re on the right path; now select a tune and you’ll really have a hymn.
I’ve writen a hymn based on Rig Veda I:164.51-52 entitled God is One:
c d e f e d e c c d e f e d e
Giv’n ma-ny names by many teachers, the wise know, God is one.
c d e f e d e c c d e f e d e
Like the rain becomes the river, then the o-cean, God is one.
a a g f g g e c d f e d e d c
Seed of life and life’s sustainer, all cre-a-tion; God is one.
Griffith’s translation is particularly difficult to understand because he used the original mertres for his translations (see his Appendix II). Then despite this great effort to preserve the original metres, he didn’t inclued any tunes or refencences to tunes.
While we’re on the topic why isn’t there a musical translation of the Bhagavad Gita–it is after all The Song of God.
–Ryan
Comment from siva13dna – 4/21/05