Hymn to the Aten

Glorious, you rise on the horizon of heaven,

O living Aten, creator of life.

When you have risen on the eastern horizon

you fill every land with your beauty.

You are gorgeous, great and radiant,

high over every land.

Your rays embrace all the lands that

you have made.

You are Ra and so you reach their boundaries,

limiting them for your beloved son.

Though you are far away,

your rays are upon the earth.

Though you are seen, your movement is not.

When you set on the western horizon

the land is dark.

Night is spent asleep as in a bedroom

with a covered head,

one eye does not see the other.

If the possessions under their heads were stolen,

no one would notice it.

Every lion comes out from its den,

and every serpent bites.

Darkness descends and the earth is hushed,

because their maker rests on the horizon.

The earth is illuminated when

you rise on the horizon and shine as the Aten

in the daytime.

You banish the darkness when you cast your rays.

The Two Lands celebrate, lively and aroused

now that you have awakened them;

with bodies cleansed and clothed

they raise their arms to adore your rising.

Now the whole land begins to work.

All the cattle graze on their fodder

trees and plants grow.

Birds fly up from their nests,

their wings stretched in praise of your spirit.

All the flocksgambol on their feet

and everything that flies and perches

lives you have arisen for them.

Ships sail to the north and to the south,

while roads open at your rising.

The fish in the river leap before you,

for your rays are in the middle of the sea.

You make the seed grow in women

and create people from sperm.

You feed the son who lies in his mother's womb

and comfort him to stop his tears.

You are the nurse within the womb,

who gives breath to all that he has made.

On the day he is born you open his mouth

to supply his needs.

When the chick in the egg chirps within his shell

you give him breath to live,

and when his time is ready

to break out of the shell he comes out of the egg

to proclaim his birth, walking on his legs.

How many are things you do,

although hidden from view, O unique god

without compare.

You created the world as you desired, alone--

all people, all cattle, all flocks

everthing that walks with its feet on the earth

and everything which flies

with its wings in the air.

The northern lands of Asia,

the southern lands of Africa

and the lands of Egypt--

you have set every person in their place

and you have supplied their needs.

Everyone has his food and his allotted lifetime.

Tongues differ in their speech,

and also characters and skins,

for you have differentiated mankind.

You createed the Nile in the Netherworld.

You bring him forth at your will

to feed the people,

since you made them for yourself, lord of all,

who toils for them.

Lord of all lands, the Aten who shines for them

in the daytime, great in dignity.

You make all distant lands live, for you have made

a heavenly Nile come down for them,

to make waves on the mountains like the sea

to irrigate the fields of their towns.

O Lord of eternity, how excellent are

your designs--a Nile from heaven for people

of foreign lands, and all the creatures

which walk upon their feet and a Nile for Egypt

coming from the Netherworld.

Your rays suckle every field;

when you shine they live and grow for you.

You made the seasons to foster all you have made:

winter to cool them

and summer that they may feel you.

You made the distant sky in which

you might shine and to see

everything that you have made.

You are alone, shining as the living Aten,

risen, dazzling, far and yet near

you have made millions

of manifestations of yourself.

Towns, villaiges, feilds, roads and waterways--

every eye sees you upon them,

for you are the Aten of the daytime...

You are my beloved.

There is none other that knows you

except for your son

Neferkheperure Waenre, whom you have made wise

in your plans and your might.

The creatures of earth exists in your hand

as you have made them; when you rise they live,

when you set they die.

You yourself are the duration of life,

it is by you that men live.

Eyes may behold your beauty until you set,

but when you set in the west all work ceases.

When you rise...You raise them up

for your son who came forth from your body,

the King of Upper and Lower Egypt,

living in Truth,the Lord of the Two Lands

Neferkheperure Waenre, son of Ra,

living in Truth, Lord of the glorious appearings,

Akhenaten the long-lived.

And as for the King's Great Wife whom he loves,

the Mistress of the Two Lands,

Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, may she live

and flourish for ever and ever.

--Akhenaten--

Aten's Roses

Behold Akhenaten

Behold Nefertiti Behold Royal Offspring

Midi playing: Stand By Me