Thou makest the seasons to bring into existence all that thou hast made:
The winter season to refresh them, the heat [to warm them].
Thou madest the heaven afar off, that thou mightest rise therein,
That thou mightest see all thou didst make when thou wast alone,
When thou risest in thy form as the living Aten,
Splendid, radiant, afar, beauteous—
[Thou createdst all things by thyself]
Cities, villages, camps, by whatsoever river they be watered.
Every eye beholdeth thee before it;
Thou art the Aten of day above the earth.
Thou art in my heart,
There is none other that knoweth thee but thy son, Fairest of the Forms of Ra, the Only One of Ra[220];
Thou causest him to be exercised in thy methods and in thy might.
The whole earth is in thy hand even as thou hast made them;
At thy rising all live, at thy setting they die.
Translation of F. Ll. Griffith.
HYMNS TO AMEN RA[221]
The following collection of hymns to Amen Ra is from the orthodox worship of the New Kingdom; that is to say, it dates from the period beginning in the XVIIth Dynasty, about 1700 B.C. The series is contained in a papyrus now preserved in the museum at Gîzeh and in very perfect condition.
In the original, the lines are punctuated with red dots, and the stanzas are marked by rubrics, a very valuable clue being thus provided both as to meanings and form.
The first hymn is divided into five stanzas of seven lines each,[222] but the fourth stanza contains an error of punctuation which has perhaps prevented this arrangement from being noticed hitherto. The other hymns do not appear to be so divisible.
The text presents several instances of embellishment by far-fetched, and to our minds very feeble, puns and punning assonances. It is impossible to reproduce these to the English reader, but some lines in which they occur are here marked with asterisks indicating the words in question.