Prompt/Purpose

To effectively paraphrase “The Song of Creation” from the Rig Veda on page 14 or the Egyptian Poetry selection, Reading 1.4, from page 33 of The Humanistic Tradition text.

Original

Andrea Price

HUM 2211

Mrs. K. Scheafer

September 2, 2007

“The Essence of Existence”

Then even nothingness was not, nor existence.

            There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it

            What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?

            Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?

Then, in the beginning, the earth, the sky, the universe, none of it existed. Nothing existed anywhere.

Was there, then any source of creation? Perhaps of a watery origin?

Then there were neither death nor immortality,

            nor was there then the torch of night and day.

            The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.

            There was the One then, and there was no other.

Then, death and immortality didn’t exist, nor did the ability to distinguish between night and daylight.

The One was the only essence in existence.

At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.

            All this was only unillumined water.

            That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,

            arose at last, born of the power of heat.

In the beginning, darkness enveloped everything and the water rested unlit.

The One who came into existence came uncovered and rose finally, born of heat.

In the beginning desire descended on it---

            that was the primal seed, born of the mind.

            The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom

            know that which is, is kin to that which is not.

A desire to create became engrained in his mind and that was the first seed of creation.

The wise who have explored their hearts with understanding have come to realize the relationship between what exists and what does not.

And they have stretched their cord across the void,

            and know what was above, and what below.

            Seminal powers made fertile might forces.

            Below was strength, and over it was impulse.

And these wise men have pulled their cord of wisdom across the void;

and understand what lies in the heavens and what lies below, everything with its own place in existence and nonexistence.

These decisive powers put into motion incredible forces; resulting in strength and more strongly, desire.

But, after all, who knows, and who can say

            whence it all came, and how creation happened?

            The gods themselves are later than creation,

            so who knows truly whence it has arisen?

Either way, what can one say about the beginning?
Even the gods aren’t the creators; so honestly, who, or what can say for sure where it all started?

Whence all creation had its origin,

            he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,

            he, who surveys it all from highest heaven,

            he knows---or maybe even he does not know.

Where creation had its beginnings,

Whether he created everything or not,

Even as he observes everything from the highest point,

he may or may not know where it all originated.

                                                                                    Indian (Fiero 14)

Works Cited

Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition. Fifth Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006.

"Rig-Veda - Creation." Old and Sold: The Wisdom of the Orient 02 Sept. 2007 

     <http://www.oldandsold.com/articles10/wisdom-1.shtml>.

Word Count (including Works Cited): 500.