The Hymns of Zoroaster
(The GÄthÄs)
THE FIRST GÄTHÄ
YASNA 28
The poem follows the form of a traditional supplication to gods, reverently uttered with hands upraised, to come into the worshipperâs presence and give assistance.
28.1
I pray You all in reverence with outstretched hands for his help â
the Bounteous Willâs in first place, Mindful One, with Right â through action
by which Thou wouldst satisfy Good Thoughtâs wisdom and the cowâs soul:
28.2
I who will approach You, Mindful Lord, with good thought,
to give me of both existences, the material one and that of thought,
those blessings in line with Right by which one could keep oneâs supporters in well-being;
28.3
I who will hymn You, Right and Good Thought, as never before
and the Mindful Lord, You whose unimpaired dominion also
is increased by Piety: come to my calls to give help.
28.4
I who have taken my soul in mind for praise-song together with Good Thought,
and knowing the Mindful Lordâs repayments for actions,
so long as I have the ability and strength, will look out in search of Right.
28.5
O Right, shall I see Thee, as I acquire good thought
and, as a path1 for the most mighty Lord, the Mindful One, compliance?
Through this prescript may we convince the predators2 most fully with our tongue.
28.6
Come with Good Thought, give with Right Thy enduring gift
in upright utterances, Mindful One, strong support for Zara- thushtra
and for us (all), Lord, with which we may overcome the foeâs acts of enmity.
28.7
Give, O Right, that reward, the blessings of good thought;
give Thou, Piety, enablement to Vishtaaspa and myself;
give Thou, Mindful One, showing Thy authority, the prescript in which we might hear Your caring.
28.8
For the best gift, Best One who art of one mind with best Right,
Lord, I pray Thee earnestly on behalf of the upstanding Frashaushtra and myself
and those on whom Thou mayest bestow it for ever out of Good Thought.
28.9
With these prayers may we not anger You, Lord, nor Right
and Best Thought, we who are busy offering Your praises:
Ye are the promptest ones; Your powers and domain are of strengths.
28.10
Those then whom Thou knowest to be upright before Right and Good Thought
and worthy, Mindful Lord, fulfil their desire with attainment;
I know that well-purposed hymns of devotion to You are not in vain.
28.11
Thou who with their aid dost protect Thy Right and Good Thought for ever,
teach me, Mindful Lord, to voice in line with Thy will
through Thy mouth (those teachings) by which the pristine existence may come about.
YASNA 29
This remarkable composition is concerned with the tribulations of cattle-owners in Zoroasterâs society. He adverts to the topic in several other poems (31. 9â10, 32. 8â14, 33. 4, 44. 6, 20, 51. 14), where it appears that cattle are repeatedly driven off from their pastures and condemned to sacrifice. Here he imagines the feelings of the cow herself and frames them into an appeal to the powers above, which leads to a concerned debate among them.
29.1
To You the cowâs soul complains: âFor whom did Ye shape me? Who made me?
Fury and force, cruelty, violence, and aggression hold me bound.
I have no pastor but You; so show Yourselves in good pasturing.â
29.2
Then the Maker of the Cow asks Right: âHow was Thy ruling for the cow,
when Ye powers put her there? Cattle-tending lies with the pastor;
(but) whom did Ye want to be her lord, that might repulse fury by the wrongful?â
29.3
To him Right, no breacher of unity, no enemy of the cow, will answer:
âOf those things there is no knowing. He by whom the upright invigorate the weak
is the mightiest of beings; to his calls I will respond, my ear reaches no further:
29.4
âthe Mindful One, the most heedful of initiatives, both those taken in the past
by Daevas and mortals, and those that may be taken hereafter.
He is the lord that judges; it will be as He will.â
29.5
But we two are here with outstretched hands propitiating the Lord,
my soul and the milch cowâs, as we put the Mindful One to our questions:
âIs there no prospect for the righteous-living one, none for the stock-raiser, among the wrongful?â
29.6
Then the Lord speaks, the Mindful One, knowing the designs in his wisdom:
âIndeed no patron has (yet) been found, nor a ruling in line with Right;
the Shaper has created thee for the stock-raiser and the herdsman.â
29.7
Milk and butter, this is the prescript that the Lord, of one mind with Right, made
for the cow, He the Mindful One; He is bounteous to the needy through his teaching.
â Whom hast Thou who by good thought could establish those things for mortals?
29.8
âThis man here I have found, the only one who listens to Our teachings:
Zarathushtra SpitÄma. He desires, mindful, on Our behalf and Rightâs,
to broadcast Our praises, as I harness his well-constructed utterance.â
29.9
Yet the cowâs soul laments, âThat I am to put up with an ineffective carer,
the voice of a powerless man, whom I wish enabled with authority!
When will there ever be one who will give him physical assistance?
29.10
âGrant Ye them, Lord, strength with right, and that authority
with Good Thought, by which one may establish fair dwelling and peace:
I for one realize Thee, Mindful One, to be the first procurer of that.â
29.11
Where are Right and Good Thought and Dominion? It is me, with Right,
that Ye in Your providence must acknowledge, Mindful One, for the great rite.
Lord, (come) down to us now, in return for our liberality, Your followersâ.
YASNA 30
This is a poetical sermon addressed to those who have gathered to hear it (the âproselytesâ of the first line; cf. 45. 1, 47. 6), or more broadly to mankind at large (final stanza).
30.1
Now I will speak, O proselytes, of what ye may bring to the attention even of one who knows,
praises for the Lord and Good Thoughtâs acts of worship
well considered, and for Right; the gladness beheld by the daylight.
30.2
Hear with your ears the best message, behold with lucid mind
the two choices in the decision each man makes for his own person
before the great Supplication, as ye look ahead to the declaration to Him.
30.3
They are the two Wills, the twins who in the beginning made themselves heard through dreaming,
those two kinds of thought, of speech, of deed, the better and the evil;
and between them well-doers discriminate rightly, but ill-doers do not.
30.4
Once those two Wills join battle, a man adopts
life or non-life, the way of existence that will be his at the last:
that of the wrongful the worst kind, but for the righteous one, best thought.
30.5
Of those two Wills, the Wrongful one chooses to do the worst things,
but the most Bounteous Will (chooses) Right, he who clothes himself in adamant;
as do those also who committedly please the Lord with genuine actions, the Mindful One.
30.6
Between those two the very Daevas fail to discriminate rightly, because delusion
comes over them as they deliberate, when they choose worst thought;
they scurry together to the violence with which mortals blight the world.
30.7
But suppose one comes with dominion for Him, with good thought and right,
then vitality informs the body, piety the soul:
their ringleader Thou wilt have as if in irons:
30.8
and when the requital comes for their misdeeds,
for Thee, Mindful One, together with Good Thought, will be found dominion
to proclaim to those, Lord, who deliver Wrong into the hands of Right.
30.9
May we be the ones who will make this world splendid,
Mindful One and Ye Lords, bringers of change, and Right,
as our minds come together where insight is fluctuating.
30.10
For then destructi...