The
Great Hymn to the Aten
Praise of Re Har-akhti, Rejoicing on the Horizon, in His Name as Shu
Who Is in the Aton-disc, living forever and ever; the living great Aton
who is in jubilee, lord of all that the Aton encircles, lord of heaven,
lord of earth, lord of the House of Aton in Akhet-Aton; (and praise of)
the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on truth, the Lord of the
Two Lands: Nefer-kheperu-Re Wa-en-Re; the Son of Re, who lives on
truth, the Lord of Diadems: Akh-en-Aton, long in his lifetime; (and
praise of) the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two
Lands: Nefer-neferu-Aton Nefert-iti, living, healthy, and youthful
forever and ever; (by) the Fan-Bearer on the Right Hand of the King ...
Eye.
He says:
Thou
appearest beautifully on the horizon of heaven,
Thou living Aton, the beginning of
life!
When thou art risen on the eastern
horizon,
Thou hast filled every land with thy
beauty.
Thou art gracious, great, glistening,
and high over every land;
Thy rays encompass the lands to the
limit of all that thou hast made:
As thou art Re, thou reachest to the
end of them;
(Thou) subduest them (for) thy
beloved son.
Though thou art far away, thy rays
are on earth;
Though thou art in their faces, no
one knows thy going.
When thou settest in the
western horizon,
The land is in darkness, in the
manner of death.
They sleep in a room, with heads
wrapped up,
Nor sees one eye the other.
All their goods which are under their
heads might be stolen,
(But) they would not perceive (it).
Every lion is come forth from his den;
All creeping things, they sting.
Darkness is a shroud, and the earth
is in stillness,
For he who made them rests in his
horizon.
At daybreak, when thou arisest
on the horizon,
When thou shinest as the Aton by day,
Thou drivest away the darkness and
givest thy rays.
The Two Lands are in festivity every
day,
Awake and standing upon (their) feet,
For thou hast raised them up.
Washing their bodies, taking (their)
clothing,
Their arms are (raised) in praise at
thy appearance.
All the world, they do their work.
All beasts are content with
their pasturage;
Trees and plants are flourishing.
The birds which fly from their nests,
Their wings are (stretched out) in
praise to thy ka.
All beasts spring upon (their) feeet.
Whatever flies and alights,
They live when thou hast risen (for)
them.
The ships are sailing north and south
as well,
For every way is open at thy
appearance.
The fish in the river dart before thy
face;
Thy rays are in the midst of the
great green sea.
Creator of seed in women,
Thou who makest fluid into man,
Who maintainest the son in the womb
of his mother,
Who soothest him with that which
stills his weeping,
Thou nurse (even) in the womb,
Who givest breath to sustain all that
he has made!
When he descends from the womb to
breathe
On the day when he is born,
Thou openest his mouth completely,
Thou suppliest his necessities.
When the chick in the egg speaks
within the shell,
Thou givest him breath within it to
maintain him.
When thou hast made him his
fulfillment within the egg, to break it,
He comes forth from the egg to speak
at his completed (time);
He walks upon his legs when he comes
forth from it.
How manifold it is, what thou
hast made!
They are hidden from the face (of
man).
O sole god, like whom there is no
other!
Thou didst create the world according
to thy desire,
Whilst thou wert alone: All men,
cattle, and wild beasts,
Whatever is on earth, going upon
(its) feet,
And what is on high, flying with its
wings.
The countries of Syria and
Nubia, the land of Egypt,
Thou settest every man in his place,
Thou suppliest their necessities:
Everyone has his food, and his time
of life is reckoned.
Their tongues are separate in speech,
And their natures as well;
Their skins are distinguished,
As thou distinguishest the foreign
peoples.
Thou makest a Nile in the underworld,
Thou bringest forth as thou desirest
To maintain the people (of Egypt)
According as thou madest them for
thyself,
The lord of all of them, wearying
(himself) with them,
The lord of every land, rising for
them,
The Aton of the day, great of majesty.
All distant foreign countries,
thou makest their life (also),
For thou hast set a Nile in heaven,
That it may descend for them and make
waves upon the mountains,
Like the great green sea,
To water their fields in their towns.
How effective they are, thy plans, O
lord of eternity!
The Nile in heaven, it is for the
foreign peoples
And for the beasts of every desert
that go upon (their) feet;
(While the true) Nile comes from the
underworld for Egypt.
Thy rays suckle every meadow.
When thou risest, they live, they
grow for thee.
Thou makest the seasons in order to
rear all that thou hast made,
The winter to cool them,
And the heat that they may taste thee.
Thou hast made the distant sky in
order to rise therein,
In order to see all that thou dost
make.
Whilst thou wert alone,
Rising in thy form as the living Aton,
Appearing, shining, withdrawing or
aproaching,
Thou madest millions of forms of
thyself alone.
Cities, towns, fields, road, and
river --
Every eye beholds thee over against
them,
For thou art the Aton of the day over
the earth....
Thou are in my heart,
And there is no other that knows thee
Save thy son Nefer-kheperu-Re
Wa-en-Re,
For thou hast made him well-versed in
thy plans and in thy strength.
The world came into being by
thy hand,
According as thou hast made them.
When thou hast risen they live,
When thou settest they die.
Thou art lifetime thy own self,
For one lives (only) through thee.
Eyes are (fixed) on beauty until thou
settest.
All work is laid aside when thou
settest in the west.
(But) when (thou) risest (again),
[Everything is] made to flourish for
the king,...
Since thou didst found the earth
And raise them up for thy son,
Who came forth from thy body: the
King of Upper and Lower Egypt, ... Ak-en-Aton,
... and the Chief Wife of the King ... Nefert-iti, living and youthful
forever and ever.
Source: Pritchard, James B.,
ed., The Ancient Near East - Volume
1: An Anthology of Texts and
Pictures, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,
1958, pp.
227-230.
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