3. Genesis.
(Author Uncertain.)
In the beginning did the Lord create The heaven and earth: [1242] for formless was the land, [1243] And hidden by the wave, and God immense [1244] O'er the vast watery plains was hovering, 5 While chaos and black darkness shrouded all: Which darkness, when God bade be from the pole [1245] Disjoined, He speaks, "Let there be light;" and all In the clear world [1246] was bright. Then, when the Lord The first day's work had finished, He formed 10 Heaven's axis white with nascent clouds: the deep Immense receives its wandering [1247] shores, and draws The rivers manifold with mighty trains. The third dun light unveiled earth's [1248] face, and soon (Its name assigned [1249] ) the dry land's story 'gins: 15 Together on the windy champaigns rise The flowery seeds, and simultaneously Fruit-bearing boughs put forth procurvant arms. The fourth day, with [1250] the sun's lamp generates The moon, and moulds the stars with tremulous light 20 Radiant: these elements it [1251] gave as signs To th' underlying world, [1252] to teach the times Which, through their rise and setting, were to change. Then, on the fifth, the liquid [1253] streams receive Their fish, and birds poise in the lower air 25 Their pinions many-hued. The sixth, again, Supples the ice-cold snakes into their coils, And over the whole fields diffuses herds Of quadrupeds; and mandate gave that all Should grow with multiplying seed, and roam 30 And feed in earth's immensity. All these When power divine by mere command arranged, Observing that things mundane still would lack A ruler, thus It [1254] speaks: "With utmost care, Assimilated to our own aspect, [1255] 35 Make We a man to reign in the whole orb." And him, although He with a single word [1256] Could have compounded, yet Himself did deign To shape him with His sacred own right hand, Inspiring his dull breast from breast divine. 40 Whom when He saw formed in a likeness such As is His own, He measures how he broods Alone on gnawing cares. Straight way his eyes With sleep irriguous He doth perfuse; That from his left rib woman softlier 45 May formed be, and that by mixture twin His substance may add firmness to her limbs. To her the name of "Life"--which is called "Eve" [1257] -- Is given: wherefore sons, as custom is, Their parents leave, and, with a settled home, 50 Cleave to their wives. The seventh came, when God At His works' end did rest, decreeing it Sacred unto the coming ages' joys. Straightway--the crowds of living things deployed Before him--Adam's cunning skill (the gift 55 Of the good Lord) gives severally to all The name which still is permanent. Himself, And, joined with him, his Eve, God deigns address "Grow, for the times to come, with manifold Increase, that with your seed the pole and earth [1258] 60 Be filled; and, as Mine heirs, the varied fruits Pluck ye, which groves and champaigns render you, From their rich turf." Thus after He discoursed, In gladsome court [1259] a paradise is strewn, And looks towards the rays of th' early sun. [1260] 65 These joys among, a tree with deadly fruits, Breeding, conjoined, the taste of life and death, Arises. In the midst of the demesne [1261] Flows with pure tide a stream, which irrigates Fair offsprings from its liquid waves, and cuts 70 Quadrified paths from out its bubbling fount Here wealthy Phison, with auriferous waves, Swells, and with hoarse tide wears [1262] conspicuous gems, This prasinus, [1263] that glowing carbuncle, [1264] By name; and raves, transparent in its shoals, 75 The margin of the land of Havilath. Next Gihon, gliding by the Æthiops, Enriches them. The Tigris is the third, Adjoined to fair Euphrates, furrowing Disjunctively with rapid flood the land 80 Of Asshur. Adam, with his faithful wife, Placed here as guard and workman, is informed By such the Thunderer's [1265] speech: "Tremble ye not To pluck together the permitted fruits Which, with its leafy bough, the unshorn grove 85 Hath furnished; anxious only lest perchance Ye cull the hurtful apple, [1266] which is green With a twin juice for functions several." And, no less blind meantime than Night herself, Deep night 'gan hold them, nor had e'en a robe 90 Covered their new-formed limbs. Amid these haunts, And on mild berries reared, a foamy snake, Surpassing living things in sense astute, Was creeping silently with chilly coils. He, brooding over envious lies instinct 95 With gnawing sense, tempts the soft heart beneath The woman's breast: "Tell me, why shouldst thou dread The apple's [1267] happy seeds? Why, hath not All known fruits hallowed? [1268] Whence if thou be prompt To cull the honeyed fruits, the golden world [1269] 100 Will on its starry pole return." [1270] But she Refuses, and the boughs forbidden fears To touch. But yet her breast 'gins be o'er come With sense infirm. Straightway, as she at length With snowy tooth the dainty morsels bit, 105 Stained with no cloud the sky serene up-lit! Then taste, instilling lure in honeyed jaws, To her yet uninitiated lord Constrained her to present the gift; which he No sooner took, then--night effaced!:--their eyes 110 Shone out serene in the resplendent world. [1271] When, then, they each their body bare espied, And when their shameful parts they see, with leaves Of fig they shadow them. By chance, beneath The sun's now setting light, they recognise 115 The sound of the Lord's voice, and, trembling, haste To bypaths. Then the Lord of heaven accosts The mournful Adam: "Say, where now thou art." Who suppliant thus answers: "Thine address, O Lord, O Mighty One, I tremble at, 120 Beneath my fearful heart; and, being bare, I faint with chilly dread." Then said the Lord: "Who hath the hurtful fruits, then, given you?" "This woman, while she tells me how her eyes With brilliant day promptly perfused were, 125 And on her dawned the liquid sky serene, And heaven's sun and stars, o'ergave them me!" Forthwith God's anger frights perturbed Eve, While the Most High inquires the authorship Of the forbidden act. Hereon she opes 130 Her tale: "The speaking serpent's suasive words I harboured, while the guile and bland request Misled me: for, with venoms viperous His words inweaving, stories told he me Of those delights which should all fruits excel." 135 Straightway the Omnipotent the dragon's deeds Condemns, and bids him be to all a sight Unsightly, monstrous; bids him presently With grovelling beast to crawl; and then to bite And chew the soil; while war should to all time 140 'Twixt human senses and his tottering self Be waged, that he might creep, crestfallen, prone, Behind the legs of men, [1272] --that while he glides Close on their heels they may down-trample him. The woman, sadly caught by guileful words, 145 Is bidden yield her fruit with struggle hard, And bear her husband's yoke with patient zeal. [1273] "But thou, to whom the sentence [1274] of the wife (Who, vanquished, to the dragon pitiless Yielded) seemed true, shalt through long times deplore 150 Thy labour sad; for thou shalt see, instead Of wheaten harvest's seed, the thistle rise, And the thorn plenteously with pointed spines: So that, with weary heart and mournful breast, Full many sighs shall furnish anxious food; [1275] 155 Till, in the setting hour of coming death, To level earth, whence thou thy body draw'st, Thou be restored." This done, the Lord bestows Upon the trembling pair a tedious life; And from the sacred gardens far removes 160 Them downcast, and locates them opposite, And from the threshold bars them by mid fire, Wherein from out the swift heat is evolved A cherubim, [1276] while fierce the hot point glows, And rolls enfolding flames. And lest their limbs 165 With sluggish cold should be benumbed, the Lord Hides flayed from cattle's flesh together sews, With vestures warm their bare limbs covering. When, therefore, Adam--now believing--felt (By wedlock taught) his manhood, he confers 170 On his loved wife the mother's name; and, made Successively by scions twain a sire, Gives names to stocks [1277] diverse: Caïn the first Hath for his name, to whom is Abel joined. The latter's care tended the harmless sheep; 175 The other turned the earth with curved plough. These, when in course of time [1278] they brought their gifts To Him who thunders, offered--as their sense Prompted them--fruits unlike. The elder one Offered the first-fruits [1279] of the fertile glebes: 180 The other pays his vows with gentle lamb, Bearing in hand the entrails pure, and fat Snow-white; and to the Lord, who pious vows Beholds, is instantly acceptable. Wherefore with anger cold did Cain glow; [1280] 185 With whom God deigns to talk, and thus begins: "Tell Me, if thou live rightly, and discern Things hurtful, couldst thou not then pass thine age Pure from contracted guilt? Cease to essay With gnawing sense thy brother's ruin, who, 190 Subject to thee as lord, his neck shall yield." Not e'en thus softened, he unto the fields Conducts his brother; whom when overta'en In lonely mead he saw, with his twin palms Bruising his pious throat, he crushed life out. 195 Which deed the Lord espying from high heaven, Straitly demands "where Abel is on earth? " He says "he will not as his brother's guard Be set." Then God outspeaks to him again: "Doth not the sound of his blood's voice, sent up 200 To Me, ascend unto heaven's lofty pole? Learn, therefore, for so great a crime what doom Shall wait thee. Earth, which with thy kinsman's blood Hath reeked but now, shall to thy hateful hand Refuse to render back the cursed seeds 205 Entrusted her; nor shall, if set with herbs, Produce her fruit: that, torpid, thou shalt dash Thy limbs against each other with much fear."......