O offspring of God, mother of all things,
Bond of the world, its stable link,
Jewel amid earthly things, mirror for the fleeting,
Morning star of the world.
Peace, love, virtue, rule, power,
Order, law, goal, path, guide, origin,
Life, light, splendor, form, shape,
Rule of the world.
You who govern the world with your reins,
Binding all things, made firm in a harmonious knot,
And, with the glue of peace, wed
The things of heaven to those of earth.
You who, calling to mind the many patterns of that higher Mind,
Coining each single kind of thing,
Clothe matter with forms, and with your thumb
Shape the mantle of form itself.
You whom heaven favors, whom the air serves,
Whom Earth honors, whom the wave reveres,
To whom, as to the mistress of the world,
Each single thing pays tribute.
You who, chaining day to night in turns,
Grant to the day the wax-bright torch of the sun,
And, with the shining mirror of the moon,
Lull to sleep the clouds of night.
You who gild the pole with varied stars,
Making serene the throne of our upper air
With the gems of the stars, and filling heaven
With its varied soldiery.
You who, shifting the face of heaven
Into ever-new shapes, transform even the dry
Common mass of our air, endowing it
With region, and bind it fast with law.
At whose nod the world grows young again,
The forest curls with the hair of its leaves,
And the earth, clothed in your tunic of flowers,
Takes pride in its beauty.
You who bury the threats of the sea, and increase them,
Cutting short the sea's raging course,
Lest the tide of the ocean be able
To bury the whole tract of land.
Alan's first question.
Unlock for me, who ask, the cause of your journey:
Why do you seek the earth, a stranger to the heavens?
Why do you offer the gifts of your godhead
To our lands?
The second question.
Why are your cheeks wet with a rain of tears?
What do the tears upon your face foretell?
Weeping is a faithful enough tongue
For inward sorrow.