A HYMN OF PRAISE TO RA WHEN HE RISETH . From the Papyrus of Ani

Text : (1) A HYMN OF PRAISE TO RA WHEN HE RISF:TH IN THE EASTERN
PART OE HEAVEN. Those who are in his train (2) rejoice, and lo!
Osiris Ani, victorious, saith :-

"Hail, thou Disk, thou lord of rays, (3) who risest on the
"horizon day by day! Shine thou with thy beams of light upon
"the face of Osiris Ani, who is victorious ; for he singeth hymns
"of praise unto thee at (4) dawn, and he maketh thee to set at
"eventide with words of adoration . May the soul of Osiris Ani,
"the triumphant one, come forth (5) with thee into heaven, may
"he go forth in the Matet boat . May he come into port in the
"Sektet boat, and may he cleave his path among the never (6)
"resting stars in the heavens ."

Osiris Ani, being in peace and in triumph, adoreth his lord,
(7) the lord of eternity, saving : "Homage to thee, O Heru-khuti
"(Harmachis), who art the god Khepera, the self-created ; when
"thou risest on the (8) horizon and sheddest thy beams of light
"upon the lands of the North and of the South, thou art beauti-
ful, yea beautiful, and all the gods rejoice when they behold
"thee, (9) the King of heaven . The goddess Nebt-Unnut is
"stablished upon thy head ; and her uraei of the South and of
"the North are upon thy brow ; (10) she taketh up her place
"before thee . The god Thoth is stablished in the bows of thy
"boat to destroy utterly all thy foes . (11) Those who are in
"the Tuat (underworld) come forth to meet thee, and they bow
"in homage as they come towards thee, to behold [thy] (12)
"beautiful Image. And I have come before thee that I may be
"with thee to behold thv Disk every day . May I not be shut up
"in [the tomb], may I not be (13) ; turned back, may the limbs
"of my body be made new again when I view thy beauties,
"even as [are those of] all thy favoured ones, (14) because I am
"one of those who worshipped thee [whilst I lived] upon earth .
"May I come in unto the land of eternity, may I come even
"(15) unto the everlasting land, for behold, O my lord, this hast
"thou ordained for me ."

And lo, Osiris Ani triumphant in peace, the triumphant one,
saith : (16) "Homage to thee, O thou who risest in thy horizon
"as Ra, thou reposest upon law [which changeth not nor can it be
"altered] . Thou passest over the sky, and every face watcheth
"thee (17) and thy course, for thou hast been hidden from their
"gaze . Thou dost shew thyself at dawn and at eventide day
"by day . (18) The Sektet boat, wherein is thy_ Majesty, goeth
"forth with might ; thy beams [shine] upon [all] faces ; [the num-
ber] of thy red and yellow rays cannot be known, nor can thy
"bright (19) beams be told . The lands of the gods, and the
"eastern lands of Punt I must be seen, ere that which is hidden
"(20) [in thee] may be measured . Alone and by thyself thou
"dost manifest thyself [when] thou comest into being above Nu
"(i . e ., the sky) . May Ani (21) advance, even as thou dost ad-
vance ; may he never cease [to go forward], even as thy Majesty
"ceaseth not [to go forward], even though it be for a moment ;
"for with strides dost thou (22) in one little moment pass over
"the spaces which would need hundreds of thousands and millions
"of years [for man to pass over ; this] thou doest, and then
"dolt thou sink to rest . Thou (23) puttest an end to the hours
"of the night, and thou dost count them, even thou ; thou endest
"them in thine own appointed season, and the earth becometh
"light . (24) Thou settest thyself before thy handiwork in the
"likeness of Ra ; thou risest in the horizon ."

Osiris, the scribe Ani, triumphant, declareth (25) his praise of
thee when thou shinest, and when thou risest at dawn he crieth
in his joy at thy birth : (26) "Thou art crowned with the ma-
"jesty of thy beauties ; thou mouldest thy limbs as thou dost
"advance, and thou bringest them forth without birth-pangs in
"the form of (27) Ra, as thou dost rise up into the upper air .
"Grant thou that I may come unto the heaven which is ever-
"lasting, and unto the mountain where dwell thy favoured ones .
"May I be joined (28) unto those shining beings, holy and per-
fect, who are in the underworld ; and may I come forth with
"them to behold thy beauties when thou shinest (29) at even-
"tide and goest to thy mother Nu . Thou dost place thyself in
"the west, and my two hands are [raised] in adoration [of thee]
"(30) when thou settest as a living being . Behold, thou art the
"maker of eternity, and thou art adored [when] thou settest in the
"heavens. I have given my heart unto thee (31) without wavering,
"O thou who art mightier than the gods ."

Osiris Ani, triumphant, saith : "A hymn of praise to thee, O
"thou who risest like unto gold, and who dost flood the world
"with light on the day of thy birth . Thy mother giveth thee
"birth upon [her] hand, and thou dost give light unto the course
"of the Disk (33) . O thou great Light, who shinest in the heavens,
"thou dost strengthen the generations of men with the Nile-flood,
"and thou dost cause gladness in all lands, and in all cities (34),
"and in all the temples . Thou art glorious by reason of thy
"splendours, and thou makest strong thy ka (i . e ., Double) with
"hit and tchefau foods . O thou who art the mighty one of vic-
tories, (35) thou who art the Power of [all] Powers, who dost
"make strong thv throne against evil fiends ; who art glorious
"in majesty in the Sektet boat, and who art exceeding mighty
"(36) in the Atet boat, make thou glorious Osiris Ani with vic-
tory in the underworld ; grant thou that in the netherworld he
"may be (37) without evil . I pray thee to put away [his] faults
"behind thee : grant thou that he may be one of thy venerable
"servants (38) who are with the shining ones ; may he be joined
`unto the souls which are in Ta-tchesertet ; and may he journey
"into the Sekhet-Aaru (38) by a prosperous and happy decree,
"he the Osiris, the scribe, Ani, triumphant ."

And the god saith :-

(40) "Thou shalt come forth into heaven, thou shalt pass over
"the sky, thou shalt be joined into the starry deities . Praises
"shall be offered (41) unto thee in thy boat, thou shalt be hymned
"in the Atet boat, (42) thou shalt behold Ra within his shrine,
"thou shalt set together with his Disk day by day, thou shalt see
"(43) the Ant fish when it springeth into being in the waters of
"turquoise, and thou shalt see (44) the Abtu fish in his hour .
"It shall come to pass that the Evil One shall fall when he laveth
"a snare to destroy thee, (45) and the joints of his neck and of
"his back shall be hacked asunder . Ra [saileth] with a fair wind,
"and the Sektet boat draweth on (46) and cometh into port . The
"mariners of Ra rejoice, and the heart of Nebt-ankh t is glad, (47)
"for the enemy of her lord bath fallen to the ground . Thou
"shalt behold Horus on the standing-place of the pilot of the
"boat, and Thoth and Maat shall stand one upon each side of
"him. (48) All the gods shall rejoice when they behold Ra coming
"in peace (49) to make the hearts of the shining ones to live,
"and Osiris Ani, victorious, the scribe of the divine offerings of
"the lords of Thebes, shall be along with them!"

The Source: The Book oDead, the Chapters of Coming Forth by Day
Translated into English by E. A. Wallis Budge, Litt.D., D.Lit
London, 1898.


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Chap . XV :


LITANY OF THE NINE GODS. 

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