Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 03
General
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 03
Literature -- Collections
And so may we be such as make the world renewed, And may
Ahura Mazda and Righteousness lend their aid, That our
thoughts may there be [set] where Faith is abiding.
10
For at the [final] Dispensation, the blow of annihilation to
Satan shall come to pass; But those who participate in a good
report [in the Life Record] shall meet together In the happy
home of Good Thought, and of Mazda, and of Righteousness.
11
If, O ye men, ye mark these doctrines which Mazda gave, And
[mark] the weal and the woe--namely, the long torment of the
wicked, And the welfare of the righteous--then in accordance
with these [doctrines] there will be happiness hereafter.
The _Visperad_ (all the masters) is a short collection of prosaic
invocations and laudations of sacred things. Its twenty-four sections
form a supplement to the Yasna. Whatever interest this division of the
Avesta possesses lies entirely on the side of the ritual, and not in the
field of literature. In this respect it differs widely from the book of
the Yashts, which is next to be mentioned.
The _Yashts_ (praises of worship) form a poetical book of twenty-one
hymns in which the angels of the religion, "the worshipful ones"
(_Yazatas, Izads_), are glorified, and the heroes of former days. Much
of the material of the Yashts is evidently drawn from pre-Zoroastrian
sagas which have been remodeled and adopted, worked over and modified,
and incorporated into the canon of the new-founded religion. There is a
mythological and legendary atmosphere about the Yashts, and Firdausi's
'Shah Nameh' serves to throw light on many of the events portrayed in
them, or allusions that would otherwise be obscure. All the longer
Yashts are in verse, and some of them have poetic merit. Chiefly to be
mentioned among the longer ones are: first, the one in praise of Ardvi
Sura Anahita, or the stream celestial (Yt. 5); second, the Yasht which
exalts the star Tishtrya and his victory over the demon of drought (Yt.
8); then the one devoted to the Fravashis or glorified souls of the
righteous (Yt. 13) as well as the Yasht in honor of Verethraghna, the
incarnation of Victory (Yt. 14). Selections from the others, Yt. 10 and
Yt. 19, which are among the noblest, are here given.
The first of the two chosen (Yt. 10) is dedicated to the great divinity
Mithra, the genius who presides over light, truth, and the sun (Yt.
10, 13).
Foremost he, the celestial angel,
Mounts above Mount Hara (Alborz)
In advance of the sun immortal
Which is drawn by fleeting horses;
He it is, in gold adornment
First ascends the beauteous summits
Thence beneficent he glances
Over all the abode of Aryans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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