Thy dawning is beautiful
in the horizon of the sky,
O living Aton, Beginning of
life!
When thou risest in the Eastern
horizon,
Thou fillest every land with
thy beauty.
Thou art beautiful, great,
glittering, high above every land,
Thy rays, they encompass the
lands, even all that thou hast made.
Thou art Re, and thou carriest
them all away captive;
Thou bindest them by thy love.
Though thou art far away, thy
rays are upon the earth;
Though thou art on high, thy
footprints are the day.
When thou settest in the western
horizon of the sky,
The earth is in darkness like
the dead;
They sleep in their chambers,
Their heads are wrapped up,
Their nostrils are stopped,
And none seeth the other,
While all their things are
stolen
Which are under their heads,
And they know it not.
Every lion cometh forth from
his den,
All serpents, they Sting.
Darkness ...
The world is in silence,
He that made them resteth in
his horizon.
Bright is the earth when thou
risest in the horizon.
When thou shinest as Aton by
day
Thou drivest away the darkness.
When thou sendest forth thy
rays,
The Two Lands (Egypt) are in
daily festivity,
Awake and standing upon their
feet
When thou hast raised them
up.
Their limbs bathed, they take
their clothing,
Their arms uplifted in adoration
to thy dawning.
(Then) in all the world they
do their work.
All cattle rest upon their pasturage,
The trees and the plants flourish,
The birds flutter in their
marshes,
Their wings uplifted in adoration
to thee.
All the sheep dance upon their
feet,
All winged things fly,
They live when thou hast shone
upon them.
The barques sail up-stream
and down-stream alike.
Every highway is open because
thou dawnest.
The fish in the river leap
up before thee.
Thy rays are in the midst of
the great green sea.
Creator of the germ in woman,
Maker of seed in man,
Giving life to the son in the
body of his mother,
Soothing him that he may not
weep,
Nurse (even) in the womb,
Giver of breath to animate
every one that he maketh!
When he cometh forth from the
body ... on the day of his birth,
Thou openest his mouth in speech,
Thou suppliest his necessities.
When the fledgling in the egg
chirps in the shell,
Thou givest him breath therein
to preserve him alive.
When thou hast brought him
together
To (the point of) bursting
it in the egg,
He cometh forth from the egg
To chirp with all his might.
He goeth about upon his two
feet
When he hath come forth therefrom.
How manifold are thy works!
They are hidden from before
(us),
O sole God, whose powers no
other possesseth.
Thou didst creat the earth
according to thy heart
While thou wast alone:
Men, all cattle large and small,
All that are upon the earth,
That go about upon their feet;
(All) that are on high,
That fly wilh their wings.
The foreign countries, Syria
and Kush,
The land of Egypt;
Thou settest every man into
his place,
Every one has his possessions,
And his days are reckoned.
Their tongues are diverse in
speech,
Their forms likewise and their
skins are distinguished.
(For) thou makest different
the strangers.
Thou makest the Nile in the
Nether World,
Thou bringest it as thou desirest,
To preserve alive the people.
For thou hast made them for
thyself,
The lord of them all, resting
among them;
Thou lord of every land, who
risest for them,
Thou Sun of day, great in majesty.
All the distant countries,
Thou makest (also) their life,
Thou hast set a Nile in the
sky;
When it falleth for them,
It maketh waves upon the mountains,
Like the great green sea,
Watering the fields in their
towns.
How excellent are thy designs,
O lord of eternity!
There is a Nile in the sky
for the strangers
And for the cattle of every
country that go upon their feet.
(But) the Nile, it cometh from
the Nether World for Egypt.
Thy rays nourish every garden;
When thou risest they live,
They grow by thee.
Thou makest the seasons
In order to create all thy
work:
Winter to bring them coolness,
And heat they they may taste
thee.
Thou didst make the distant
sky to rise therein,
In order to behold all that
thou hast made,
Thou alone, shining in thy
form as living Aton,
Dawning, glittering, going
afar and returning.
Thou makest millions of forms
Through thyself alone;
Cities, towns, and tribes,
highways and rivers.
All eyes see thee before them,
For thou art Aton of the day
over the earth.
Thou art in my heart,
There is no other that knoweth
thee
Save thy son Akhnaton.
Thou has made him wise
In thy designs and in thy might.
The world is in thy hand,
Even as thou hast made them.
When thou hast risen they live,
When thou settest, they die;
For thou art length of life
of thyself,
Men live through thee,
While (their) eyes are on thy
beauty
Until thou settest.
All labour is put away
When thou settest in the west.
Thou didst establish the world,
And raise them up for thy son,
Who came forth from thy limbs,
The King of Upper and Lower
Egypt,
Living in Truth, Lord of the
Two Lands,
Nefer-khrpru-Re, Wan-Re (Akhnaton),
Son of Re, living in Truth,
lord of diadems,
Akhnaton, whose life is long;
(And for) the chief royal wife,
his beloved,
Mistress of the Two Lands,
Nefer-nefru-Aton, Nofretete,
Living and flourishing for
ever and ever.
Translated by
J. H. Breasted, in Development of Religion and
Thought in Ancient Egypt,
Chicago, 1912, pp. 324-328.