Yasna X
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The Zend Avesta, Part III (SBE31), L.H. Mills, tr. [1886], at sacred-texts.com
p. 240
YASNA X.
11. Let the Demon-gods and Goddesses fly far away 1 from hence, and let the good Sraosha make here his home! [And may the good Blessedness here likewise dwell], and may she here spread delight and peace within this house, Ahura's, which is sanctified by H(a)oma, bringing righteousness (to all).
2. At the first force of thy pressure, O intelligent!
I praise thee with my voice, while I grasp at first thy shoots. At thy next pressure, O intelligent! I praise thee with my voice, when as with full force of a man I crush thee down.
3. I praise the cloud that waters thee, and the rains which make thee grow on the summits of the mountains; and I praise thy lofty mountains where the H(a)oma branches spread 2.
4. This wide earth do I praise, expanded far (with paths), the productive, the full bearing, thy mother, holy plant! Yea, I praise the lands where thou dost grow, sweet-scented, swiftly spreading, the good growth of the Lord. O H(a)oma, thou growest on the mountains, apart on many paths 3, and there still may’st thou flourish. The springs of Righteousness most verily thou art, (and the fountains of the ritual find their source in thee)!
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5. Grow (then) because I pray to thee on all thy stems and branches, in all thy shoots (and tendrils) increase thou through my word!
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6. H(a)oma grows while he is praised, and the man who praises him is therewith more victorious. The lightest pressure of thee, H(a)oma, thy feeblest praise, the slightest tasting of thy juice, avails to the thousand-smiting of the D(a)êvas.
7. Wasting doth vanish from that house, and with it foulness, whither in verity they bear thee, and where thy praise in truth is sung, the drink of H(a)oma, famed, health-bringing (as thou art). [(Pâzand) to his village and abode they bear him.]
8. All other toxicants go hand in hand with Rapine of the bloody spear, but H(a)oma's stirring power goes hand in hand with friendship. [Light is the drunkenness of H(a)oma (Pâzand).]
Who as a tender son caresses H(a)oma, forth to the bodies of such persons H(a)oma comes to heal.
9. Of all the healing virtues, H(a)oma, whereby thou art a healer, grant me some. Of all the victorious powers, whereby thou art a victor, grant me some. A faithful praiser will I be to thee, O H(a)oma, and a faithful praiser (is) a better (thing) than Righteousness the Best; so hath the Lord, declaring (it), decreed.
10. Swift 1 and wise hath the well-skilled 2 Deity created thee; swift and wise on high Haraiti did He, the well-skilled, plant thee.
11. And taught (by implanted instinct) on every
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side, the bounteous 1 birds have carried thee to the Peaks-above-the-eagles 2, to the mount's extremest summit, to the gorges and abysses, to the heights of many pathways 3, to the snow-peaks ever whitened.
12. There, H(a)oma, on the ranges dost thou grow of many kinds. Now thou growest of milky whiteness, and now thou growest golden; and forth thine healing liquors flow for the inspiring of the pious. So terrify away from me the (death's) aim of the curser. So terrify and crush his thought who stands as my maligner.
13. Praise be to thee, O H(a)oma, (for he makes the poor man's thoughts as great as any of the richest whomsoever.) Praise be to H(a)oma, (for he makes the poor man's thoughts as great as when mind reacheth culmination.) With manifold retainers dost thou, O H(a)oma, endow the man who drinks thee mixed with milk; yea, more prosperous thou makest him, and more endowed with mind.
14. Do not vanish from me suddenly like milk-drops in the rain; let thine exhilarations go forth ever vigorous and fresh; and let them come to me with strong effect. Before thee, holy H(a)oma, thou bearer of the ritual truth, and around thee would I cast this body, a body which (as all) may see (is fit for gift and) grown 4.
15. I renounce with vehemence the murderous woman's 5 emptiness, the Gaini's, hers, with intellect
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dethroned 1. She vainly thinks to foil us, and would beguile both Fire-priest and H(a)oma; but she herself, deceived therein, shall perish. And when she sits at home 2, and wrongly eats of H(a)oma's offering, priest's mother will that never make her, nor give her holy 3 sons!
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16. 4To five do I belong, to five others do I not; of the good thought am I, of the evil am I not; of the good word am I, of the evil am I not; of the good deed am I, and of the evil, not.
To Obedience am I given, and to deaf disobedience, not; to the saint do I belong, and to the wicked, not; and so from this on till the ending shall be the spirits’ parting. (The two shall here divide.)
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17. Thereupon spake Zarathustra: Praise to H(a)oma, Mazda-made. Good is H(a)oma, Mazda-made. All the plants of H(a)oma praise I, on the heights of lofty mountains, in the gorges of the valleys, in the clefts (of sundered hill-sides) cut for the bundles bound by women. From the silver cup I pour Thee to the golden chalice over 5. Let me not thy (sacred) liquor spill to earth, of precious cost.
18. These are thy Gâthas 6, holy H(a)oma, these
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thy songs, and these thy teachings 1, and these thy truthful ritual words, health 2-imparting, victory-giving, from harmful hatred healing giving.
19. These and thou art mine, and forth let thine exhilarations flow; bright and sparkling let them hold on their (steadfast) way; for light are thine exhilaration(s), and flying lightly come they here. Victory-giving smiteth H(a)oma, victory-giving is it worshipped; with this Gâthic word we praise it.
20. Praise to the Kine; praise and victory (be) spoken to her! Food for the Kine, and pasture! 'For the Kine let thrift use toil; yield thou us food 3.'
21. We worship the yellow lofty one; we worship H(a)oma who causes progress, who makes the settlements advance; we worship H(a)oma who drives death afar; yea, we worship all the H(a)oma plants. And we worship (their) blessedness, and the Fravashi of Zarathustra Spitâma, the saint 4.
Footnotes
240:1 The Pahlavi as corrected by the MS. of Dastur Hoshanggi Gâmâspgi has barâ akhar min latamman padênd barâ shêdâ-; Ner. Rite paskât asmât prapatanti, rite devâh rite devasahâyâh devyâh, uttamah Sroso nivasati.
240:2 Or, 'where, O Haoma! thou hast grown,' reading—isa with Barth. as 2nd sing. perf. pret. middle.
240:3 Or, 'on the pathways of the birds.'
241:1 Having immediate effect, and giving wisdom.
242:1 Possibly 'the birds taught by the bounteous one;' the 'God-taught birds.'
242:2 Elsewhere and here also possibly a proper name.
242:3 Or the 'pathways of the birds;' so Haug, following Spiegel and Justi. Gugrati, as above.
242:4 Which is seen as mine well-grown.
242:5 Gaini seems always used in an evil sense in the later Avesta.
243:1 I would correct to a form of khratu.
243:2 Compare the avoiding the service mentioned by the Pahlavi translator on Y. LIII, 5.
243:3 Or, more safely, 'many sons.'
243:5 Here the priest evidently manipulates the cups containing the Haoma-juice.
243:6 The application of this term here seems to point to a high antiquity for the Haoma Yast; if not in the present piece, which is not so old as the Gâthas, then in previous hymns to Haoma of which this Yast is an improvement, or extension.
244:1 Ner. possibly figuratively yâh kaskit asvâdanâh.
244:4 The YêNhê hâtãm follows.
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