"THE MARVEL'S": Saint-Martin's Theosophick Hymns - Chant 1

 "THE MARVELS"

by Louis Claude de Saint-Martin

            The marvels of the Lord seem thrown without order and without design into the field of the immensity.

            
            They sparkle in scattered patches like these innumerable flowers with which the spring decks our meadows.

            We do not seek a more regular plan by which to describe them. Principle of beings, all  adore Thee.

          
            It is their secret liaison with Thee that gives them value, regardless of the place and rank that they occupy.

            I would dare to lift my gaze to the Throne of Thy Glory. My thoughts will be revived in considering Thy love for men, and the wisdom which reigns in Thy works. Thy Word is subdivided at its origin, like a torrent which precipitates itself from the peaks of mountains upon the piercing rocks.

            I see it rebound into vapor clouds; and each drop of water that it sends into the air reflects to my eyes the light of the day-star.

            Thus all the rays of Thy Word make Thy living and sacred light to shine into the sage's eyes; he sees Thy action produce and animate all the universe.

            Sublime objects of my canticles!--I shall be often forced to divert my sight away from you.

            Man has deemed himself mortal because he has found something mortal within;

            And man has regarded even the One who gives life to all beings as having neither life, nor existence.

            And thou, Jerusalem, what reproaches have not the Lord's prophets to make to thee?

            Thou hast taken what served to adorn thee, saith the Lord, and what was made from my gold and my silver that I had given to thee; thou hast formed of it images of men to which thou hast prostituted thyself.

            Cries of sorrow, mingle yourselves with my chants of glee; no more hath pure joy been  made for the sad sojourn of man. Have not irresistible proofs of these first truths been manifested already to the nations?

            If you remain in doubt, go purify yourself in these fountains. Then you will return to unite your voice to mine;

            And we shall celebrate together the joys of the man of desire, who will have had the happiness to weep for truth.

--Chant 1 from THE MAN OF DESIRE (L'HOMME DE DESIR) (1790),
translated by Seth Edwards, 2016

title by Robert Amadou