That in autumn later languish and fall.
Winter brings very cold weather;
Swift are its winds; summer then comes,
The warm weather; Lo! the wan night
Is lit by the moon, till the morn is brought
To men by the sun over this spacious world.
He has, the same God, to sea and land
Their boundaries fixed; the flood dares not
Over earth's borders her sway to broaden
For the tribe of fishes, without the Lord's favour;
Nor may she ever the threshold of earth
Lightly overtread; nor may the tides either
Bear the water over earth's borders.
These are the commands that the glorious King,
The Bright Life-Giver, does let while He will
Keep within bounds His noble creatures;
But when the Eternal and the Almighty
Looses the reins that rule all creatures,
Even the bridle wherewith He bound
All that He fashioned at the first creation
(By the bridle we speak of we seek to betoken
The case where things are all conflicting):
If the Lord lets the bridle loosen,
Forthwith they all leave love and peace,
The friendly union of their fellowship.
All things whatever their own will follow,
All world-creatures shall war together,
Till this our earth utterly perish,
And so also other things, in the same fashion,
By their own nature become as nought.
