YASNA XLIII.
Greeting to an expected champion
Salvation's hail be his, whosoe'er he may be[1]: May the all-ruling send it, He supreme o'er[2] strife.[2] Long lasting strength be ours; of Thee I ask it; For the upholding Right,[3] this, holy zeal,[4] vouchsafe us, Rich power,[5] blest rewards, the Good Mind's life!
And for this saint that best of all things, Glory,[6] the glorious one[7] shall gain[8] who[2] may.[2] Reveal Thou, Lord, to us with spirit bounteous[9] What truths by right[3] Thou givest with good[10] mind's[10] wisdom With life's rejoicing increase and on every day.
Yes, that better than the good[11] may he gain[12] surer[12] Who hath for us straight paths of grace explored,[13] Of this life bodily the use, of that the mental In the eternal[14] Realms where dwells Ahura, Like[15] Thee[15], noble and august, O Mazda Lord!
- ↑ hardly 'to everyone': 'to us' would be bad grammar; see my Gâthas, pp. 154, 509—522; some proceding verses have evidently been lost; for introduction, see S. B. E. XXXI., pp. 91 to 106.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 words added from other gâthic pieces to complete the rhythm.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 asha, the holy order of the law.
- ↑ aramaiti, the 'alert' or 'ready' mind; but possibly meaning the alert and holy public enthusiasm in the tribes and in himself.
- ↑ if 'riches' were meant, they they were consecrated offering for 'the holy Cause,' see Y. 46, 2, etc.
- ↑ 'glorious beatitude,' 'god-sent welfare.'
- ↑ the Deity, in frequently recurring passages is called the 'glorious,' in the later Avesta.
- ↑ cf. Comm., p. 510.
- ↑ others render 'holy'; the above is safer; yet it must be remembered that gâthic holiness was practical; the one who 'bountifully increased' good things was 'holier' than the talker or the ritualist.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 so, liberally, but, as so often in the use of these impressive abstracts, meaning 'the orthodox saint inspired by the good mind,' the first, or more properly, the second Amesliaspond.
- ↑ the 'summum bonum.'
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 so rhythmically, for 'attain to.'
- ↑ literally 'given.'
- ↑ so for 'safety,' literally the 'real,' 'really existing.'
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 an oblique way of saying 'Thee,' or perhaps meaning the saint of line a, 'like Thee,' 'Thy servant,' 'worthy of Thee.'
