Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to India | | Brahma | | Anonymous |
| | | I AM the dweller with the one high God, | |
| And God himself dwells here, unseen, with me! | |
| He is embodied in the meanest clod, | |
| And he exists in every stone and tree. | |
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| Man thinks he slays me, saying, God is naught: | 5 |
| For chance first framed and still creation sways: | |
| I am the chance he worships in his thought, | |
| And I am all to which he homage pays. | |
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| “As milk to curd, as water is to ice,” | |
| So do I change my ever-changing form; | 10 |
| I am fair virtue, I am hideous vice, | |
| I am the sunshine and the raging storm. | |
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| All things to me, how far soe’er they seem, | |
| Are near, for I am earth, air, water, fire; | |
| The life of man is but a “fitful dream,” | 15 |
| And all created things to me aspire. | |
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| Many may doubt,—’t is I who gave them thought | |
| With which they vainly think from me to flee,— | |
| Dispel illusions! seek me as you ought! | |
| Say “I am Brahma”—in thyself find me. | 20 |
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| Wouldst thou this riddle read? I am the Soul, | |
| Whence both the known and unknown have their start, | |
| And I am God, for God is but the whole, | |
| Of which all souls form each an equal part. | | | | |
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