(^646) MANICHAEAN LITERATURE
For your sake the gods went down and became apparent
and slaughtered death and darkness.
First human, I shall open before you the portals of heaven.
Fear and death will not trail you.
They will not ravage you with pain and wretchedness.
No, you will rest in the lofty precincts of salvation,
here with the gods and those who live in placid quiet.
LET THERE BE NO DESIRE
Come, spirit. Death has fallen, and sickness fled away.
Let there be no desire for the house of affliction,
which is wholly destruction and anguishing death.
You were cast out from your native abode. You suffered in hell.
Come nearer in gladness. Don't turn back
to regard the shapes of the bodies. See, they return
through every rebirth, and through every agony
and every choking prison where they burn and sigh.
Come nearer. Don't be fond of perishing beauty
in any of its forms. It falls and melts like snow in sunshine.
The beautiful doesn't abide. It withers
and fades like a broken rose that dries in the sun,
its grace destroyed.
Princes and dead souls lie shackled in the tomb
where all is blackness.
MY SOUL IS SAVED
My soul is saved.
I am dressed in light.^5
- The last five brief parts of this hymn cycle (not included here) largely repeat previous passages.