Heaven and Earth, who speak what is true, are the first to harken in accord with truth, when the god, setting mortals to their rite, taketh his seat as Hotar, facing them, coming into the fullness of his own divine life.
As a god who compasseth all the gods in truth, first be thou the bearer of our gift—thou who markest all, thy smoke a sign, thy brightness foaming in flame.
Thou art the joy-bringer, the ever-steady Hotar, whose tongue maketh better the offering.
The draught of the gods, drawn from the deathless cow, is their rightful gain. “From her are born those who uphold the two broad worlds”—
such is thy sacrificial word, which all gods follow.
When the dappled cow doth yield her milk, it is the ghee of Heaven, the holy water.
I sing thy deed, O pair upheld by ghee, to make thee strong.
Give ear, O Heaven and Earth, ye twin world-halves.
When the days and the daylights pass toward the other world, then let our elder kin refine us sweetly with honey.
Why hath the king Varuṇa laid hold on us?
What law of his have we unknowingly broken?
Who can say with full knowing?
Even Mitra, though his mood turn awry, is like a beacon unto the gods,
or the prize of the victor in the chariot race.
Wondrous and strange is the name of the undying one, whereby the woman shall bear the marks of the man, though her shape be unlike his.
Whoso considereth the name of Yama, worthy of deep thought— guard him well, O high Agni, with ceaseless care.
At that holy sharing where the gods take delight and uphold the two worlds at the seat of Vivasvant, there they set light in the sun,
and gave the dark hours to the moon.
Sun and moon go round the blaze that is Agni, never tiring.
And the secret thought whereon the gods agree—we know it not.
May Mitra, Aditi, and Savitar speak kindly for us before Varuṇa:
let him find no fault in us.
Hear us, Agni, from thy seat, from thy dwelling-place.
Yoke the swift car of the undying one.
Bring unto us the two world-halves, whose sons are the gods.
Be not the missing one among the host divine— be with us here!