Goddess Night, drawing nigh, hath cast her gaze on many a place with roving eyes.

She hath adorned herself in all fair things, and laid upon her form each lovely grace.

The deathless goddess hath filled the vast between— the deep below and heights above; with light she driveth back the dark,
and holdeth fast the bounds of day and dusk.

She hath chased forth her sister Dawn—
she, the goddess, as she cometh hence—
and darkness, like a frightened hound, shall flee.

Abide with us this night, thou whose coming we await as birds
nestled soft within the tree’s embrace.

Lowly rest the roaming kin:
the footed, the wingéd, and the falcon, too, his haste now hushed beneath thy sway.

Turn aside the she-wolf and the wolf;
turn aside the hand of the thief, and make thy paths gentle unto us, O Night.

Darkness, richly dight,
black as pitch and decked in stars, draweth near and clings about me—
O Dawn, lay it to rest, as thou wouldst a debt.

To thy threshold have I driven this my song, as kine are driven to their fold; receive it, O Daughter of Heaven—
O Night, as one would a victor’s praise.