O Br̥haspati, this was the first birthing of Speech—when the seers came forth and gave name unto all things.
What was their fairest, what was without spot—that name, kept hid in hush, was shown to them for the love thou bearedst.

When the wise shaped Speech from the forge of their thought, sifting her as grain through a sieve, therein they found their fellowship, each known to each. Their goodly mark was laid upon her.

By the rite they traced the path of Speech; they found her lodged within the seers.
And having drawn her forth, they sent her wide, to many dwellings. The seven deep-voiced singers cry her aloud.

Yet many a soul, though seeing, hath not seen her; and many, though hearing, have not heard.
But to another she yieldeth herself wholly, like a bride, fair and eager, to her lord.

And some are bloated with their own company, puffed in vain; to such, none giveth goad in the strife.
He walketh with guile, not the kine of truth, for he hath heard Speech and gathered no fruit nor bloom.

He who forsaketh his fellow in the knowing way—Speech hath no portion in him.
Though he heareth, he heareth amiss, for he kenneth not the track of the rightly wrought offering.

Though all have eyes and ears, yet are the fellows not alike in the swiftness of mind.
Some stand as pools that reach but the lips or the arm’s crook, and others as lakes meet for bathing.

When the mind’s swiftness, shaped in the heart, stirreth brahmins to rite as one, then do they outpace some by the paths of knowing, while others roam far, with praises and spells.

They who move not nigh nor afar, nor are brahmins, nor press the soma— they, fallen awry upon Speech, do but stretch watery threads for warp, bringing forth no fruit.

But all his kin rejoice in the one who cometh clad in glory, a mighty one in the moot, for he saveth them from their missings, and gaineth meat for them—he is meetly roused for the contest.

One sitteth, blooming the bloom of the verse; another chanteth the song in the lay of Śakvarī.
This one, the speaker of lore, letteth forth the birth of his wisdom; that one measureth the rite’s full span.