The Beginning

"Where have I come from, where did you pick me up?" the baby asked
its mother.
    She answered, half crying, half laughing, and clasping the
baby to her breast-
    "You were hidden in my heart as its desire, my darling.
    You were in the dolls of my childhood's games; and when with
clay I made the image of my god every morning, I made the unmade
you then.
    You were enshrined with our household deity, in his worship
I worshipped you.
    In all my hopes and my loves, in my life, in the life of my
mother you have lived.
    In the lap of the deathless Spirit who rules our home you have
been nursed for ages.
    When in girlhood my heart was opening its petals, you hovered
as a fragrance about it.
    Your tender softness bloomed in my youthful limbs, like a glow
in the sky before the sunrise.
    Heaven's first darling, twain-born with the morning light, you
have floated down the stream of the world's life, and at last you
have stranded on my heart.
    As I gaze on your face, mystery overwhelms me; you who belong
to all have become mine.
    For fear of losing you I hold you tight to my breast. What
magic has snared the world's treasure in these slender arms of
mine?"