Creation of Sentient Beings Songtext

von Philip Glass

Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto stood on the floating bridge of Heaven and held counsel together, saying,

"Is there not a country below?"

Thereupon they thrust down the jewel-spear of Heaven,
And groping about found the ocean.
The brine which dripped from the point of the spear came together
And became an island. This island was named
Ono-goro-jima,
And they made Ono-goro-jima the pillar of the center of the land.

Now the male god circled to the left,
And the female god circled to the right,
They went round the pillar separately.
When they met
They united as husband and wife.
They gave birth to the islands, the sea, the rivers, the mountains,
The ancestor of the trees, the ancestor of the herbs.

- The Nihongi

In the lead the whales proceed,
Mingling beneath the sea;
The 'opule fish advance in the distance;
They fill the deep ocean;
Like kumimi crabs clustered on the reef;
The youngest is carried by the current into darkness.
Black as night the opaque sea.

- The Kumulipo

Zambe, the son of the One Who Bears the World,
Dipped his hands in the water, and sprinkled hair all over the body of the chimpanzee and said to him, moreover, "You will always live in the forests."

- Bulu Creation Story

Still Bumba our Creator was in pain.
He strained once again and from his mouth
Nine living creatures came forth:
The leopard named Koy Bumba,
And Pongo Bumba the crested eagle,
The crocodile, Ganda Bumba,
And one little fish named Yo;
Next, old Kono Bumba, the tortoise,
And Tsetse, the lightning, swift, deadly, beautiful like the leopard,
Then the white heron, Nyanyi Bumba,
Also one beetle,
And the goat named Budi.

The creatures themselves then created all the creatures.
The heron created the birds of the air,
The crocodile made the serpents and the iguana,
The goat produced every beast with horns.
Yo, the small fish, brought forth all the fish of all the seas and waters.
The beetle created insects.
Then the serpents in their turn made grasshoppers
And the iguana made the creatures without horns.

- Boshongo Creation Story