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Vedic Hymns, Part II (SBE46), by Hermann Oldenberg [1897], at sacred-texts.com
1. Be kind, O Agni, when we approach thee, as a friend a friend, as parents 1, a straight leader. For full of deceit are the tribes of men: burn thou against (all) malign powers so that they turn back.
2. Burn, O Agni, the nearer enemies, burn the curse of the distant evil-doer. Burn, O Vasu, seeing the unseen ones. May thy never-ageing, never-tiring flames 1 spread out.
3. Wishing for (thy blessings), O Agni, by fuel and ghee I offer this sacrificial food for (the attainment of) advancing power and of strength; worshipping thee with my spell as far as I have power (I offer) this divine prayer for the attainment of hundred(fold blessings).
4. (Shining) forth with thy flame, O son of strength, praised (by us), bestow mighty vigour on those who toil for thee, bright luck and welfare, O Agni, on the Visvâmitras! We have cleaned thy body many times.
5. Give us treasures, O best gainer of riches: such indeed art thou, Agni, when thou hast been kindled. In the blessed praiser's house thou hast placed, together with wealth, thy mighty(?) arms 1, thy marvellous shapes.
The same Rishi and metre.—Verse 2 = TÂ. IV, 5, 5. Verse 3 = AV. III, 15, 3.
Note 1. It is rather strange that Agni is compared with the two parents. Generally it is the two Asvins, or Heaven and Earth, or the pair of Indra and Varuna, &c.. who are compared with father and mother (see Hirzel, Gleichnisse und Metaphern im Rigveda, 71 seq.). No doubt in our verse the dual was chosen on account of the metre.—I do not think that Bollensen (Orient und Occident, II, 473) and Kirste (Bezzenberger's Beiträge, XVI, 297) are right in believing that a dative of pitri is found here, and in translating: 'as a good (son) to his father.'
Note 1. The meaning of ayâ´sah is doubtful; comp. Brugmann in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXIV, 24 seq.; M. M., vol. xxxii, p. 371 (VI, 66, 5); von Bradke, Festgruss an Roth, 124.
Note 1. On sriprá, see I, 96, 3, note 3. Karásna must mean something like 'arm,' though the exact meaning is doubtful. In VIII, 32, 10 the compound sriprákarasna occurs. Prof. Max Müller writes: 'Thou hast brightly assumed a body with soft arms or with stretched-out arms, if we do not read sriprakarasnâ.'