I was sent out from power.
I came to those pondering me,
And I was found among those seeking me.
Look at me,
All you who contemplate me.
Audience hear me.
Those expecting me,
Receive me.
Don't chase me from your sight.
Don't let your voice or your hearing hate me.
Don't ignore me any place,
Any time.
Be careful.
Do not ignore me.
I am the first and the last.
I am she who is honored and she who is mocked.
I am the whore and the holy woman.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am he,
The mother and the daughter.
I am the limbs of my mother.
I am a sterile woman and she has many children.
I am she whose wedding is extravagant and I didn't have a husband.
I am the midwife and she who hasn't given birth.
I am the comfort of my labor pains.
I am the bride and the bridegroom.
And it is my husband who gave birth to me.
I am my father's mother,
My husband's sister,
And he is my child.
I am the slave woman of him who served me.
I am she,
The lord of my child.
But it is he who gave birth to me at the wrong time.
And he is my child born at the right time.
And my power is from within him.
I am the staff of his youthful power and he is the baton of my old womanhood.
Whatever he wants happens to me.
I am the silence never found and the idea infinitely recalled.
I am the voice with countless sounds and the thousand guises of the word.
I am the speaking of my name.
You who hate me,
Why do you love me and hate the ones who love me?
You who deny me,
Confess me.
You who confess me,
Deny me.
You who speak the truth about me,
Lie about me.
You who lie about me,
Speak the truth about me.
You who know me,
Ignore me.
And you who ignore me,
Know me.
I am both awareness and obliviousness.
I am humiliation and pride.
I am without shame and ashamed.
I am security and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
Pay attention to me.
I am she who is disgraced and she who is important.
Pay attention to me,
To my impoverishment and to my extravagance.
Don't be arrogant to me when I'm thrown to the ground.
You'll find me among the expected.
Don't stare at me in the shit pile,
Leaving me discarded.
You'll find me in the kingdoms.
Don't stare at me when I'm thrown out among the condemned.
Don't laugh at me in the lowest places.
Don't throw me down among those slaughtered viciously.
I myself am compassionate and I am cruel.
Watch out.
Do not hate my compliance.
Do not love my restraint.
In my weakness,
Do not strip me bare.
Do not be afraid of my power.
Why do you despise my fear and curse my pride?
I am she who exists in all fears and in trembling boldness.
I am she who is timid and I am safe in a comfortable place.
I am witless and I am wise.
Why did you hate me with your schemes?
I shall shut my mouth among those whose mouths are shut and then I will show up and speak.
Why then did you hate me,
You Greeks?
Because I am a barbarian among barbarians.
I am the wisdom of the Greeks and the knowledge of the barbarians.
I am the deliberation of both the Greeks and the barbarians.
I am he whose image is multiple in Egypt and she who is without any image among the barbarians.
I am she who is hated in every place and she who is loved in every place.
I am she whom they call life and you all called death.
I am she whom they call law and you all called lawlessness.
I am she whom you chased and she whom you captured.
I am she whom you scattered and you have gathered me together.
I am she before whom you were ashamed and you have been shameless to me.
I am she who does not celebrate festivals and I am she whose festivals are spectacular.
I am without God and I am she whose God is magnificent.
I am he the one you thought about and you detested me.
I am not learned and they learn from me.
I am she whom you detested and yet you think about me.
I am he from whom you hid and you appear to me.
Whenever you hide yourselves,
I myself will appear.
Receive me with understanding and heartache.
Take me from the disgraced and crushed places.
Rob from those who are good even though in disgrace.
Bring me in shame to yourselves out of shame,
With or without shame.
Blame the parts of me within yourselves.
Come toward me you who know me and you who know the parts of me.
Assemble the great among the small and earliest creatures.
Advance toward childhood.
Do not hate it because it is small and insignificant.
Don't reject the small parts of greatness because they are small,
Since smallness is recognized from within greatness.
Why do you curse me and revere me?
You wounded me and you relented.
Don't separate me from the first ones.
I know those and the ones after these know me.
I am the learning from my search and the discovery of those seeking me.
The command of those who ask about me and the power of powers and my understanding of the angels who were sent on my word and the gods in God according to my design and spirits of all men who exist with me and the women who live in me.
I am she who is revered and adored and she who is reviled with contempt.
I am peace and war exists because of me.
I am a foreigner and a citizen of the city.
I am being.
I am she who is no thing.
Those who do not participate in my presence don't know me.
Those who share in my being know me.
Those who are close to me didn't know me.
Those who are far from me knew me.
I am the coming together and the falling apart.
I am the enduring and the disintegration.
I am down in the dirt and they come up to me.
I am judgment and acquittal.
I myself am without sin and the root of sin is from within me.
I appear to be lost but inside is self-control.
I am what anyone can hear but no one can say.
I am a mute that does not speak and my words are endless.
Hear me in tenderness,
Learn from me in roughness.
I am she who shouts out and I am thrown down to the ground.
I am the one who prepares the bread and my mind within.
I am the knowledge of my name.
I am she who shouts out and it is I that listens.
I am she they call truth and violation.
You honor me and you whisper against me.
You conquered ones,
Judge them before they judge you.
Because judge and favoritism exist in you.
If he condemns you,
Who will release you?
If he releases you,
Who can detain you?
Since what is your inside is your outside and the one who shapes your outside is he who shaped your inside.
And what you see on the outside you see revealed on the inside.
It is your clothing.
Hear me and learn from my words,
You who know me.
I am what everyone can hear and no one can say.
I am the name of the sound and the sound of the name.
I am the sign of writing and disclosure of difference.
Look then at his pronouncements and all the writings that have been completed.
Listen then,
And also you angels,
Along with those who have been sent,
And spirits who have risen from among the dead.
For I am he who exists alone and no one judges me.
Since many sweet ideas exist in all kinds of sin,
Uncontrollable and condemning passions,
And passing pleasures that people have,
Until they become sober and go to their resting place and they will find me in that place,
They will live and they will not die again.
