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M.L.WestisanEmeritusFellowofAllSoulsCollege,Oxford,
1974 1991
andaFellowoftheBritishAcademy.From to hewas
Professor of Greek at Bedford and Royal Holloway Colleges,
UniversityofLondon.HismanybooksincludeTheOrphicPoems
1983 1987
( ),AnIntroductiontoGreekMetre( ),AncientGreekMusic
1992 1997
( ), The East Face of Helicon ( ) and Indo-European Poetry
2007
andMyth( ).
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‘Translating the words and comprehending the meaning of
Zoroaster’sdevotionalpoemsisalwayschallenging.M.L.West
has produceda lucidinterpretationofthose ancientwords.His
renditions are filled with insights and empathy. This endeavour
is an important contribution toward understanding more fully
someoftheearliestpropheticwordsinhumanhistory.’
Jamsheed K. Choksy, Professor of Iranian Studies, History, and India
Studies,IndianaUniversity
‘A thoroughly worthwhile and refreshingly readable translation
oftheOlderAvesta,M.L.West’sbookwillbewidelywelcomed,
bystudentsandgeneralreadersalike.’
Almut Hintze, Zartoshty Reader in Zoroastrianism, School of Oriental
andAfricanStudies,London
‘InthisnewanddauntlesstranslationoftheGa¯tha¯s,M.L.West
resuscitatesthenotionofZoroasterastheself-consciousfounder
ofanewreligion.Inadvancingthisidea,hetakespositionagainst
manymoderninterpretersoftheseextremelydifficulttexts.The
clarity and beauty of his translation will be much welcomed by
studentsofZoroastrianismandbyZoroastriansthemselves,while
his bold interpretation will spark off welcome debate among
specialists.’
AlbertdeJong,ProfessorofComparativeReligion,LeidenUniversity
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T h e H y m n s o f Z o r o a s t e r
A New Translation of the
Most Ancient Sacred
Texts of Iran
WithIntroductionandCommentaryby
M . L . W e s t
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Publishedin2010byI.B.Tauris&CoLtd
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DistributedintheUnitedStatesandCanadaExclusivelybyPalgraveMacmillan
175FifthAvenue,NewYorkNY10010
Copyright©2010M.L.West
TherightofM.L.Westtobeidentifiedastheauthor
ofthisworkhasbeenassertedbytheauthorinaccordance
withtheCopyright,DesignsandPatentAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,oranypart
thereof,maynotbereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoaretrievalsystem,or
transmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,
recordingorotherwise,withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
isbn:9781848853478(HB)
isbn:9781848855052(PB)
AfullCIPrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
AfullCIPrecordisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:available
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PrintedandboundinIndiabyThomsonPressIndiaLtd
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Contents
Preface vii
Noteonthepronunciation
ofAvestanwordsandnames xi
1
Introduction
37
TheHymnsofZoroaster
28 34 38
TheFirstGa¯tha¯ (Yasna – )
43 46 94
TheSecondGa¯tha¯(Yasna – )
47 50 130
TheThirdGa¯tha¯ (Yasna – )
51 152
TheFourthGa¯tha¯ (Yasna )
53 164
TheFifthGa¯tha¯(Yasna )
171
TheLiturgyinSevenChapters
179
NotesontheText
181
Bibliography
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vi
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Preface
IbecameacquaintedwiththepoemsofZoroastersomeyearsago
while collecting materials for my Indo-European Poetry and Myth
2007
(Oxford ). I found that the available translations diverged
considerablyfromoneanother,andthattheyallcontainedagood
dealthatseemedtomenonsense.Ibegantoapplymyselftostudy
oftheOldAvestanlanguageinwhichthepoemsarewrittenand,
over time, to making a new translation for my own use. I soon
becamefascinated,notonlywiththeproblemsofunderstanding
thetext,butwiththepersonalityandachievementofZoroaster,
arevolutionaryreligiousthinkerandleaderwhoappearedfrom
nowhereinaremoteregionofcentralAsiaattheverydawnof
Iranian history, or before it, and created a wonderful new faith
thateventuallybecamethatoftheentirePersianempire.
Here in these poems we have the very foundation texts of
that religion and the authentic documentation of Zoroaster’s
own convictions and message. If they had been discovered last
month, they would be a sensation. As it is, while the name
of Zoroaster is vaguely familiar to many people, his poems are
practicallyunknown.Zoroastrianpriestshavecontinuedtorecite
them in the liturgy, but with very limited comprehension of
the highly archaic language in which they are composed. For
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PREFACE
somethingovertwocenturiesasmallnumberofWesternscholars
have wrestled with them, achieving better understanding by
degreesbutgenerallyfocusingonlinguisticdetailsratherthanon
the sense of the whole, and debating among themselves rather
than laying their results before a wider public in a digestible
form.Toalargeextenttheyhavebeeninhibitedbytheirhonest
awareness of the many uncertainties of interpretation that still
remain.Atthesametimethefactthatthereadingofthesetexts
calls for specialist linguistic knowledge has meant that those
whohaveengagedwiththemhaveusuallybeenphilologistswho
were more interested in the language than the content. Their
translationshavetendedtobeinformedbyascrupulousconcern
for grammar and lexicography, unmoderated by a like concern
foranintelligibleandcoherenttrainofthought.
In offering a new version I do not delude myself that all
difficulties have been overcome and all obscurities resolved. I
am conscious that many of them have not, so many indeed that
ifeverythingwasnottobesnowedunderwithquestionmarks,
only the most major uncertainties could be signalled as such. I
believeneverthelessthatbycarefulapplicationIhavesucceeded
more fully than my predecessors in penetrating to the sense
of Zoroaster’s utterances and in producing a translation that,
besides being (and in consequence of being) more correct than
anypreviousone,willbefoundmorecontinuouslyintelligible,
andhencemorereadableandmorelikelytoimpressthereader
with the clarity and nobility of Zoroaster’s religion. He was no
purveyorofesotericmumbo-jumbobutanoutstandingfigurein
theworld’sintellectualhistorywhofullydeservestheattention
of a modern public. The mists are thinning, and he can now be
discernedincleareroutlines.
As an appendix to Zoroaster’s own poems I have thought it
appropriatetoaddtheprosetextthatistheonlyothersourcefor
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PREFACE
theearliestphaseofZoroastrianism:theLiturgyinSevenChapters.
This too is a wonderful document, at once a profession of faith
and a structured series of prayers and praises that have all the
freshness of a young religion and give the impression of ringing
outsomewhereinthemiddleofafreshandhopefulyoungworld.
M.L.West
ix
