Russian Folk-Tales/The Sun and how It was Made by Divine Will

by Konstantin Balmont

 

THE SUN AND HOW IT WAS MADE BY DIVINE WILL

The Sun is thirty times the size it appears: looks very small because it is very high up from the earth.

The Sun has an apparel and a crown which would befit a Tsar, and fifteen thousands of angels of the Lord accompany him and deck him every day. And when the Sun wanes to the West, then the angels strip off from him that garb and crown which would befit a Tsar, and lay it on the throne of the Lord.

Three angels remain with the Sun and make him ready, and God has consigned one hundred angels to enrobe the Sun in an apparel and a crown meet for a Tsar.

And when the Sun arises from the East crossing to the West, then fiery phoenixes and the Ksálavy of paradise fly in front of the Sun, but first wet their wings in the waters of the ocean and asperse with their wings the Sun that he may not sear them with his golden rays.

But from the fire of the Sun the feathers even of these birds are consumed, because they are scorched away. And they again bathe in the ocean and are renewed.

For this reason the cock is a prophet, and it has under its wings a white feather belonging to the other birds.

And when the Sun wanes to the West, then the cock's feathers warp.

But when the Lord's angels take the dress and the crown from the throne of the Lord, the cock awakens, lifts up his voice, flutters with his wings, the first time to announce the resurrection to the world and to tell the angels of the law; then to say: "O Christ, Giver of Light, look down on us and bestow on the world Thy light"; and the third time to sing: "Christ is the Life and accomplishes all things." And thus the cock sings to the light, magnifies its Creator, and announces joy to the just. Amen.