Veda

                                     Veda

                      'To the Unknown God'
              'O Faith, endow us with belief'

    

                      "The Song of Creation"
                                Max Muller

1. Then there was not non-existent nor                    existent: there was no realm of air, no            sky beyond it.
    What covered in, and where? and what              gave shelter? was water there,                          unfathomed depth of water?

2. Death was not then, nor was there aught            immortal: no sign was there, the day's            and night's divider.
    That one thing, breathless, breathed by its          own nature: apart from it was nothing          whatsoever.

3. Darkness there was: at first concealed in           darkness, this all was undiscriminated           chaos.
    All that existed then was void and                       formless: by the great power of warmth         was born that unit.

4. Thereafter rose desire in the beginning,             desire the primal seed and germ of                   spirit.
    Sages who searched with their heart's                 thought discovered existent's kinship             in the non-existent.

5. Transversely was their severing line                   extended: what was above it then, and           what below it?
    There were begetters, there were mighty           forces, free action here and energy of             yonder.

6. Who verily knows and who can here                 declare it, whence it was born and                   whence comes this creation?
    The gods are later than this world's                     production.
    Who knows, then, whence it first came              into being.

7. He, the first origin of this creation,                      whether he formed it all or did not                  form it.
    Whose eye controls this world in highest          heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps          he knows it not.

There is another translation of the above posting that Anand may appreciate.
I first came across it in Sister Nivedita's book the 'Web of Indian life'

Rig Veda, the Hymn of Creation:

'When existence was not, nor non-existence,
When the world was not, nor the sky beyond,
What covered the mist?
By whom was it contained?
What was in those thick depths of darkness?

When death was not, nor immortality,
When night was not separate from day,
Then That vibrated motionless, one with Its own glory,
And beside That, nothing else existed.

When darkness was hidden in darkness,
Undistinguished, like one mass of water,
Then did That which was covered with darkness
Manifest Its glory by heat.

Now first arose Desire, the primal seed of mind,
[The sages have seen all this in their hearts,
Separating existence from non-existence]
Its rays spread above, around, and below,
The glory became creative.
The Self, sustained as Cause below,
Projected, as Effect, above.

Who then understood?
Who then declared?
How came into being this Projected?
Lo, in its wake followed even the gods,
Who can say, therefore, whence It came?
Whence arose this projected, and whether sustained or not,
He alone, O Beloved, who is its Ruler in the highest heaven knoweth,
Nay, it may be that even He knoweth it not!'