'Când mă analizez, mă detest.... Când mă compar, mă ador.'

 

For I am the first and the last.

I am the honored and the scorned,

I am the harlot and the holy one.

I am the wife and the virgin.

I am the mother and the daughter.

I am the members of my mother.

I am the barren one and the one with many children.

I am she whose marriage is multiple, and I have not taken a husband.

I am the midwife and she who does not give birth.

I am the comforting of my labor pains.

I am the bride and the bridegroom.

It is my husband who begot me.

I am the mother of my father and the sister of my husband.

And he is my offspring.

I am the servant of him who prepared me and I am the lord of my offspring.

But he is the one who begot me before time on a day of birth and he is my offspring in time, and my power is from him.

I am the staff of his power in his youth and he is the rod of my old age.

And whatever he wills happens to me.

I am the incomprehensible silence and the much-remembered thought.

I am the voice of many sounds and the utterance of many forms.

I am the utterance of my name.

I am knowledge and ignorance.

I am shame and boldness.

I am unashamed, I am ashamed.

I am strength and I am fear.

I am war and peace.

Do not hate my obedience,

And do not love my self-control in my weakness.

Do not forsake me,

And do not be afraid of my power.

I am she who exists in all fears and boldness in trembling.

I am she who is weak, and I am well in pleasure of place.

I am foolish and I am wise.

I am union and dissolution.

I am the abiding and I am the loosing.

I am descent and they come up to me.

I am the judgment and the acquittal.

I, I am sinless and the root of sin is from me.

I am desire in appearance and self-control of the heart exists within me.

Hear me in softness and learn from me in harshness.

For I am the one who alone exists,

And I have no one who will judge me.

/ fragments, Nag Hammadi Codices V, 2-5 and VI

// ph: Cédric Brion