1. Before my mind's eye stands my lord's short car, In which he dares the risks of savage war:— Its pole, whose end turns upward, curving round, And in five places shines, with leather bound; The slip rings and the side straps; the masked place, Where gilt rings to the front unite the trace; The mat of tiger's skin; the naves so long; The steeds, with left legs white, and piebalds, strong. Such my lord's car! He rises in my mind, Lovely and bland, like jade of richest kind; Yet there he lives, in his log hut apart:— The very thought confuses all my heart.

2. The driver with the six reins guides along The horses, with their shining coats, and strong:—. One inside dappled, one bay with black mane; Black-mouthed and bay, and black, the outer twain. Shields, dragon-figured, rise up side by side, Shelter in front 'gainst missiles to provide. Gilt buckles with the carriage front connect The inner reins by which the insides are checkt. I see my lord, thus in his carriage borne, With his mild form the frontier towns adorn. What time can be for his return assigned? Ah me! his figure ever fills my mind!

3. With measured steps move the mail-covered team. The trident spears, with gilded shaft ends gleam. The feather-figured shield, of beauty rare, He holds before him, all his foes to dare. The bow case, made of tiger's skin, and bright With metal plates, lies ready for the fight. It holds two bows which bamboo frames secure, And keep unhurt, to send the arrows sure. To him thus busy all my thoughts are borne, Both when I rest at night and rise at morn. He, my good lord, is tranquil and serene, His virtuous fame more prized, the more he's seen.

About this reader

What is Scripture?

Scripture is a browser-based reader for sixteen sacred texts spanning multiple religious and literary traditions. It provides chapter-by-chapter navigation, full-text search across all works, word concordance with frequency analysis, verse-linked notes, text-to-speech, and deep linking to any chapter or verse.

Traditions Represented

The collection spans Abrahamic, East Asian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Nordic traditions. Christian texts include the King James Version Old and New Testaments (1611) and Apocrypha. The Quran uses Marmaduke Pickthall's 1930 English translation. Latter-day Saint scripture includes the Book of Mormon (1830), Doctrine and Covenants (1835), and Pearl of Great Price (1851).

Confucian works include James Legge's translations of The Four Books (1893) and the Book of Poetry (1876). The Tao Te Ching uses Legge's 1891 translation. The Kojiki uses Basil Hall Chamberlain's 1919 English translation. Zoroastrian texts include the Bundahishn (E. W. West, 1880) and the Arda Viraf (Haug & West, 1872). The Lotus Sutra uses Hendrik Kern's 1884 translation. The Finnish Kalevala uses John Martin Crawford's 1888 translation, and the Norse Poetic Edda uses Henry Adams Bellows' 1923 translation.

Public Domain Translations

Every translation in this collection is in the public domain. The most recent translation dates to 1930 (Pickthall's Quran). All texts are freely available for reading, study, quotation, and redistribution with no copyright restrictions.

Concordance and Related Passages

The concordance indexes every word across all sixteen works, showing frequency and distribution. TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) scoring identifies passages with similar vocabulary across different traditions, enabling comparative study without requiring prior knowledge of each text's structure. TF-IDF weights words that are frequent in one chapter but rare across the corpus, surfacing meaningful thematic connections rather than common function words.

Deep Linking

Every chapter and verse has a permanent URL. Chapter links follow the pattern /scripture/{work}/{book}-{chapter} (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1 for Genesis 1). Verse links append the verse number (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1:26 for Genesis 1:26). These URLs can be shared, bookmarked, or cited directly.

Accessibility

Scripture supports keyboard navigation throughout: Tab moves between controls, Enter activates verse actions, and arrow keys navigate chapters. The reading pane has a skip-to-content link. All overlays (search, concordance) are focus-trapped ARIA dialogs. Dynamic content regions use aria-live for screen reader announcements. High-contrast mode is available via the theme toggle. Verse numbers are visible to assistive technology. No flashing content or motion hazards.

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