1. To the trees that are their home, Flying slow, the crows all come. Other men can happy be; Ne'er am I from misery free. Have I Heaven offended sore? Surely guilt lies at my door. Homeless thus, oppressed with grief, Nowhere can I find relief.

2. Once the road was clear to Chou, O'er it the rank grass grows now. On my heart is sorrow's blight; Ache my limbs as after fight. Through the night, still dressed, I sigh; Ere its time, old age comes nigh. Homeless thus, I find no rest, Head and heart alike distressed.

3. Men with reverence always view Trees that round their homesteads grew. On their fathers all depend, In their mothers have a friend. From my father's loins I sprung, On my mother's breast I hung; Yet did Heaven my being give, 'Neath a baleful star to live.

4. Where cicadas' voices ring, Willow trees luxuriant spring. Deep the waters of that pool, Fringed with reeds and rushes cool! But like boat adrift I'm borne, Aimless, tossed about, forlorn. Sad my heart! I try in vain Briefest rest from thought to gain.

5. Mark the stag's reluctant feet Slowly from the herd retreat. Crows the pheasant at the dawn, And his mate is to him drawn. Stript of branch and lea, that tree Is the image true of me. Sad my heart! I'm left alone, Unbefriended and unknown.

6. See the hare for mercy crave! One steps in its life to save. When a corpse unburied lies, Some one straight a grave supplies. Callous monarch, all our woes Ne'er wake thy compunction's throes. Sad my heart beneath thy frown, And my tears fall ceaseless down!

7. Slanders vile the king believes; Them as pledge cup he receives. Truthful judgment he denies, And to stifle kindness tries. Trees are felled where helps the strain, Fagots cleft along the grain. Leaves our king the guilty free, While he guilt imputes to me.

8. Men will climb the greatest height; Deepest springs their search invite. O'er his words the king should watch; Ears are set each word to catch. Leave my dam, ye slanderers base; Move not basket from its place. Vainly thus, despised, I moan; Dark my future, though unknown!

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, Finnish, and Norse traditions. It includes King James biblical text and Apocrypha, Pickthall's Quran, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Legge's Four Books, Tao Te Ching, and Book of Poetry, Chamberlain's Kojiki, West's Bundahishn, Kern's Lotus Sutra, Haug and West's Arda Viraf, Crawford's Kalevala, and Bellows' Poetic Edda.

The committed manifests and chapter files currently describe 121 books, 2,724 chapters, and 63,141 verse records. In poetry and prose works, a verse record can represent a line or paragraph rather than a canonically numbered scriptural verse.

Licensing

The application source is AGPL-3.0. Generated text downloads and their structured arrangement are CC BY-SA 4.0; the underlying historic source texts are treated as public-domain inputs. The corpus metadata therefore describes the distributed arrangement with its CC BY-SA license rather than the Public Domain Mark.

Concordance and Related Passages

The concordance is an exact-word occurrence index with linked records grouped by work. Related Passages is separate: a TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) cosine-similarity index compares chapter vocabulary after stop-word removal and stores up to five cross-book matches above its threshold. It is a lexical discovery aid, not a claim of historical or theological equivalence.

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. Light and dark themes are available through the theme toggle. Verse numbers are visible to assistive technology. No flashing content or motion hazards.

Scripture is part of a suite of educational simulations at a9l.im. Explore particle physics with Geon, redistricting with Gerry, or cellular metabolism with Cyano.