That One Verse-3

Raimundo Panikkar’s translation[i]:

Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness,
And all was Water indiscriminate. Then
That which was hidden by the Void, that One, emerging,
stirring, through power of Ardor, came to be.

John Muir’s translation[ii]:

Gloom hid in gloom existed first—
one sea, eluding view.
That One, a void in chaos wrapt,
by inward fervor grew.

A. L. Basham’s translation[iii]:

At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.
All this was only unillumined water.
That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,
arose at last, born of the power of heat.

Max Muller’s translation:

Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled
In gloom profound, - an ocean without light. -
The germ that still lay covered in the husk
Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat.

Ralph T.H. Griffith’s translation:

Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness
this All was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and form less:
by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.

Putting It Together:

This verse is about the mystical beginning of the cosmos. No one can know about its emergence from That One.

The scene was darkness hidden behind darkness. Mystical unformulated primordial soup of darkness, gloom and undifferentiated nothingness hid whatever it was. Then, That One suddenly burst into life of its own inner warmth, ardor, vigor, energy and heat like the sprouting of a seed. Nothing is knowable of the early moments of cosmic beginnings.