Over there, far away, it seems to me
That I hear quarreling with each other
Behemoth and Leviathan;
Each of the two rivals aspires —
Mad ambition — to dominion
Over the land and the Ocean.

What! Enormous Leviathan,
Deformed majesty, would seat himself
On the throne of the universe!
Doesn't he have his deep caves,
His azure palace beneath the waves?
Isn't he the king of the green folk?

Behemoth, with his filthy paw,
Wants to grasp the scepter of the world
And to pose as its sovereign.
Behemoth, with his enormous belly,
Wants to summon to his lair
The Universe of land and sea.

It is an odd pretension
For these two kneaders of mud,
Who know no way to leave the ground.
It is I, the Roc, who should be
Lord and master of this world,
And I am king because I can fly.

I could, with my mighty talons,
Grasp the ball of the earth
With the sky for an escutcheon.
Create two worlds: I flatter myself
That I could hold one in each claw
Like the eagles on a coat-of-arms.

I swim fully immersed in light,
And my lidless pupil
Stares the sun in the face.
When I travel through the air,
My shadow, like a giant cloud,
Darkens the red horizon.

I converse with the blue star
And the pale-tailed comet;
I make my nest on the moon;
I perch on the arc of a sphere;
With one beat of my delicate wing,
I circumnavigate infinity.