Hymns

Sing, clear-voiced lyre, a Dorian song, not for tender brides laughing Aphrodite's laughter, nor for the lovely youth of blooming young men; for the pure [labour] of god-wise song urges me on to ply the strings of the lyre, and bids me flee the honey-sweet madness of earthly loves. For what is strength, what is beauty, what is gold, what is fame, and the honours of kings, beside the thought of God? Let one drive a horse well, let another draw the bow well, let another guard heaps [of wealth] … but may wisdom be with me … good to lead youth, good to draw old age, good, the queen of wealth; and poverty she will bear without toil, laughing at the bitter [cares of life]. Only may I have so much as suffices to keep the hut from needing the neighbours, so that need may not bend me

to black cares. Hear the song of the cicada too, when it has drunk the morning dew. See, my strings sound unbidden, and a voice [hovers about me]. What, then, will the divine travail bring forth for me as song? He, the self-sprung beginning, steward and father of all that is, unbegotten, enthroned high above the summits of heaven, exulting in indissoluble glory, sits, God unshaken: pure Unity of unities, first Monad of monads, who united the simplicities of the highest and brought them forth in births beyond being. Whence the Monad itself, springing forth through the first-sown form, poured out ineffably, took on a triple-crested might. And the fount beyond being is crowned with the beauty of children, who leapt forth from the centre and flow around the centre. Stay, bold lyre, stay, and do not show to the people rites not for the uninitiated. Go, and sing of things below;

and let silence cover the things above. The mind now cares only for the intellectual worlds. For from there now the goods … the beginning of spirit was divided without division. That which descended into matter turns the hollow of the heavens, and, guarding the whole of this, … one part in the chariot-courses of the stars, another into the choirs of angels, and another, by a downward-sinking bond, found an earthly form; and, parted from its parents, it drew in dark forgetfulness, and with blinded cares marvelled at the joyless earth, a god gazing on mortal things. Yet there is, there is some light in veiled eyes; there is, even for those who have fallen here, an upward-leading power, when, fleeing the waves of [life], free of care, they set out on the holy paths to the palace of the Father. Blessed is he who, fleeing the devouring barking of matter, and rising up from earth, with a light leap

strains his step toward God. …

… Blessed is he who, after his allotted portion, … escaping earth-born cares, stepping onto the paths of the mind, has seen the depth lit by God. It is a labour to stretch the whole heart with all the wings of upward-leading loves.

Only make firm your impulse with impulses that bear you to the mind; the Father will stretch out his hands. For a ray running before you will light up the paths, and spread out for you the intelligible plain, the beginning of beauty. Come, my soul, drink of the fount that flows with good; supplicate the Father, and go up; do not delay; leave to the earth the things of earth; and soon, mingled with the Father, you will dance, god in God.

Again the light, again the dawn, again the day shines forth after the night-roaming darkness. Again, my spirit, entreat God with morning hymns, who gave light to the dawn, who gave stars to the night, … the ether covered … of matter, so that the glorious moon might cut the last circle. Above the eighth whirl of the star-bearing spirals, the stream of the [fixed] stars, driving beneath its bosom the folds that run the other way, dances around the great Mind, which has roofed the summits of the cosmos with its grey wings. Beyond lies blessed silence, and the admired lights of the blessed ones, intellectual and intelligible. Whence the choir within the cosmos of the imperishable lords, and the generative glory, and the first-sown form, have sung in intellectual hymns … A host … what turns toward mind …

… the beginning of beauty, governs the depths …, drawing the world above … the lowest …, where nature, settling, brings forth the throng of spirits, many-voiced and many-counselled; whence the hero, whence now the breath scattered about the earth has given life to the portions of earth in intricate forms. All these things hang upon your will; you are the root of what is and of what was before; you are male, you are female; you are voice, you are silence; … Hail greatly, centre of what is, Monad of immortal numbers … hail greatly, hail greatly. For to God … on my … accomplish with choirs of hymns; pour down light …

pour down rich grace of a calm life; … the earthly … of wealth; ward off sicknesses from my limbs; … of passions … the disorderly … … cares keep far from my life, so that … … raising your … I may dance around the rites of your offspring, the wholly ineffable.

… song of verses. You on the sea, you above the islands, … and on the mountains, and over famous [plains], whenever I stand … on the fields, you, blessed one, I sing, Begetter of the cosmos. To you the evening rays of the grey stars bear witness, and the courses of the moon, and the great witness, the ruler of the stars, holy steward of [pure] souls. …

… To your courts, to your bosom, lightening my foot, turned away from long-stretched matter, rejoicing that I had reached your threshold, now I came as a suppliant to the holy precincts that bear the rites … the peak of the mountains; now I came to the desert, the great valley of Libya, the southern land, which no godless breath defiles, nor the footprint of men whose cares are of the city stamps, so that my soul, pure of passions, having loosed its desires,

having ceased from toils, ceased from laments, from angers, from strifes, all that death nurtures, with pure tongue and holy mind may bring you a hymn. Let ether and earth keep holy silence. …

… Let the sea stand still. You, Father, you, blessed one, … [receive] soul-nourishing prayers from me, … from my life, from my works.

And let our song of the heart be the care of your highly honoured ministers, the wise ferrymen. Father, be gracious to me, if beyond what is fitting I have touched what is yours. Whose eye is wise, whose eye is great enough to gaze steadily upon your fires? It is not lawful even for gods. The mind, falling from your watchtower, fawns upon what is near, striving to look upon the radiance flashing in tireless depth; … it fixes the form … the strength of the eye, whence, praising, it returns to your hymns with boundless winds, giving back to you what is yours. For what is not yours, O King?

… Father of all fathers, self-father,

One prior to the One, seed of beings, centre of all things, mind before being, root of the cosmos, light shining round the first-born, wise truth, fount of wisdom, … in your own rays, eye of yourself, Monad and number, mind and intellectual, and the intelligible, and what is before the intelligible; one and all, one of all, one before all, the seed of all, root and shoot, nature among intellectual things, female and male. The initiate mind speaks of this and that, dancing around the ineffable depth. You are the one who begets, you the one begotten, you the one who illuminates,

you the one illuminated, you what is manifest, you what is hidden in your own rays; one and all, one by yourself and through all. For you were poured forth, ineffable begetter, to beget a Child, glorious Wisdom, the Craftsman … with undivided divisions I hymn you, Monad. You are Monad while being Triad; you are Triad while being Monad. An intellectual division holds what is divided … in the Child … in identity … equal … nature … being before being. It is not lawful to say a second from you; it is not lawful to say a third from the first. … holy … you are the boundary of the natures of the one who begets,

… a hidden order. Something proceeds as a mean from the ineffable Father: the travail, through you; and through the travail you yourself were made manifest, … always. Time knows begettings … but eternity did not know the birth; eternity having become the one who will become. Who among blind mortals with intricate tongues [can speak] of things ineffable? But you, giver of light, … of crooked deceit … you hold up the minds of holy mortals, so that they may not sink into the darkness of matter. You, Father of worlds, Father of ages, self-working maker of gods, you the intellectual beings, you the world-leading powers, with shining eyes, the starry …

hymn, blessed one. … every race … those around the cosmos, those within the cosmos, and the zoneless ones … appeared together with the Father, …

… The wise attendants govern the portions of the cosmos, … a chain pours forth … and the glorious race of heroes … the works of mortals in hidden ways … the soul, unbending and bending, … earthly hollows; and the offspring of nature, swept down, rolled onward. For you are the leader of undefiled worlds, nature of natures; you warm nature, the becoming of mortals, ever-flowing … and through one another

all things enjoy. An everlasting cycle, warmed anew, sets up choirs through all. Mother Nature with her own works leads a harmonious [song]; to you all things … dawn and night, seeds, fruits, plants … and earth … and the herds of the sea … and the soul …

…

… feeble, powerless, … to your Libya, to your revered priesthood, caring for it with holy prayers; which … attends, together, Father, … the Coptic land. Now my heart is made rich with … impulses. But you, O King, shine lights that lead upward; grant, Father, that my soul, having fled the body, may no longer sink into the ruin of earth. And while I remain in the bonds of a life that dwells in matter, may [your hand], blessed one, gently

breathe … of mind, so that I may not … the things of God, nor be rolled about in any such things. Whence, escaping by your gifts, from the meadows [I bring] this praise … to the leader of worlds, and to the wise Child, with Wisdom herself, whom you poured forth from ineffable bosoms; and she remains in you, so that she may govern all things with wise breaths, … the depth of grey ages, rule the wings of the rugged cosmos, down to the lowest foundation of beings, the earthly portions, shining into holy minds and the cares of frail mortals, ruler of good things, driver-away of pains.

What wonder is it that God, the craftsman of the cosmos, wards off the dooms from his own works? Lord of the cosmos, I came, paying a debt, from Thrace, …

… so that for three years I [dwelt by] the hall of the land; and I endured toils with many tears, bearing on my shoulders my mother, my fatherland. The ground was sprinkled with the sweat of my limbs as they laboured; my bed was sprinkled with the drops from my eyes, as I lamented night after night. And to all the temples built for your holy rites I went, a suppliant, prostrate, wetting the floor with the moisture of my eyelids, that my journey might not prove empty; I besought … the ministers

who hold the plain of … Thrace, and those who, across the strait, tend the Chalcedonian lands, whom you have crowned, O King, with angelic rays, your holy ministers. With me the blessed ones took up my prayers; with me they took up my many toils. Life was not dear to me at that time, because my fatherland was being battered; you raised it from its pains, O King, yourself ageless, Lord of the cosmos. When my soul was already worn out, you propped up the strength of my failing limbs, breathing might into my suffering soul. And sweet … of labours in my heart

granting … rest from long toils. Save all things, blessed one, for the Libyans … the memory … and through a soul that has suffered dreadful things; and give your suppliant a life free from harm. Release me from toils, release me from sicknesses, release me from cares that death nurtures; [give] life to your minister. Do not … earthly neighbours … so that I may not be without leisure for the things of God. Nor let gloomy poverty, creeping into my house, drag my soul around the earth … forgetful … when you, blessed one, … strength … pure fount of wisdom,

shine into my mind from your bosoms a … light, from your might a ray of wisdom; and to the holy [soul] … upon you, give a token, your seal, driving away the death-nurturing [spirits] from my life and from my prayers; and keep my body sound, safe from hostile …, and keep my spirit undefiled, O King. Truly already … the darkness of matter in earthly bonds. But you are deliverance, you are purification; release me from evils, release me from sicknesses, … I bear your seed … into the depth of matter … For you in the cosmos

placed the soul, and through the soul mind in the body, your daughter, to serve on earth. In return for her servitude matter … me … yet there is still in me some small strength of the hidden eye; not yet has it quenched all its strength. But a great surge has been poured over it from above …

… making blind the eye that sees God. Have pity, Father, on your suppliant daughter, who often strives for the ascents of the mind, and whom the … part of matter chokes. But you, O King, shine lights that lead upward, and increase the fire, the small seed in the summit of my head, the life-bearing, so that … whence no longer earth, nor the spinning of Necessity leads it back again. Let deceitful becoming fall away, let it flee from your servant; and between me, Father, and the earthly turmoil let there be fire. Nod, Begetter, nod to your minister

to spread already the wings of the mind; let him already bear the seal of the Father, a terror to enemies … the depths of the cosmos, key-bearers of the fiery ascents, so that they may open for me the gates of light … Away with you, lusts of godless mortals, the powers of cities; away with you all, graceless graces, by which the soul …

…

… your daughter, held in servitude, the earth keeps as a slave, and she has drunk forgetfulness of her own goods, until … For he has two jars; and whoever, reaching out to the tables, … will weep greatly over the bitter portion of the opposites; for from two sides … pours out life for mortals. But the pure and unmixed good … the things of God. Drunk with the sweet … … the spring, I learned the ruin, the ruin of Epimetheus. I loathe the minds that turn this way and that, and, hastening, I stretch my wings in flight, fleeing the double gifts of matter.

Look upon me, steward of the life of the mind; look upon your suppliant soul on earth, striving for the ascents of the mind … of the double passions, with which deceitful nature bends souls down to earth. Grant me, having fled the ruin of the body, to make a swift leap to your courts, to your bosom, whence the fount of the soul flows forth; to sing hymns of the mind, stewarded by the Father, with the choir of the King. Nod, Father, that, mingled with light, it may sink no more …

… And while I remain in the bonds of life, gently, blessed one,

You at [dawn], you at midday, you at [evening], … of the holy dawn, of the sacred night, I sing, Begetter, giver … of a life free from toil. … care, mother of …, mother of passions, let it stay pure, so that … of all things (for they are your works, O Father); let the rushing of the winds be stilled, the noise of the birds, … of song, the flowing of the waters … upon the earth. … now … let the ministers of the Begetter hear the hymns of the Father, and carry up my prayers made gracious. O Monad of monads, Father of fathers, Beginning of beginnings,

Fount of founts, Root of roots, Good of goods, Star of stars, World of worlds, Form of forms, hidden seed, Father of ages, Father of the ineffable intellectual worlds; whence an ambrosial breath, dripping … into masses, kindles a second world. I hymn you, blessed one, through voice; I hymn you, blessed one, through silence. For as much as I hymn through voice, so much through silence. You, blessed one, I hymn together with the great Father, and the fruitful Will that rests upon you, the middle principle, the holy Breath, she the mother, she the sister, she the daughter,

who delivered the hidden root. For so that [the Father] might be poured forth, she herself was the outpouring. And he stood in the midst, God from God, through the … and through the glorious outpouring of the immortal Father, the Son …, a shoot. You are Monad, being Triad; Monad that remains, and Triad you are. An intellectual division holds what is divided still undivided; and the tension toward the Begetter remains …, and again, outside, he governs the things of the Father, leading down … of life, whence he himself has it. Word, whom the mind of the great ineffable Father begets, and you, conceived, the one Word of the Begetter, first of the first

offspring …

… your begetting. The ineffable Monad, seed of all things, sowed you as the seed of all things. For you are in all things; and through you nature, highest, middle, and lowest, [receives] the good gifts of God and fruitful life. For you the ageless sphere rolls on; under your ordering, in the great hollow, with mighty whirls the seven of the stars … many … one fold … the lights of the cosmos through your will; for you, running round the hollow of heaven, … and by your holy bonds, blessed one, in the flanks of the ether the herd of grey stars is pastured. You among the heavenly,

you among the airy, you among the earthly, distribute their works, … assign their portions. You are president of mind and steward to gods; … drew … You are the giver of souls; life is stretched out [from you], and nature … the blind … of the soul; the offshoot of your chain hangs down; all that, spread out, is deprived of breath, plucks its cohesion from your bosom, ferried through your … whence of life … it is carried down to earth through your …, descending, the form of the intellectual world, the visible cosmos. This had a second sun,

… of the later-shining [world], spirit of matter, defence against passions, with shining eyes, walling off the things that come to be, the earthly things, and those that perish, harming the impulses [of evil]; provider of good things, angel of prayer, through your will, unknown Father, guardian of the soul, ineffable Father, guardian of life,

unknown to mind, guard of prayers, guard of works, pure from sicknesses. Behold this: your servant, I fall upon the earth, so that life … a blind suppliant, the … that nourishes … But you … with your hymns; drive away sicknesses, … after my portion; drive away the shameless spirit of the earth, as long as I accomplish [my life], from my soul, from my prayers, to your courts; from my life, to your bosom; from my works, whence the fount of the soul [flows]; outside the body, … a fount; outside the spirit, give me your hand; outside all things; call, blessed one, … of ours, lead up …; let the spirit … remain … the suppliant soul; let it leave, let it flee

… [we sing] at evening Christ's birth. The travail of the unwedded bride brought forth the form of a man, who came to mortals as … of the fount of light. He knows the root of the ages. You yourself are light from the fount, a ray shining forth with the Father; and, breaking through dark matter, you shine into pure souls. You are the founder of the cosmos, … of the spheres of the glorious stars, the one who rooted the centres of the earth, and you are the saviour of men. For you the Titan [sun] rides, unquenchable fount of fire; for you the bull-faced moon dissolves the darkness of the nights; for you the fruits are born,

for you the flocks are pastured. From your invisible fount sending life-giving radiance to the fated beds of men … by the Father's will, you fatten the wings of the worlds; from your bosom sprang light, and mind, and soul. Pity your daughter, shut in mortal limbs and the material measures of fate; save her from the outrages of sicknesses, and the strength of limbs unharmed. Grant persuasion to my words, … glory, to suit the ancient fame of the city of Cyrene and of Sparta. And let my soul, untouched by griefs, draw a gentle life, a nourishing life, stretching both eyes toward your light, that I may hasten on … paths, fleeing the toils of earth, … to the fount of the soul. Such an undefiled life may you accomplish for your lyre-player, when, glorifying your … root, the greatest glory of the Father, and the Breath enthroned with him,

the mean between root and shoot, and singing the strength of the Father, I rest the glorious travail of my soul in your hymns. Hail, fount of the Son! Hail, form of the Father! Hail, … of the Son! Hail, seal of the Father! Hail, might of the Son! Hail, beauty of the Father! Hail, undefiled Breath, centre of the Son and of the Father! May you send her to me with the Father, watering the wings of the soul, fulfiller of divine gifts.

After the holy self-born fount, beyond the ineffable unities, God, glorious Son of immortal God, alone from the alone, springing from the Father, I will crown with the wise flowers of hymns; whom the unutterable travail of the Father's will showed forth as Child from unknown bosoms; … revealed the fruits of the Father's travail, and, having revealed them, appeared …; and they remain in the fount even when poured forth. Wisdom, healer of the mind, ray of beauty, when you were born, the Father granted you to beget; you are the hidden seed of the Father. For the Begetter gave you as principle to the worlds, to lead down forms from intellectual things to bodies. You wield the wise rim of heaven, and ever shepherd the herd of the stars; you, O King, rule the dance of the angels and the phalanx of the spirits; you dance around perishable nature too, distribute the undivided spirit around the earth, and join again to the fount what was given, releasing mortals from the necessity of death. Be gracious to your garlands of hymns, granting calm of life to your hymn-singer; still the wandering flow of the straits, calming the deadly waves of matter; ward off sicknesses of soul and limbs; put to sleep the ruinous impulse of passions; turn away the dooms of wealth and of poverty,

grant glorious fame to my works; open a good report among the people; [crown me] with the flower of gentle-spoken persuasion, so that my mind may not reap a leisure without waves …

… nor, groaning in earthly cares, may I water my mind with the travail of wisdom … … of channels borne on high

I was the first to find a measure for you, blessed, immortal Jesus of Solyma, to strike the strings of the lyre in newly fashioned harmonies. But be gracious, O King, and receive the music of holy songs. [I sing] God, the great Son of God, of the Father who begets the ages, the world-begetting youth, the all-mingling nature, boundless Wisdom, God to those in heaven, a corpse to those under the earth. When you were poured out upon the earth from a mortal womb, the much-knowing art of the Magi, from the rising of the star, was amazed and at a loss: what is the babe that is born? Who is the hidden God? God, or corpse, or king? Come, bring gifts, offerings of myrrh, dedications of gold, and fine sacrifices of incense. You are God: receive incense. I bring gold to the king. Myrrh will suit the tomb.

And you cleansed the earth, and the waves of the sea, and the paths of the spirits, the flowing of the air, and the depths below the earth, helper of the dead, God sent down to Hades. And receive the music of holy songs.

To the Dorian mode of the ivory-bound strings of the lyre I will set a clear-sounding song for you, blessed, immortal, glorious child of the Virgin. Save my life … and the dead …, for the sake of your suppliant, Father; and my sister, and the pair of my children … hide the whole house in quiet under your hand. Save the companion of my bed, beloved, of one mind with me, ignorant of [unlawful] converse, my wife; may she keep a holy bed, wholly undefiled, pure; and my soul, loosed from the fetters of earthly life, set free from pains, … to raise hymns with the choir of the pure … to you, blessed one. Again I will sing you a song; soon again my lyre, again I will tune it, pure.

… among creatures of a day, and the people-devouring dog drew back from the threshold. And when, having freed from pains the holy choirs of souls, you ascended with pure companies, O Lord, the countless tribes of spirits throughout the air trembled; and the immortal choir of undefiled stars was amazed; and the ether, laughing, from its seven-toned lyre mixed music, a victory song, for your might. The morning star smiled, the messenger of day, and the golden evening star, Cytherea's star. The horned moon, filling … with fire, led the way, shepherd of the gods of night; and [the sun] spread its broad-shining hair … the most artful mind, source of its own fire. But you, driving your foot, rose above the back of dark-rimmed heaven, and flew to the spheres

pure and intellectual, where the fount of goods is, …

… where neither deep [Hades], dragging the offspring of earth, nor shameless dooms … Aeon, the ancient-born, young and old at once, is steward to the gods of the ever-flowing abiding.