Ode I.
Irmos. After crossing the sea as if it
were dry ground and escaping the wickedness of Egypt, the Israelite cried
out: Let us sing to our redeemer and God.
Grant soul-saving repentance to your unprofitable slave
who wallows in corruption and earthly minded passions, O Savior, for you came
to save sinners, O Lord.
In the hour of my examination, O Savior, do not
throw your slave into the fire of Gehenna, O Christ, for you are
merciful and compassionate, and you know the unsteadiness of my nature.
Quench the flame of the passions of your slave with
the streams of your immeasurable compassion, most just Judge, for you cleanse the
streams of my tears with a towel of love.
Deem all men worthy, O Mother of God, to obtain the
sympathy of the infinite mercies of your Son, though they, alas! daily insult
him in word and deed.
Ode III.
Irmos. You
covered the vault of the sky with a roof, O Lord, and built the church; confirm
me in your love, O summit of desires, support of the faithful and only
compassionate Lord.
Now hearken, O Savior, compassionate Word of God, to
your mean slave who cries out in compunction, and deliver even me from
condemnation to frightful punishment, sweetest Jesus, for you alone are
patient.
Alas! That
time of my life on Earth which you gave me I have squandered, O Savior, on
impious passions; wherefore I entreat you:
Do not reject me in an evil hour, but give me forgiveness for the things
which I have done.
Grant me, your sinful slave, pardon, for I glorify
you with longing as the most just Judge, the multitude of whose mercies, O
compassionate one, triumph over your impartial judgement.
Ever-virgin Mother and highly favored one, I cry to
you to cause the passions of the flesh of your worthless slave to abate, and do
not permit me to be a prey to our enemy who hates goodness, for I have recourse
to you.
Long-suffering one, as you had pity on Manasses,
have pity on me and receive me as a prodigal in your warm embrace, and save me,
O Savior, as I repent.
Kathisma
O
Christ Jesus, receive your slave into your bosom, for I repent on account of
the pernicious sins of life, O wholly merciful Christ, O very merciful Savior,
for you granted abundant repentance to the prodigal and the thief.
Ode IV.
Irmos. I
have heard, O Lord, the mystery of your dispensation; I have meditated on your
works and glorified your divinity.
Save, O Savior, your sinful slave, as you are
greatly compassionate, and deliver me from the punishment of Gehenna, O sweetest
Jesus.
I, a wretch, cry out to you, for no other mortal has
sinned as I have done; wherefore I beg of you fervently, grant me life.
Open to me the gates of repentance, O giver of life,
though I sin every day and by my offences provoke your goodness.
Be my defender, O Mother of God, in the hour of
trial and soothe the struggles of my body, for you conceived the sinless one.
Ode V
Irmos. Enlighten us with your
commandments, O Lord, and by your lofty arm grant us your peace, O merciful
God.
Deliver me from my sufferings and heal the incurable
wounds of my soul, O Word of God, with the medicine of your life-giving favor.
As you fell among impious thieves, O compassionate
one, and were covered with wounds, O Christ, I beseech you: Heal me with your grace.
Be gracious to your slave, O Jesus, our just judge,
in the hour of trial, though I have insolently insulted your calling with sins.
Save your slave from the eternal fire, O Mother of
God, who has wickedly squandered the time of life, which your Son gave me.
Ode VI
Irmos. I will pour out my
supplication to the Lord and to him will I declare my afflictions, for my soul
has been filled with troubles and my life has approached Hades, so like Jonah I
pray: Raise me up from death, O God.
Do not deem your passion-plagued slave worthy of the
portion of those on the left, O Lord, O Christ, but place me in the same class
as the sheep on your right, though I, an utterly useless lover of sin, embitter
you by my sins, O Good One.
O giver of life, raise your slave with your
immaculate hand from daily falls, for I am tempted sordidly by the senseless lion,
and guide me to salvific dispassion, O Lord.
Cause the passions of my flesh to abate, O
compassionate Savior, for I think on the outer fire, the darkness of death and
the gnashing of teeth, and I cry, “Just Judge, Jesus, have mercy on me, though
I grieve you by my deeds.”
Undefiled, stainless and immaculate Mother of the
Word of God Most High, by the streams of your fervent prayers to your
compassionate Son cleanse your slave who defiles his spirit and flesh with
corrupt words and worthless deeds.
Kontakion.
Open
to me the gates of repentance, greatly merciful Christ, O compassionate one,
and chase away the gloom of the thoughts of our sins by the splendors of your
compassion, only benevolent one.
Ode VII
Irmos. The youths from Judea, having
come to Babylon of old, by their faith in the Trinity trampled down the flame
of the furnace, chanting, O God of our fathers, blessed are you.
Since you desire to save me, O Savior, from the fire
of Gehenna, most compassionate one, quench the flame of my base passions, which
ever burn the utterly wretched soul of your miserable slave.
I fervently implore you to raise my mind from the abyss of destruction, all-merciful Jesus, for I have no streams of repentant tears, O compassionate one, to cleanse my soul of its passions.
With a sprinkling of your great sympathy, thoroughly
wash the tunic of my soul, which is evilly stained, from every sin and
wickedness, O Jesus, and quickly make it become as white as snow.
O beauty of the heavenly bridal chamber, O Mother of
God, raise even my earthbound mind to Heaven, O Virgin, and save your slave
from corruption, for I flee to your attentive care amid dangers.
Irmos. The king
of Heaven whom the hosts of angels hymn, hymn and exalt him above all forever.
Now I beseech you, all-merciful one: Open to me the gates of repentance, O Savior,
for I tread the path of sin.
Cause me to understand and give compunction, O
Savior, to your slave through repentance, for I want to cleanse the filth from
my heart.
O Lord of all, medicine which purifies the stains left
by my sins, O Savior, deliver me from every disgusting custom of life.
O Mother of God, help one to walk the salvific paths
of repentance, though he daily grieves your Son with vile deeds.
Ode IX
Irmos. O
Mother of God, we who have been saved through you fittingly confess you, and
with the incorporeal choirs magnify you, O pure Virgin.
With your compassionate mercy cleanse the filth from
my heart, most just Judge, and enable me to attain to the lot of those on your
right.
O all-compassionate one, most speedily make
clean the garment of my soul, which is filthy from idle talk, hankering for
pleasure, idleness and lust for power.
O Christ, keep your slave in watchfulness, so that I
will not be agitated in the hour of my death, O Lord, but hasten into your
habitation.
O Virgin, make intercession that the Lord, your Son, appoint me who repent the portion of the just in the hour of the just judgement.
ENDNOTES FOR THE CIRCUMSPECT
I thank Zoilus Junior for his critical comments;
his keen wit amended my translation at several points. I thank Aeteia, the Lawfully Wedded, for
checking my English. The reader who points out errors and mishaps in the
translation may advise me on Facebook (Orthodox Canons to the Saints).
This “poem” is by “Dr. Charalampous M. Mpousia,
hymnographer of the Church of Alexandria.”
The Greek of this author is generally troublesome. I cannot be sure whether he does not know
Greek as well as the occasion requires or whether he is so anxious to put on
the dog that he trips over his own shoelaces.
The interested may find the source of this canon at Πηγή.
Ode I.
“Grant” (βράβευσον): Hederich reports tribuo [grant], praebeo
[supply, offer].
“Slave” (δούλῳ). Careful consideration
of the lexica confirms that δοῦλος means
slave, not servant. As
Kittel reports of the NT usage of the word, “alongside the will and commission
of the κύριος there is no place for one’s own will or initiative.”
“Wallows” (κυλινδούμενον). Mpousios casts κυλινδούμενον in the accusative when it
should be in the dative to agree with δούλῳ.
“My examination” (ἐτάσεως). The lexicographers also report investigation,
trial (not app. in the legal sense), affliction (presumably the
emotion resulting from the investigation).
This unranked noun occurs three times in Job (10:17, 12:6, 31:14). Great Scott declined to offer statistics on
it. Lust reports it as a neologism. It does not appear in the NT. Pape reports that ἔτασις = ἐτασμός, which is
the unranked equivalent of our word (itself ranked 4644th). Great Scott reports that ἐτασμός means scrutiny,
close examination. This seems to
be another example of the preference of hymnographers for rare words, although ἐτασμός is
already pretty low-ranking. The phrase ἐν ὥρᾳ ἐτάσεως is found
five times in the Greek of the Triodion, four of which occur on Saturday before
Last Judgement Sunday, the fifth on the Saturday before Cheesefare.
“Unsteadiness” (εὐόλισθον). For εὐόλισθος, Montie reports slippery,
slimy. Lampe reports unstable,
easily slipping. These are
adjectives, and no article has been supplied by the poet to make it a
substantive. Stephanus reports that this
word is drawn from όλισθος (slipperiness; in Dutch, the delightful glibberigheid). Lampe reports that όλισθος can mean slip,
fall (lit. or moral), cause of moral lapse, temptation or danger;
liability to slip or fall morally. My guess is that Mpousios mistook εὐόλισθος as an
abstract noun by analogy with όλισθος. In
view of the tendency of our hymnographers to prefer rarer words to common words
and complex nouns to simplex nouns, I decided on unsteadiness. Slipperiness is better, but suffers
from a faintly comic ring. Liability
to fall morally is convoluted.
Ode III.
“Slave” (οἰκέτου). Great Scott reports household slave. Thayer reports that an οἰκέτης has
“closer relations to the family than other slaves.” My guess is that Mpousios is using οἰκέτης merely to
relieve the monotony of using δοῦλος.
My policy henceforth will be to
render both words as slave.
“In an evil hour” (κακῶς). Lit., “do not reject me vilely,” which seems
to imply that Christ would do so “with evil intent, with malice in one’s heart”
or “with disregard of right” (Cunliffe).
Those definitions correspond perfectly to English usage. It is more likely that Mpousios means
something like “in evil case or plight, miserably, with suffering,” “so as to
bring suffering or sore trouble upon one” or “so as to bring trouble on
oneself; in an evil hour” (Cunliffe). We
might think of these counterintuitive translations as examples of the
subjective κακῶς. It is up to the reader to decide for himself
which translation is best.
“Pardon”
(Ἱλασμόν), Montie
reporting. Kittel elaborates: “the setting aside of sin as guilt against
God.” Once again, the vast majority of
translators rely on the cultic/ritual definitions, for which Great Scott
reports “a means of appeasing” and “atonement, sin offering.” Before we rely on them, we must consider
whether anything has changed since such words were first used. Has the New Covenant recast such terms? Have men employed the expedient of expanding
the semantic spheres of such terms? In
the case of the word under discussion, taking Kittel and Montie together, we
would suppose that if one’s guilt has been set aside, then one is
pardoned. The
tendency of translators to confine their attention to the oldest, “root”
meanings of words when working on texts written under vastly different
circumstances many eons later is inexcusable.
We do well to wonder how a word denoting a concept relevant to, say, the
13th century BC, would survive semantically unchanged into Late Antiquity, let
alone into the 20th century. Can anyone
read 17th century Shakespeare without footnotes? How many passages of Dickens are inscrutable
to the early 21st-century reader because of semantic change!
“Good-hating”
(μισοκάλου). Curious word.
It is, naturally, unranked.
Someday I hope to find its kenning definition. From Homer on, Greek has always been fond of
kennings. The root-meaning fallacy
alluded to above inclines many translators to produce meaningless translations
(such as “lover of man”).
“Triumph” (κατακαυχᾶται). Lit., exult.
Ode IV.
“Grant” (κληροδότησον). Strictly, bequeath. We have already met with Mpousios’
alternative in Ode I (βράβευσον). He
seems to be trying to avoid δίδωμι.
“Struggles” (σκιρτήματα). Lampe reports bound and leap as
literal definitions and unruliness, restiveness and turbulence
as metaphorical. All of those are in
English singulare tantum. He also
reports surge of passions, which allows for the plural. I like J. R. Ewing’s definition, but any of
Lampe’s metaphorical definitions would do.
Ode V.
“Summons” (κλῆσιν). Or invitation, calling.
Ode VI.
“Sordidly” (βαναύστως). Mpousios appears to mean βαναύσως; the tau
looks like an example of a vulgar epenthesis, like chimbley or temptation
(> tentatio). The DGE reports despreciativamente
(contemptuously). Bailly reports d’une
façon vulgaire. Lampe reports mechanical
(as in artisan), “hence” vulgar, illiberal, low, sordid,
slack, effeminate, luxurious. Funny how a word can be read as red-neck
(vulgar, illiberal, low, sordid) and hippie (slack,
effeminate, luxurious).
“Senseless lion” (ἄφρονος μυρμηκολέων),
lit. ant-lion. The learned report
that the μυρμηκολέων was described since the days of Herodotus as a kind of
lion, a kind of ant or an unhappy combination of both. Our hymnographer might have met this word in
Job (μυρμηκολέων ὤλετο παρὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν βοράν, σκύμνοι δὲ λεόντων ἔλιπον ἀλλήλους
[4:11]) or in eastern or western bestiaries. I am unable to trace the most relevant quote,
which reports that this creature non verum est animal sed Diabolus hac voce
αλληγορηθεις (“not really an animal, but an allegorical reference to the devil”)
(latin_latin.en-academic.com›40884/MYRMECOLEON). My guess is that our hymnographer assumed
that this creature is a kind of lion.
Κινήματα. Montie reports various benign definitions (movement,
sensation etc.). J. R. Ewing
reports movement, tumults.
Stephanus reports perturbationes, i.e., disturbances, passions.
Κόπασον. Intr., but app. tr. here.
“Cause the passions etc.”
(Κινήματα etc.). Mpousios’s construction
is baffling. Lit., “cause the passions
of my flesh to abate, thinking . . . on the outer fire, the darkness of
death.” Zoilus
Secundus suspects textual corruption, but I suspect syntactical
clumsiness. Also, the allusion to Mt. 25
is odd, as we expect to hear about “the outer darkness” (Mt. 25:30), not
“darkness of death,” and “the eternal fire” (25:41), not “the outer fire.”
Ode VII.
“Sprinkling” (ῥαντισμῶ). This word appears
four times in Nu 19, where it means of (ceremonial) purification.
Ode IX. “Idle talk .
. . idleness . . . lust of power” (ἀργολογίας . . . ἀργίας . . .
φιλαρχίας) are words which seem to be taken from the Prayer of St. Ephraim.
