Library › St Ephrem the Syrian › Hymns on Faith

Hymns on Faith

St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Morris, 1847; selections

5. The Pearl, Rhythm the Fifth

Oh, gift that camest up without price with the diver! Thou laidest hold upon this visible light, that without price¹ riseth for the children of men: a parable of the hidden One that without price giveth the hidden Day-spring! And the painter too painteth a likeness of thee with colours. Yet by thee is faith painted² in types and emblems for colours, and in the place of the image by thee and thy colours is thy Creator painted. O thou frankincense without smell, who breathest types from out of thee! thou art not to be eaten, yet thou givest a sweet smell unto them that hear thee! thou art not to be drunk, yet by thy story, a fountain of types art thou made unto the ears!

It is thou who art great in thy littleness, O pearl! Small is thy measure and little thy compass with thy weight, but great is thy glory: to that crown alone in which thou art placed, there is none like. And who hath not perceived of thy littleness, how great it is; if one despiseth thee and throweth thee away, he would blame himself for his clownishness, for when he saw thee in a king’s crown he would be attracted to thee.

Men with their clothes off dived and drew thee out, pearl! It was not kings that put thee before men, but those naked³ ones who were a type of the poor and the fishers and the Galileans; for clothed bodies were not able to come to thee; they came that were stript as children; they buried their bodies and came down to thee, and thou didst much desire them, and thou didst aid them who thus loved thee. Glad tidings did they give for thee: their tongues before their bosoms did the poor [fishers] open and produced and shewed the new riches among the merchants: upon the wrists⁴ of men they put thee as a medicine of life.

The naked ones in a type saw thy rising again by the sea-shore; and by the side of the lake they, the Apostles, truly⁵ naked, saw the rising again of the Son of thy Creator. By thee and by thy Lord the sea and the lake were ornamented. The diver came up from the sea and put on his clothing! and from the lake too Simon Peter came up swimming and⁶ put on his coat; clad as with coats, with the love of both of you, were either party.

And since I have wandered in thee, pearl, I will gather up my mind, and by having contemplated thee, would become like thee, in that thou art all gathered up into thyself, and as thou in all times art one⁷, one let me become by thee! Pearls have I gathered together that I might make a crown for the Son in the place of stains which are in my members. Receive my offering, not that Thou art shortcoming; it is because of mine own shortcoming that I have offered it to Thee. Whiten my stains! This crown is all spiritual pearls, which instead of gold are set in love, and instead of ouches in faith; and instead of hands, let praise offer it up to the Highest!

Previous · Contents · Next