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Poems
St Gregory the Theologian, tr. Chatfield, 1876; selections
Chapter 5
Ὄρθρος·1 δίδωμι τῷ Θεῷ μου δεξιὰς,
(Iambic trimeter.)
’Tis dawn: to God I lift my hand,
To regulate my way;
My passions rule, and unmoved stand,
And give to Thee the day:
Not one dark word or deed of sin,
Nor one base thought allow;
But watch all avenues within,
And wholly keep my vow.
Shamed were my age, should I decline;
Shamed were Thy table too,
At which I stand:—the will is mine:
Give grace, my Christ, to do.
Notes
- Ὄρθριος violates metre; I would retain the reading ὄρθρος, and put a colon. Thus, as it seems to me, grammar, sense, and metre, may be all satisfied.