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Hymns
Synesius of Cyrene, tr. FitzGerald, 1930
Chapter 6
In unison with the Holy Self-engendered Fountain that surpasseth the unspeakable unities, I will crown with wise garlands of hymns, God, the glorious Son of the eternal God, One Offspring that leapt forth from One Father, Whom the indescribable birth-pang of the Fatherly Will has made manifest, a Son out of His unknowable Bosom, the birth-pang which has displayed the fruits of the Father’s begetting, and, in bringing them to light, has been revealed Mind, fixed in the medial. And so there remain in the Fountain, poured round about, the wisdom of the Father’s Mind, the splendour of His beauty. To Thee, the Engendered, the Father has granted to engender. Thou art the hidden Seed of the Father; for the Father gave Thee to universes as their beginning, that forms might be brought down to material bodies from the entities of Mind. Thou guidest the wise vault of heaven, and ever leadest to their pasturage the flock of stars. Thou rulest, O King, the choir angelic and the company of the spirits, and Thou dost dance around perishable nature. Thou dividest the indivisible Spirit (pneuma) throughout the earth, and returnest to its fountain-head what has already been bestowed, releasing mortals from the necessity of death. Be propitious to these garlands of songs to Thee, and grant the calm of life to a poet of hymns. Stay Thou the changing mouth of the channels, and dry up the destructive billows of matter. Keep disease far from my mind and limbs. Calm the fatal onslaught of passion, keep off from me the dooms of poverty and of riches alike, give renowned glory to my deeds, spread abroad my good fame amongst the peoples, adorn me with the fairest garland of gently-worded persuasion, that my mind may calmly gather leisure, and that I may not groan under earthly cares, but from Thy lofty channels through the birth-pangs of wisdom may I inundate my mind.