Undusted Texts

Christ is risen! A translation is always a balancing act between an ungrammatical, too-strict word-for-word replacement and a new work merely "inspired by" the original text.  I've always loved the way John Dryden describes the issue in his essay "Ovid and the Art of Translation."   Dryden defines three distinct styles of translation: "metaphrase, or turning an author word by word, and line by line, from one language into another"—about which he later says, "'Tis much like dancing on ropes with fettered legs: a man may shun a fall by using caution; but the gracefulness of motion is not to be expected"—"paraphrase, or translation with latitude, where the author is kept in view by the translator, so as never to be lost, but his words are not so strictly followed as his sense; and that too is admitted to be amplified, but not altered," and finally "imitation, where the translator (if now he has not lost that name) assumes the ...

  Introduction Christ is risen!   I intended to post this closer to Pascha, originally on Great and Holy Saturday, but it is still fitting even now.  This poem is a loose translation, close to a paraphrase, of a passage from the Christiad , a Latin epic poem by Marco Girolamo Vida (1485-1566).  Here, he represents the descent of Christ into Hades to free the souls imprisoned there; Vida's description of Hell and Satan, throughout the Christiad , was a key influence on John Milton's descriptions in Paradise Lost .  My translation is written in a kind of four-foot blank verse, an unrhymed, loosely iambic tetrameter.  (True blank verse, as in Milton, is unrhymed iambic pentameter.)  It is not perfectly metrical, but I inclined more towards closeness to the original than to metrical perfection. There are a number of full English translations of Vida's epic; the 18th-century translations (John Cranwell, Edward Granan) are in heroic couplets; the 20th-centur...

  Introduction It was long a tradition for unknown writers to sign a famous author's names to their works; sometimes, the work was half by the purported author anyway.  The homily translated below is nominally attributed to St. Augustine, but scholars reject it as spurious.  Some pieces of it can be traced to other writers: a large portion of §1 is copied from St. Gregory the Great's Homilies on the Gospels XXII.6 (PL76:1177B-D).  The editor of the Latin text claims portions of §§2-3 are taken, respectively, from the homilies on Pascha and on the Ascension by a certain Eusebius, but I have not yet located the source.   Sermon CLX On Pascha II The Biting and Slaying of Hell   The Passion or resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, beloved brethren, all of the volumes of the Old Testament spoke of beforehand in many ways, so that, even through the mouth of David the prophet, the Holy Spirit clearly shows this, ...

  Introduction      The prayers of the Latin Rite Paschal Vigil are ancient, but they were not the only options.  The 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary from Paris is another source of--often quite different--ancient liturgical prayers.  Among them is the prayer Deus Mundi Conditor , the prayer for the blessing of the Paschal Candle during the Paschal Vigil, somewhat equivalent to the Exultet .  Indeed, the Deus Mundi Conditor may have influenced the Exultet with its "praise of the bee" section, reflected in the Exultet 's description of the candle as "the work of bees" and the wax as "drawn out by the mother bees."  Below is a translation of the Deus Mundi Conditor , as well as the original Latin text. Deus Mundi Conditor   Prayer for the Blessing of the Paschal Candle from the Gelasian Sacramentary      God, the world’s creator, author of light, the stars’ maker, God Who perspicuously rewove with light the world fallen into...

 "Myrrh is fitting for the dead, but Christ has shown Himself not subject to corruption..." --Troparion of the Myrrh-Bearers Christ is risen!  He is risen from the dead, He is risen from the tomb!  The rock which once held His Body is now rolled away, and He walks once more among the living, eating with them, speaking with them, proclaiming the Gospel to them.  To so many does He appear: to Peter and John and the rest of the Eleven, to the 500 disciples, to the men on the road to Emmaus...yet He first appears to the myrrh-bearers.  They who were at His side for His burial He honors with the first revelation of His Resurrection. It is these first witnesses, the myrrh-bearing women, whom we celebrate this week, and in doing so, we frequently bring to mind once again the burial of Christ.  Thus on Sunday the troparion of procession on Holy Friday is repeated: "The noble Joseph took down Your Most Pure Body...," but the hymn does not end as it did t...

  The Incredulity of St. Thomas (1601) by Caravaggio (1571-1610) "Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you have believed."--Jn 20:29 Yesterday we heard the episode related by John the Theologian of that octave of Pascha, the week after Christ's Resurrection.  When He rose, He appeared to many: to Mary Magdalane, to the other myrrhbearing women, to His apostles in the closed room, to His disciples on the Road to Emmaus.  Yet to one in particular He did not appear in that first week: Thomas, called Twin (Didymos).  Why Thomas was not with the rest of the Eleven in the upper room is unknown.  All we know is the fact that he was not there.  Because he was not there, He did not see the Lord's theophany that morning, and it was such a glorious happening that Thomas could not believe the news of it.  Maybe he was a pessimist who was reluctant to believe such news; perhaps he was, as he is often presented now, a man who needed evidence.  Regardless...

"Thus then they went to announce to His disciples, and behold!, Jesus met them, saying, 'Rejoice!'"--Mt 28:9 What Paschal message could be more fitting than Christ's own: "Rejoice!" He told the myrrhbearers.  "Rejoice, for I am risen!  Rejoice, for salvation has come!  Rejoice, for death has been trampled!  Rejoice, for the long-suffering just are freed from Hades!  Rejoice, for his grip on you is broken!  Rejoice, for Heaven is open for you!  Rejoice, for the earth rejoices!  Rejoice, for the heavenly rejoice with the earthly!  Rejoice, for all creation exclaims the most joyous and glorious hymn: 'Christ is risen from the dead, by death He trampled death, and to those in the tombs He granted life!'"  What more is there to say today, as we celebrate Pascha anew.  What Gabriel said truthfully and Judas twisted in his betrayal as been brought aright again by Christ, as He brings alright all that is fallen and straightens all...

  "From on high He came down as Lord, from within the womb He came forth as a servant; Death knelt before Him in Sheol, and Life worshipped Him at His resurrection. Blessed is His victory!" --St. Ephraim the Syrian Christ is risen!  Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!  Christos voskrese!  Today the whole earth rings out its joy, echoing the Paschal hymn, for death is vanquished and our Light has returned from the three-day night.  So all shall praise the all-glorious and life-giving Resurrection of Christ!  One voice, St. Proclus of Constantinople, here echoes from Heaven to proclaim the meaning of this Feast of Feasts.  Christ is risen! Reverential awe should be the prevailing mood on this feast when our salvation is accomplished. Let every loquacious tongue be silent, realizing its impotence to proclaim in adequate terms the resurrection of Christ crucified. What event has ever occurred of similar magnitude as that which we now witness by faith? ...

Χριστος ανεστι!  Christ is risen!  Indeed, Christ our High Priest has died so we may die to sin and risen that we may rise to eternal life.  He has redeemed us: He has atoned for our sins.  Under the Old Covenant, the Jewish High Priest prayed his hardest and tried all that he could to atone for the sins of himself, his house, and his people, Israel, yet he still had to try to make atonement year after year on Yom Kippur.  The true High Priest, Jesus Christ, had only to suffer once for our atonement, and He has attained all. In reading the accounts of the Jewish High Priest's preparations for atonement, one can possibly see a type of our true atonement through the Son of God.  As it says in the Mishnah , "He sanctified his hands and his feet and stripped off his clothes...He went down and immersed himself, came up and dried himself.  They brought him white garments; he put them on and sanctified his hands and his feet" ( Yoma 3:6). Do we not ...

Anastasis icon dated 1315 from the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora in Istanbul, Turkey   Χριστος ανεστι!  Christ is risen!  (And you, of course, are responding, "Αλειθος ανεστι!  Truly He is risen!")  Today (for those following the calendar of the Catholic Church) is Pascha (Easter, for most English speakers), the most holy day of days, the feast of feasts, the day of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Today is the true Passover, when Christ passed over from death to life, and because of this it truly bears the name Pascha ("Passover" in Greek).  To celebrate this miracle of miracles, the Eastern Church has a festal icon of Christ's Resurrection, just as they have icons for various other feasts. The icon of Pascha is 'Η Αναστασις , The Resurrection.  (Etymologically, anastasis literally means "standing again," combining ana (again) and stasis (standing).)  Though there are multiple Paschal icons, this is the most promin...