Hymns on Paradise

Some stanzas from St Ephrem of Syria's Hymns on Paradise…

Hymn VI

1

The keys of doctrine

which unlock all of Scripture's books,

have opened up before my eyes

the book of creation,

the treasure house of the Ark,

the crown of the Law.

This is a book which, above its companions,

has in its narrative

made the Creator perceptible

and transmitted His actions;

it has envisioned all His craftsmanship,

made manifest His works of art.

Response

Blessed is He who through His Cross

has flung open Paradise.

2

Scripture brought me

to the gate of Paradise,

and the mind, which is spiritual,

stood in amazement and wonder as it entered,

the intellect grew dizzy and weak

as the senses were no longer able

to contain its treasures—

so magnificent they were—

or to discern its savors

and find any comparison for its colors,

or take in its beauties

so as to describe them in words.

4

Paradise raised me up as I perceived it,

it enriched me as I meditated upon it;

I forgot my poor estate,

for it had made me drunk with its fragrance.

I became as though no longer my old self,

for it renewed me with all its varied nature.

I swam around in its magnificent waves;

and in the place that, burning like a furnace,

had made Adam naked,

I became so inebriated

that I forgot all my sins there.

5

Although I was not sufficient

for all the waves of its beauty,

Paradise took me up and cast me

into a sea still greater;

in its fair beauty I beheld

those who are far more beautiful than it,

and I reflected:

if Paradise be so glorious,

how much more glorious should Adam be,

who is in the image of its Planter,

and how much fairer the Cross

upon which the Son of its Lord rode.

7

God planted the fair Garden,

He built the pure Church;

upon the Tree of Knowledge

He established the injunction.

He gave joy, but they took no delight,

He gave admonition, but they were unafraid.

In the Church He implanted

the Word

which causes rejoicing with its promises,

which causes fear with its warnings:

he who despises the Word, perishes,

he who takes warning, lives.

8

The assembly of saints

bears resemblance to Paradise:

in each day is plucked

the fruit of Him who gives life to all;

in it, my brethren, is trodden

the cluster of grapes, to be the Medicine of Life.

The serpent is crippled and bound

by the curse,

while Eve's mouth is sealed

with a silence that is beneficial

—but it also serves once again

as a harp to sing the praises of her Creator.

9

Among the saints none is naked,

for they have put on glory,

nor is any clad in those leaves

or standing in shame,

for they have found, through our Lord,

the robe that belongs to Adam and Eve.

As the Church

purges her ears

of the serpent's poison,

those who had lost their garments,

having listened to it and become diseased,

have now been renewed and whitened.

22

The East has grown luminous with the saints,

with them the West has become brilliant,

the North is raised up by them,

from them the South has learned.

They have ascended to the firmament and opened it,

they have gone down to the sea and explored it;

the mystery that the apostle revealed

in a parable

have they extended to all humankind,

reaching every corner;

all creation has embraced it

to draw strength from it.

23

One of them cleft

the air with his chariot;

the Watchers rejoiced as they met him,

seeing that a body

had lately taken up its abode among them;

and just as an earthly being

ascended in a chariot

and put on splendor,

so did the Lord, in His grace,

descend and put on a body;

He then mounted a cloud and ascended

to reign over high and low.

25

With love and instruction,

commingled with truth,

the intellect can grow

and become rich with new things,

as it meditates with discernment

on the treasure store of hidden mysteries.

For my part, I have loved, and so learned,

and become assured

that Paradise possesses

the haven of the victorious.

As I have been held worthy to perceive it,

so make me worthy to enter it!

Response

Blessed is He who through His Cross

has flung open Paradise.