Hymns of the Eastern Church: S. Joseph of the Studium: Canon for Ascension Day. Ode I.

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CANON FOR ASCENSION DAY.

This is the crowning glory of the poet Joseph; he has here with a happy boldness entered into the lists with S. John Damascene, to whom, on this one occasion, he must be pronounced superior. I have preserved the alphabetic arrangement, and "Joseph's Ode" at the end. All the Catavasias are in Iambics.

ODE. I.

ἀνέστης τριήμερος.

A fter three days Thou didst rise
Visible to mortal eyes:
First the Eleven worshipped Thee,—
Then the rest in Galilee:
Then a cloud in glory bore
Thee to Thine own native shore.

B oldly David pour'd the strain:
God ascends to Heav’n again:
With the trumpet's pealing note
Alleluias round Him float;
As He now, by hard-won right,
Seeks the Fount of purest Light!

C rime on crime, and grief on grief,
Left the world without relief:
Now that aged, languid race,
God hath quickened by His grace:
As Thy going up we see,
Glory to Thy Glory be!

Catavasía.

θέιῳ καλυφθείς.

D arkness and awe, when Sinai's top he trod,
Taught him of faltering tongue the Law of God:
The mist was scattered from his spirit's eye,
He prais’d and hymn’d the Maker of the sky,
When He That is and was and shall be, passed by.