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Hymns and Homilies
St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Burgess, 1853
7. Metrical Homily 7: The Mystery of the Trinity
Who is able to circumscribe
Within a narrow aqueduct,
Or to bring through his own intellect
The rough sea of hidden mysteries?
Disputation to us in our weakness
Is like a bitter thing,
Much more so an argument of great difficulty.
Who is there of weak perceptions
That is competent for the assault
Of that Mighty One,
Whose generation is unsearchable!
The vision of that which is spiritual
Is not congenial to our pupils;
Its appearance is strange to our eyes
If we would gaze upon it.
And who can become familiar
With the hidden One by his research?
Who is distant in all respects from all men!
Who hath ever accustomed
His mouth to the burning flame?
Or his palate to fiery heat
Which never hath been tasted?
Now be instructed by this fire,
Whose fierceness was never tasted;
Yet its power is recognized
In the flavour of what is dressed by it;
And thus it is a useful thing,
And in every way profitable.
So also is the hidden Eternal Essence!
Mix and receive its influence
In various kinds of good things;
For its investigation, in itself,
Is difficult and arduous.
The sun passeth through a transparent vase
Into the midst of the water in it,
And generates in the cold element
The warmth of fire;
A progeny like unto itself,
In a wonderful manner it begets;—
The offspring rises from it without separation!
For the ray is not drowned,
Neither is the water divided;
It is a pure progeny,
Which beameth forth with splendour!
Gold is a single substance,
A flower is threefold;
Stone is a single substance,
But fire is threefold;
For flame, and heat, and light
Are mingled in it.
For not by one example only ascendeth
The language of created things!—
Therefore without disputation
Receive as they have been preached to us,
These threefold arrangements.
For they are not disposed in this order
According to our pleasure;
But Nature as it is
Exists in a threefold manner.
Nor is it to be enquired for what reason
It is found to be thus;—
That it exists in this order is indisputable.
For who complains of our statement,
That fire is threefold?
No man questions it,
But every one admits it.
It continues to be a mystery to thee
How the heat passes through the vase;
How it was conceived in the sun,
And lay hidden in it;
And, again, how it was enveloped
In the bosom of its beams.
Unsearchable is the travail that brought it forth!
That birth is a miracle.
The admiration of which should keep thee silent;
And restrain thy imagination,
Because it surpasses thy understanding!
If thou hadst never tasted a fruit,
To discover its peculiar nature;
Though thou hadst touched it with thy hand,
And smelt it, and examined it:—
Yet because thou hadst not yet
Tasted it, and proved its quality,
Thou wouldst rely on him who had tried it.
Since, then, that hidden Essence
Is too mighty for thee,
Believe that Fruit
By which its force has been tasted.
Take a grain of wheat, and split it open,
And search into it and shew to us
Where it hides the stalk,
The ear of corn, and the root;
Each of which is complete within it
In a threefold manner:
Shew also which is recent, older, and oldest;—
And, although there was a beginning,
How fruitless to search it out!
For their origin is concealed
Within them and to themselves.
But since even this illustration
May fail as not being perfect;
Let it be reaped and winnowed
That it may come into use.
Grant, then, that through captiousness
The similitude has failed—
Do thou with sound mind thus contemplate it:—
The blade is typically the body,
The full corn is typically the mind,
And the ear is typically the soul;—
This is a celebrated parable!
For consider that every similitude
Which is written and constructed,
If it fully depicted
The whole object perfectly,
Would be found not a resemblance,
But an exact copy.
For it is necessary that shadows should pass through
The network of time.
Thus our Saviour compares
A grain of corn to the kingdom,
For our improvement.
Examples and parables
Are weak and insufficient;
Comparisons and similitudes
Are feeble and reach not to the object:
They subsist in humble form,
That he may be reproved
Who is haughty and arrogant.
For if he is not competent
To attain to the similitudes,
How can he madly perplex himself
With the height of Divine Majesty?
The clouds are more exalted
Than the vapours beneath them,
The heavens than both of them,
And the heaven of heavens is still higher.
The low mountains
Of this creation are high
To the dwellers in the dust beneath them.
Thus also similitudes,
However great they may be to us,
Are only thought to approach the thing signified,
Being, in reality, far away from it.