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Hymns and Homilies
St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Burgess, 1853
9. Metrical Homily 9: Man is Ignorant of Himself
In place of the standard which saveth all men,
Which the universal teacher hath exhibited to us;
This, our presumptuous generation,
Hath brought in a new faith.
He who is omniscient knoweth
What is the cause of these agitations.
If their motive is arrogancy,
May the Lord curb their pride;
If their motive is contention,
May the Lord increase concord;
And if their motive is love,
May He reveal His own to them that are His!
Oh thou who aimest at the great mountain,
Think not that thy arrows can reach it!
They may go a little way from thee
But cannot touch the standard!
For high is the generation of the Son
Above human investigation.
Take an illustration from thine own nature,
Comparing this subject with what is near;
That by the testimony of what is near thee,
That which is remote may be believed.
Let thy mind be that illustration,
Respecting which speculators have erred.
For one confesses that it exists,
Another that it has no being;
One subjects it to mortality,
Another makes it superior to death;
One derives it from something,
And another from nothing.
He who contemplates its greatness,
Makes it a particle of greatness;
He who observes its evanescence
Makes it a puff of air.
One considers it to be breath,
And another calls it blood.
One man contemplates its warmth,
And says it is produced from fire;
Another, seeing its spirituality,
Affirms that it proceeds from spirit;
One makes it a part of God,
And another but His breath.
There is one who derives it from one essence.
Another from many essences;
One deduces it from one thing only,
Another from seven things mingled;
One magnifies and exalts its nature,
Another debases and dishonours its origin.
If then the unstable mind,
Which even dreams lead astray,
Thus have erred in investigating
These reasoners who have missed the mark—
Who is competent to search into
That generation which is inscrutable!
Come! let us wonder at him who says
That the mind does not exist;
When even in himself this mind resides,
And disputes against himself!
It even denies itself, saying
Of its being, that it exists not!
The mind which perceiveth not its own self,
Whether it exists or has no being—
That which is not able to agree with itself,
As to what its mouth utters concerning it—
How can it be able to investigate
Him by whose hand it was created!
Not being visible to itself,
That it may see that it exists it has a mirror;
In this, the faculty of speech, the mind
Is able to view itself.
For in speech consists its great honour
Above dumb creatures.
The mind therefore exists,
Which yet in its own perception exists not.
For how can it not exist?
Behold it is detected by its actions!
For having its existence from the Creator
It perished by its own free will.
If therefore in all this
The mind denies the truth—
And not perceiving its own dignity,
The mind repudiates itself—
What is there it can confess,
As it in reality exists?
And if by its own investigation,
The mind errs as to its being,
What can it discover by its research?
What can it attain to by enquiry?
If so far distant from itself,
How can it approach the hidden One!
Since then our intellectual faculty
Knoweth not how to know itself,
How shall it dare to meditate
On the generation of Him who knoweth all things?
The thing made which knoweth not itself,
How shall it know its Maker?
There is a mighty nature,
Ineffable by all lips!
The mouth that will speak,
Of Him who is unutterable,
Brings Him to degradation,
Being inadequate to His greatness.
Whoever therefore is desirous
Greatly to magnify God,
(He being great in His nature
Will make him great who magnifies Him!)
Let him restrain disputation, which is unequal to Him,
And possess silence, which is worthy of Him!
Grant, Lord, that I may use
Both these prudently;
That I may not search presumptuously
Nor be silent slothfully.
Teach me the speech which is profitable,
And impart to me the silence which is prudent!