in the labors of others, you who has the labors of those who labor to a greater degree; for you have always been essentially with us in our labors, having borne the weaknesses on behalf of all, from barbarians, danger; from enemies, fear; from without, enmities; from within, cares; sweats to the earth, confusions on the sea, battles of tyrants, assaults of subjects, winter and scorching heat and the burdensome vigils falling in between; in short, your body, your mind, your heart, your whole self you have nailed to labors, so that the common body might not bear labors; and you labor much and fight against the disease, stealing away, drawing off the cause of the corruptions; and you have not spared the disease-working regions, in one place burning, in another cutting with the sword; but you keep safe the vital heart, making purifications from the unseen passages and diverting the force of the disease and wishing to draw the confluence of the affliction toward the prick of the safe places. Nevertheless, now become a helper of this critical time and guard the bright pupil of the whole inhabited world, the renowned City. For when a twofold pain, as they say, entered in, the violent pain obscured the other. Your branches will persuade you, master, the soul-guiding pearls of life, as they pour out tears like pearls; for being, just as they were sown, prudent, they have one consolation of hope, your swift presence with God. Receive from them the groans from the depths, urgent ambassadors of the world's salvation, ambassadors who are absent, but persuade more by not being present and by being missed more greatly; for time perhaps has not permitted their necessary face-to-face meeting. For there was fear, as the community loving two luminaries like a pair of eyes, lest by the deprivation of the clear sun and of the moon which brings light through him, the one City might suffer a double eclipse. But O you who outstrip the course of the midday sun, leaping forth from reconciliation with speed—for even if you should paint an angry face, you flee the pretense and do not wish to delay, you who are raised to such a height of meekness, as even to seem to make your authority vain, give a hand to those who cry out and, arriving before the time, raise up those who were hastened to fall; make our deserts into cities; for wherever you are seen, all things become cities, pity in its need the mother's milk, you who are now for our sake an old man even before your time, and now, having moved from the places of the morning star, make it dawn in the region toward the west, and hasten, if you must, to precede the sun before the turning of the day occurs, so that every barbarian fortune may shudder at you, and every country and City may marvel at you, and the whole world with immaterial colors may paint you in an ever-shining image, crowning you a second time with words. And indeed, the time of necessity has conspired to speak these words with toil, but the Logos who formed all things by the word, who does all things expediently, as He wills, may He shape and direct your mind, as He himself knows, as He deems it expedient, and may he show as a purification for your errors the stream of sweat which you have shed in place of all. But O decline of past diseases, may you remain, bringing all to recovery, and to the power that begot you, power. May he come faster †the one who runs a month's course† [...] as he sheds the flow of tears [...] of him who drew for you a second and more God-befitting birth of dew from fire.

ἀλλοτρίαις ὁ τῶν πονούντων τοὺς πόνους ἔχων πλέον· ἀεὶ γὰρ ἡμῖν οὐσιώθης τοῖς πόνοις τὰς ἀντὶ πάντων ἀσθενείας βαστάσας, ἐκ βαρβάρων κίνδυνον, ἐξ ἐχθρῶν φόβον, ἔξωθεν ἔχθρας, ἔνδοθεν τὰς φροντίδας, ἱδρῶτας εἰς γῆν, ἐν θαλάττῃ συγχύσεις, μάχας τυράννων, προσβολὰς ὑπηκόων, χειμῶνα καὶ καύσωνα καὶ τὰς ἐν μέσῳ παρεμπεσούσας φορτικὰς ἀγρυπνίας· ἁπλῶς τὸ σῶμα, τὰς φρένας, τὴν καρδίαν, ὅλον σεαυτὸν προσκαθήλωσας πόνοις, ὅπως τὸ κοινὸν σῶμα μὴ φέρῃ πόνους· καὶ πολλὰ κάμνεις καὶ μάχῃ πρὸς τὴν νόσον, κλέπτων, ὑφέλκων τῶν φθορῶν τὴν αἰτίαν· καὶ τῶν νοσουργῶν οὐκ ἐφείσω χωρίων, πῇ μὲν φλογίζων, πῇ δὲ τέμνων τῷ ξίφει· τὴν ζωτικὴν δὲ συμφυλάττεις καρδίαν ποιῶν καθάρσεις ἐξ ἀδήλων τῶν πόρων καὶ τὴν ἀνάγκην μετοχετεύων τῆς νόσου καὶ πρὸς τὸ νύγμα τῶν ἀκινδύνων τόπων τὴν τοῦ πάθους σύρροιαν ἑλκύσαι θέλων. ὅμως βοηθὸς νῦν γενοῦ τοῦ καιρίου καὶ τὴν διαυγῆ τῆς ὅλης οἰκουμένης κόρην φύλαξον, τὴν περίβλεπτον Πόλιν. διττοῦ γὰρ εἰσφρήσαντος, ὥς φασιν, πόνου τὸν ἄλλον ἠμαύρωσεν ὁ σφοδρὸς πόνος. πείσουσιν ὑμᾶς οἱ κλάδοι σου, δέσποτα, οἱ ψυχαγωγοὶ μαργαρῖται τοῦ βίου ὡς μαργαρίτας ἐκχέοντες δάκρυα· ὄντες γάρ, ὥσπερ ἐσπάρησαν, ἔμφρονες παραψυχὴν ἔχουσιν ἐλπίδος μίαν τὴν σύντομόν σου σὺν Θεῷ παρουσίαν. δέχου παρ' αὐτῶν τοὺς στεναγμοὺς ἐκ βάθους, πρέσβεις ἐπείκτας κοσμικῆς σωτηρίας, πρέσβεις ἀπόντας, ἀλλὰ πείθοντας πλέον τῷ μὴ παρεῖναι καὶ ποθεῖσθαι μειζόνως· τὴν γὰρ κατὰ πρόσωπον εἰς δέον τάχα ἔντευξιν αὐτῶν οὐκ ἐφῆκεν ὁ χρόνος. δέος γὰρ εἶχεν, οἷα διττῶν ὀμμάτων ἡ κοινότης ἐρῶσα φωστήρων δύο, μὴ τῇ στερήσει τοῦ διαυγοῦς ἡλίου καὶ τῆς σελήνης τῆς δι' αὐτοῦ φωσφόρου πάθοι διπλῆν ἔκλειψιν εἰς μίαν Πόλις. ἀλλ' ὦ μεσουρανοῦντος ἡλίου δρόμον φθάνων, προπηδῶν ἐκ διαλλαγῆς τάχος κἂν γὰρ πρόσωπον ζωγραφήσῃς ὀργίλον, φεύγεις τὸ πλάσμα καὶ χρονίζειν οὐ θέλεις, ὁ πραότητος εἰς τοσοῦτον ἠρμένος, ὡς καὶ δοκεῖν χαυνοῦν σε τὴν ἐξουσίαν, δὸς χεῖρα τοῖς κράζουσι καὶ πρὸ τοῦ χρόνου φθάσας ἔγειρον τοὺς πεσεῖν ἠπειγμένους· ποίησον ἡμῶν τὰς ἐρημίας πόλεις ὅπου γὰρ ὀφθῇς, πάντα γίνονται πόλεις, οἴκτειρον ἐν δέοντι μητρικὸν γάλα, ὁ νῦν δι' ἡμᾶς καὶ πρὸ τοῦ χρόνου γέρων, καὶ νῦν μεταστὰς τῶν ἑωσφόρων τόπων ποίησον ὄρθρον εἰς τὸ πρὸς δύσιν μέρος, καὶ σπεῦσον, εἰ χρή, προφθάσαι τὸν ἥλιον πρὸ τοῦ γενέσθαι τὴν τροπὴν τῆς ἡμέρας, ὅπως σε φρίξῃ πᾶσα βάρβαρος τύχη, καὶ πᾶσα θαυμάσῃ σε χώρα καὶ Πόλις, καὶ πᾶς ὁ κόσμος ἐξ ἀΰλων χρωμάτων ἀειφανεῖ σε ζωγραφήσωσιν τύπῳ, στέφοντες ὑμᾶς ἐκ λόγων τὸ δεύτερον. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν δὴ τῆς ἀνάγκης ὁ χρόνος φράσαι συνεῖδεν ἐμπόνως τὰ ῥήματα, ὁ τῷ λόγῳ δὲ πάντα μορφώσας Λόγος, ὁ πάντα ποιῶν συμφερόντως, ὡς θέλει, τὰς σὰς τυπώσοι καὶ κατευθυνοῖ φρένας, ὡς οἶδεν αὐτός, ὡς νομίζει συμφέρειν, τῶν σῶν δὲ δείξοι σφαλμάτων καθάρσιον ἣν ἀνθ' ὅλων ἔσταξας ἱδρώτων χύσιν. ἀλλ' ὦ παρακμὴ τῶν παρελθουσῶν νόσων μένοις ἅπαντας εἰς ἀνάκτησιν φέρων, καὶ τῷ σε γεννήσαντι τῷ κράτει κράτος. ἐλθεῖν γένοιτο θᾶττον †εἰμηνοδρόμος† [...] τούτου χέοντος τὴν φορὰν τῶν δακρύων [...] τοῦ δευτέραν σοι καὶ θεοπρεπεστέραν γέννησιν ἑλκύσαντος ἐκ πυρὸς δρόσου.