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to angels. But however anyone is disposed, he will not harm my life, nor even help it. I will be humbled before God. But let tongues flow by me like empty breezes. And I have had my fill of these things, struck by many slanders, and by many outstanding praises. I seek to inhabit a certain solitude away from evils, where for me the divine, sought by the mind alone, and a light hope of the things above, is the nourisher of my old age. But to the churches what shall we give? The tear. For to this God has also brought me, twisting my life with many turns— where will it go? tell me, O Word of God; into the unshaken dwelling, I pray, where is my Trinity and the blended light, by whose shadows we are now dimly lifted up.

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ἀγγέλοις. ἐμοῦ δ', ὅπως ἔχει τις, οὐ βλάψει βίον, ἀλλ' οὐδ' ὀνήσει. συσταλήσομαι θεῷ. γλῶσσαι δέ μοι ῥείτωσαν ὡς αὖραι κεναί. καὶ τῶν κόρος μοι πολλὰ μὲν δυσφημίαις βληθέντι, πολλὰ δ' ἐξόχοις εὐφημίαις. ζητῶ τιν' οἰκεῖν ἐκ κακῶν ἐρημίαν, οὗ μοι τὸ θεῖον νῷ μόνῳ ζητούμενον ἐλπίς τε κούφη τῶν ἄνω γηροτρόφος. ἐκκλησίαις δὲ τί δώσομεν; τὸ δάκρυον. εἰς τοῦτο γάρ με καὶ συνήγαγεν θεός πολλαῖς ἑλίσσων τὴν ἐμὴν ζωὴν στροφαῖς- ἣ ποῖ προβήσετ'; εἰπέ μοι, θεοῦ λόγε· εἰς τὴν ἄσειστον εὔχομαι κατοικίαν, ἔνθα τριάς μου καὶ τὸ σύγκρατον σέλας, ἧς νῦν ἀμυδρῶς ταῖς σκιαῖς ὑψούμεθα.