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or do you bear me naked against my adversary? These things you yourself, O Lord, dispense, O Word. But I draw my last small breath above the earth. I have emptied all my tears, and groaning has become my task. How long shall we lie in the hands of the impious? But, O blessed one, establish me, even if I am wicked, yet a priest, lest anyone should stumble because of our woes. 1287 My boast is gone, and may the pains of my flesh be gone too. Anastasia is gone; cease also, O sin. Alas, alas, my tears are poured down, my heart within is frozen; restrain a double sickness, O Lord; restrain the sickness, O Lord, we are utterly lost. Has then pity been shut off from your servant Gregory alone? I have been wounded by many evils and pains of the flesh; but to you, O Christ, be thanks, who test me with fiery sufferings. Either stop the evil, and be gracious to your servant, or grant to my suffering soul to bear all things. 28. Elegiac. Blessed is he who has a fleshless life, and has not clothed the great image with intermingled mire. 1288 Little by necessity follows heavenly thoughts, but more opposes them, and it is a darkness for the mind. If I am of a transient race, why do you liken me to the immortals? If I was breathed from God, why, O Christ, do you bear me bound in clay? Old age has come, and my limbs are feeble; but my flesh still has a madness, rising up openly or in ambush; and the more grievous thing is when it presents the initiate of the heavenly sacrifices as not pure. I adjure you by the great might of God, and by the dark day of sinners, refrain from madness. 29. On Patience. Since you strike me as I suffer with sickness, hear a few words, and receive instruction. 1289 For me to be sick is better than for you to be strong. For I know I am tested by sickness, although I am appointed to purify the wicked, even if there is some mystery greater than the suffering. For it is better to think thus, than, being befouled, to harm myself in empty arrogance. But you, being most wicked, do not even understand the sickness; truly you ought to have poured out many tears to God, that you might cut out your sickness before you die. For if the light is like this, how great is the darkness? 1290

30. On Himself. Truly many, many things happen to mortals in a long life. but all is endurable,

whatever God may bring, who turns life about. For as to the struggles I had in a foreign city, bringing my tongue as an ally to the fallen Word, I shall praise others for telling. And many tell of them, strangers, and friends of the faith venerable to me. For nothing ever so shook the whole earth as the boldness of the Spirit when God was proclaimed; which He has also made difficult for His friends, we know. 1291 And to you, O Blessed One, very great thanks for the good dishonor. For what more inglorious than this could a mortal suffer? But what I found here, not expecting it, I myself will tell to my friends, so that they may learn easily to bear the struggles of envy. For there was of old a saying of God, most beautiful, as is fitting for God, that every prophet seems honorable only to strangers, but what is familiar is often without honor. And I have now clearly suffered this, and more. For when I came, having left the seat of a foreign land, and gladly my fatherland and my sweet people I saw, a pallor came over the Ark, the only one to escape the flood of a world well-destroyed. 1292 For this (people), when the right doctrine had almost failed, my great father secretly saved by the wood, making it a worshiper of the whole Trinity. This (people), laboring with anarchy, like a ship in the deep bereft of a helmsman, tossed by the surge of the greatest evils, I wished (let everyone stone me, as one best suited for stones from of old), for I wished to push it from the deep with a pilot's hand, one whom I knew to be most resistant to the blasts, although he had newly received power over finances. These things I wished; but envy, hostile to good things, blew against what had been so very well decided. First, those who held the second places of the thrones, 1293 the presiding elders of the people, the venerable council, have shown themselves not good to us. Who hoped for this? For some, controlled by a small remnant of shame, were two-bodied and two-colored, like certain tunics, outwardly with us, but inwardly badly compacted, to whom there is also the grace of concealment, foolish as they are to wish for it. For manifest slavery is worse than dishonor. But others are not secretly hostile, but all too openly so,

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ἤ με φέρεις γυμνὸν ἐπ' ἀντιπάλῳ; Ταῦτα μὲν αὐτὸς, ἄναξ, νωμᾷς, Λόγε. Αὐτὰρ ἔγωγε Βαιὸν ὑπὲρ γαίης ἆσθμα φέρω πύματον. ∆άκρυα πάντ' ἐκένωσα, γόος δέ μοι ἔργον ἐτύχθη. Μέχρι τίνος παλάμαις κείμεθ' ἐν ἀσεβέων; Ἀλλὰ, μάκαρ, στῆσόν με, καὶ εἰ κακὸν, ἀλλ' ἱερῆα, Μή τις ὀλισθήσῃ πήμασιν ἡμετέροις. 1287 Ὤλετο εὖχος ἔμοιγε, καὶ ἄλγεα σαρκὸς ὄλοιτο. Οἴχετ' Ἀναστασίη, λῆγε καὶ, ἀμπλακίη. Αἲ αἲ δάκρυά μοι καταλείβεται, ἔνδοθεν ἦτορ Παχνοῦται· διπλὴν νοῦσον ἐπίσχες, ἄναξ· Νοῦσον ἐπίσχες, ἄναξ, διολώλαμεν. Ἦ ἄρα μούνῳ Οἶκτος ἀπεκλείσθη σῷ λάτρι Γρηγορίῳ; Τέτρωμαι πολλοῖσι κακοῖς καὶ ἄλγεσι σαρκός· Σοὶ δὲ, Χριστὲ, χάρις, ὅς με πυροῖς πάθεσιν. Ἢ στῆσον κακότητα, καὶ ἵλαθι σῷ θεράποντι, Ἢ τὸ δίδου θυμῷ τλήμονι πάντα φέρειν. ΚΗʹ. Ἐλεγειακόν. Ὄλβιος ὅστις ἄσαρκον ἔχει βίον, οὐδ' ἐπίμικτον Εἰκόνι τῇ μεγάλῃ βόρβορον ἀμφέθετο. 1288 Παῦρα μὲν οὐρανίοισι νοήμασιν ἕσπετ' ἀνάγκῃ, Πλείονα δ' ἀντιάει, καὶ ζόφος ἐστὶ νόου. Εἰ ῥοίης γένος εἰμὶ, τί μ' ἀθανάτοισιν ἐΐσκεις, Εἰ πνεύσθην θεόθεν, τίπτε με πηλόδετον, Χριστὲ, φέρεις; γῆρας μὲν ἔβη, καὶ ἅψε' ἀκιδνά· Ἡ δ' ἔτι λύσσαν ἔχει σὰρξ ἐπανισταμένη Ἀμφαδὸν, ἢ λοχόωσα· τὸ δ' ἄλγιον, ὁππότε μύστην Οὐρανίων θυέων μὴ καθαρὸν παρέχει. Ὁρκίζω σε Θεοῖο μέγα κράτος, ἠδὲ κελαινὸν Ἦμαρ ἀλιτροβίων, ἴσχεο μαργοσύνης. ΚΘʹ. Εἰς τὴν ὑπομονήν. Ἐπεί με βάλλεις τῇ νόσῳ πονούμενον, Μικροῖς λόγοις ἄκουε, καὶ παίδευμ' ἔχε. 1289 Ἐμοὶ τὸ κάμνειν κρεῖσσον, ἢ σοὶ τὸ σθένειν. Ἐγὼ μὲν οἶδα τῇ νόσῳ πυρούμενος, Καίπερ καθαίρειν τοὺς κακοὺς τεταγμένος, Κἂν ᾖ τι μεῖζον τοῦ πάθους μυστήριον. Φρονεῖν γὰρ οὕτω λῷον, ἢ ῥυπῶντά τι Βλάπτειν ἐμαυτὸν ἐν κενῷ φρυάγματι. Σὺ δ' ὢν κάκιστος, οὐδ' ἐπίστη τὴν νόσον· Ἦ πόλλ' ἔδει σε δάκρυα σπεῖσαι Θεῷ, Ἵν' ἐκτέμῃς σου τὴν νόσον, πρὶν ἂν θάνῃς. Εἰ γὰρ τὸ φῶς τοιοῦτο, τὸ σκότος πόσον; 1290

Λʹ. Εἰς ἑαυτόν. Ἦ πολλὰ, πολλὰ γίνεται Μακρῷ βίῳ βροτοῖς. τλητὸν δ' ἄπαν,

ὅ κεν φέροι Βίον στρέφων Θεός. Ἐγὼ γὰρ, ἃς μὲν ἔσχον ἐν Ξένῃ πόλει πάλας, Λόγῳ πεσόντι σύμμαχον Γλῶσσαν φέρων ἐμὴν, Ἄλλους λέγοντας αἰνέσω. Πολλοὶ λέγουσι δὲ, Ξένοι, φίλοι τε πίστεως Ἐμοὶ σεβασμίας. Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτως οὔποτε Ὅλην ἔσεισε γῆν Ὡς Πνεύματος παῤῥησία Θεοῦ βοωμένου· Ὃ καὶ προσάντη τοῖς φίλοις Τέθεικεν, οἴδαμεν. 1291 Καὶ σοὶ, Μάκαρ, πλείστη χάρις Καλῆς ἀτιμίας. Ταύτης γὰρ αὐκλεέστερον Τί ἂν πάθοι βροτός; Ἃ δ' ἐνθάδ' εὗρον οὐ δοκῶν, Αὐτὸς φράσω φίλοις, Ὡς ἂν μάθωσιν εὐκόλως Φέρειν φθόνου πάλας. Θεοῦ μὲν ἦν λόγος πάλαι Κάλλιστος, ὡς Θεοῦ, Πάντα προφήτην τίμιον Ξένοις μόνοις δοκεῖν, Τὸ γνώριμον δὲ ἄτιμον Ὡς πολλὰ τυγχάνειν. Ἐγὼ δὲ τοῦτο, καὶ πλέον, Πέπονθα νῦν σαφῶς. Ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἡκόμην, ξένης Λιπὼν ἕδος χθονὸς, Καὶ γῆν πατρῴαν ἀσμένως Λαόν τε τὸν γλυκὺν Ὡς εἶδον, ὦχ' ὑπέδραμε Κιβωτὸς, ἡ μόνη Κόσμου φυγοῦσ' ἐπίκλυσιν Καλῶς ὀλωλότος. 1292 Καὶ τὸν γὰρ, ἐκλελοιπότος Ὀρθοῦ λόγου σχεδὸν, Ὑπεξέκλεψε τῷ ξύλῳ Μέγας πατὴρ ἐμὸς, Ὅλης ὅλον τῆς Τριάδος Λάτριν καταστήσας. Τοῦτον κάμνοντ' ἀναρχίᾳ, Ναῦν ὥς τιν' ἐν βυθοῖς Ἔρημον οἰακοστρόφου, Σερεβλούμενον ζάλῃ Κακῶν μεγίστων, ἤθελον (Λιθαζέτω με πᾶς, Ὡς ἐκ παλαιοῦ τοῖς λίθοις Ἄριστ' ἡρμοσμένον), Ὦσαι βυθοῦ γὰρ ἤθελον Κυβερνήτου χερὶ, Ὃν ταῖς πνοαῖς ἠπιστάμην Μάλιστ' ἀντιστάτην, Καίπερ νεωστὶ χρημάτων Κράτος δεδεγμένον. Τάδ' ἤθελον μέν· ὁ φθόνος ∆' ἀντίξοος καλοῖς, Ὃς ἀντέπνευσε τοῖς καλῶς Ἄγαν δεδογμένοις. Πρῶτον μὲν οἱ τὰ δεύτερα Θρόνων λελογχότες, 1293 Λαοῦ πρόεδροι πρεσβύται, Σεμνὴ γερουσία, Πεφήνασ' ἡμῖν οὐ καλοί. Τίς ἤλπισε τόδε; Οἱ μὲν γὰρ αἰδοῦς λειψάνῳ Βραχεῖ κρατούμενοι, ∆ισώματοι καὶ δίχροοι, Χιτῶνες ὥς τινες, Ἐκτὸς πρὸς ἡμῶν, ἔνδοθεν Κακῶς πεπηγότες, Οἷς καὶ χάρις τοῦ λανθάνειν, Ὡς ἄφρονας, θέλειν Ἡ γὰρ πρόδηλος δουλεία Χείρων ἀπιμίας. Οἱ δ' οὐ λάθρα δυσμενεῖς, Ἀλλ' ἐκφανεῖς ἄγαν,