40. What sayest thou, my father? Is this sufficient, and dost thou find an ample recompense for all thy toils, which thou didst undergo for my learning, in this eulogy of farewell or of entombment? And dost thou, as of old, impose silence on my tongue, and bid me stop in due time, and so avoid excess? Or dost thou require some addition? I know thou bidst me cease, for I have said enough. Yet suffer me to add this. Make known to us where thou art in glory, and the light which encircles thee, and receive into the same abode thy partner soon to follow thee, and the children whom thou hadst laid to rest before thee, and me also, after no further, or but a slight addition to the ills of this life: and before reaching that abode receive me in this sweet stone,84 Stone, i.e. the tomb in which his father was buried. which thou didst erect for both of us, to the honour even here of thy consecrated namesake, and excuse me from the care both of the people which I have already resigned,85 Which I have resigned, i.e., Sasima. Accepted, i.e., Nazianzus. and of that which for thy sake I have since accepted: and mayest thou guide and free from peril, as I earnestly entreat, the whole flock and all the clergy, whose father thou art said to be, but especially him who was overpowered by thy paternal and spiritual coercion, so that he may not entirely consider that act of tyranny obnoxious to blame.
Μʹ. Τί φῂς, ὦ πάτερ; ἱκανὰ ταῦτα, καὶ ἀπέχεις τῶν πόνων τὰς ἀμοιβὰς, οὓς ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐμοῖς λόγοις ἐμόχθησας, τὸν εἴτε προπεμπτήριον, εἴτ' ἐπιτάφιον τοῦτον ἔπαινον; καὶ δίδως εἰρήνην τῷ λόγῳ, τὸν παλαιὸν τρόπον, κἀνταῦθα τοῦτον ὁρίζεις, φεύγων τὸν κόρον, ὡς ἂν εἴη σύμμετρος; ἢ τίνα προσθήκην ἐπιζητεῖς; Ὁρίζεις, οἶδ' ὅτι: καὶ γὰρ αὐτάρκης. Ἐκεῖνο δὲ προσθεῖναι συγχώρησον: Γνώρισον ἡμῖν ποῦ ποτε εἶ δόξης, καὶ τὸ περὶ σὲ φῶς, καὶ τὴν σὴν μετ' ὀλίγον ὁμόζυγα, καὶ τῶν τέκνων, ἃ προκατέθαψας: κἀμὲ ταῖς αὐταῖς δέξαι σκηναῖς, ἢ μηδὲν ἔτι, ἢ μικρὰ τῷ βίῳ τούτῳ κακοπαθήσοντα: καὶ πρὸ τῶν σκηνῶν, τῷ γλυκεῖ λίθῳ τούτῳ, ὃν ἀμφοτέροις ἔστησας, τιμῶν κἀνταῦθα τὸν σὸν ἱερὸν καὶ ὁμώνυμον: καὶ τοῦ λόγου συγγνώμην ἔχε, τοῦ τε παρεθέντος, καὶ τοῦ προσληφθέντος σὴν χάριν. Καὶ διεξάγοις ἀκινδύνως, μάλιστα μὲν ἅπασαν ποίμνην καὶ πάντας ἀρχιερέας, ὧν ἐκλήθης πατὴρ, ἐξαιρέτως δὲ τὸν ὑπὸ σοῦ βιασθέντα, καὶ τυραννηθέντα πατρικῶς τε καὶ πνευματικῶς, ὡς ἂν μὴ πάντα σε μεμφοίμην τῆς τυραννίδος.