St. Ephrem the Syrian
The first year of our Redeemer’s birth
is the source of blessings and foundation of life.
For by it are borne a multitude of victories
and the sum of helps.
As the first day “in the beginning”
the great pillar of the creation
bears the building of the creation,
so the first-born day bears the help for humanity.
In the second year of our Redeemer’s birth
the Magi are glad, the Pharisees are gloomy,
treasures are opened, kings are hastening,
and infants are slain.
For in it are offered in Bethlehem
desirable and fearful gifts.
For love offered gold,
but envy offered infants by the sword.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
The day of the All-Illuminating is glad at His birth.
It is a pillar of rays that pursues with its beams
the works of darkness in a type of that day
on which the light was created
and tore away the darkness
spread over the beauty of creation.
The ray of our Redeemer’s birth
entered and tore away the darkness upon the heart.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
The first day, the source and beginning,
is a type of the root that germinated everything.
Much greater than it is our Redeemer’s day planted in the universe.
For His death is like a root inside the earth,
His resurrection like the summit in heaven,
His words extend in every direction like branches,
and like His fruit is His body for those who eat it.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
Let the second day sing praise on the birth
of the Son, the Second, and the Voice of the First.
He commanded the firmament and it came into existence;
He divided the waters from above,
and He gathered the seas below.
He Who separated the waters from the waters
separated from the Watchers and came down to humankind.
Instead of the waters He commanded and they were gathered,
He let flow a source of water and gave it to drink.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
Let the third day weave with hymns
a crown of psalms and offer it with one voice
for the birth of Him Who made flowers and blossoms grow
on the third day.
But now He Who makes all things grow,
came down and became a Holy Blossom.
From the thirsty earth He sprouted, and He went up
to adorn and crown the victorious.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
Let the fourth day confess fourfold
the birth of Him Who created on the fourth day
the pair of luminaries that fools worship
and they are blind and unseeing.
He, the Lord of the luminaries, came down,
and like the sun He shone on us from the womb.
His radiances have opened the eyes of the blind;
His rays have enlightened the straying.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
Let the fifth day praise Him Who created
on the fifth day creeping things and dragons
of whose kind is the serpent.
He deceived and led astray our mother,
a young girl without understanding.
Since the deceiver mocked the young girl,
the fraudulent one was exposed by the Dove
Who shone forth and emerged from an innocent womb,
the Wise One, Who crushed the crafty one.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
Let the sixth day praise Him Who created
on Friday Adam whom the evil one envied.
As a false friend he pleased him
by offering him poison in his food.
The Medicine of Life diffused Himself to them both.
He put on a body and was offered to them both.
The mortal tasted Him and lived by Him;
the devourer who ate Him was destroyed.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
Let the seventh day cry “holy” to the Holy One
Who sanctified the Sabbath to give rest to living beings.
The untiring Gracious One took care of humanity and He took care of animals.
Since freedom fell under the yoke,
He came to the birth and was subjected to free it.
He was struck by a servant’s slap in the court.
As Lord, He broke the yoke upon the free.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
Let the eighth day that circumcised the Hebrews
confess Him Who commanded His namesake Joshua
to circumcise with flint the People whose body was circumcised
but whose heart was unbelieving from within.
Behold on the eighth day as a babe
The Circumciser of all came to circumcision.
Although the sign of Abraham was on His flesh,
the blind daughter of Sion has disfigured it.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
Let the tenth day praise its number
for yodh, the letter of the fair name of Jesus,
in counting its ten.
This number that is like a Lord
reverses the numbers.
For whenever counting goes up to ten,
it goes back to begin again from one again.
O great mystery that is in the name Jesus
Whose power turns Creation back again!
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
The First-born, Purifier of all, on the day of His purifying
purified the purification of the first-born and was offered.
The Lord of offering was in need of offerings
to make an offering of a bird.
By His birth were completed the archetypes:
He came and paid the debts by His descent;
by His resurrection He ascended and sent treasures.
Blessed is Your birth that makes all Creation glad!
Ephrem the Syrian (c.306-373): Twenty-Sixth Hymn of the Nativity from Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns, translated by Kathleen McVey, preface by John Meyendorff [Paulist Press, 1989])
