Institute of Theology

INTRODUCTION

The Iambic Canon for Pentecost is one of the most difficult in the service books. To begin with there are problems about the author. The Pentecostaria give his name as ‘Kyr John [of] Arklas’ and this is commonly taken to refer to St John of Damascus, largely on the strength of his having written iambic canons for Christmas and Theophany. This identification was questioned quite early and St Mark of Ephesus denies it is by John of Damascus, ‘Another canon by, some say, John of Damascus, but others by Monk John [of] Arklas, to whose view I rally.’

Eustathios of Thessaloniki in the 12^th century notes that the canon differs stylistically from the other two, but nevertheless, after considerable wavering, comes to the conclusion that it is undoubtedly the work of John of Damascus. This leaves unexplained the curious epithet ‘Arklas’. Eustathos implies an etymology based on the word arkla, a non-classical word derived from the Latin arca, or ‘box’ by way of a Latin diminutive arcula. This would appear, in his view, to be some sort of obscure joke. This idea shocks Bartholomew of Koutloumousiou, who edited the current text of the Pentecostarion in 1832, and he suggests a link with another meaning of arkla, namely a sort of watch-tower or turret. This he feels is a suitably honorific epithet for one who was ‘a ever vigilant sentinel and guardian of the traditions of the Fathers against the assaults of heretics’. St Nikodemos defends the attribution to St John of Damascus. Even Lampe’s Patristic Lexicon cannot make up its mind, some entries marking the canon as spurious, others as authentic.

The question remains open. What is not in doubt is that the language of this canon is singularly elaborate and rhetorical and it may be suggested that this is a deliberate stylistic device by the poet, who wishes to underline one of the themes of feast, namely that unlettered fishermen received the gift of tongues and proved themselves more skilful than trained rhetoricians. It abounds in rare poetic words, found mainly in Homer and the tragedians, as well as what appear to be coinages by the poet, famous among which is the composite word of twenty nine letters that occupies all but one iambus in fourth line of the final troparion of Ode 8.

Like St Kosmas, the writer is indebted to St Gregory the Theologian for a number of his ideas and expressions. Many of these are noted by St Nikodemos in his commentary, which is an indispensable tool for anyone who attempts to translate this canon. This is not an easy canon to translate and the following version is only tentative. The version published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, apart from being written in an American variety of that curious dialect of English that can only be described as ‘Ortho-speak’, is marred by a number of elementary errors in the construing of the Greek. To some of these I draw attention in the notes.

The acrostic is particularly elaborate, consisting as it does, of the first letter of each line of each troparion. This makes it clear that the canon originally had all nine odes, since ten lines, indicated in the acrostic, are missing between odes one and three. I have not attempted to reproduce the acrostic, nor to render the Greek iambics by English ones. I have, on the other hand, kept the five line arrangement of the troparia.

The notes are not in any way intended as commentary, but simply draw attention to some of the many interesting features of this remarkable composition.

THE CANON

In Iambics, whose acrostic is contained in the following elegiac couplets:

Only-begotten of God, from the heart of the Father you sent to
Those upon earth once again an Advocate, Spirit divine,
Bringing, in tongues made of fire, of the pure, immaterial Godhead,
Sign of your nature and grace for those who are minstrels of praise.

A Composition of Kyr John Arklas.

Ode 1. Tone 4. Irmos.

The slow of tongue¹, covered in divine darkness,
Proclaimed the law written by God;
For shaking the dust from his mind’s eye,
He sees the One Who Is, and is initiated
Into knowledge of the Spirit, as he gives praise with songs inspired.

Troparia

The revered and august mouth spoke,
’For you my friends there will be no absence.
For I, once seated with him on my Father’s lofty throne,
Will pour out the copious grace of the Spirit
To shine on those who yearn’.

The firm Definition², most precise Word,
Brings calm perfection to the heart;
For, his work accomplished, Christ gladdened his friends,
With a mighty wind and tongues of fire,
Apportioning the Spirit, as he had promised.

Ode 3. Irmos.

Only the prayer of Anna, the prophetess
Of old, who brought a broken spirit
To the Mighty One and God of knowledge,
Broke the fetters of a childless womb
And the harsh insult of one with many children.

Troparia

Inapprehensible is the Godhead;
For it revealed the unlettered to be orators,
Bridling the mouths of sophists in abundance³ with a word,
And raising from deep night
Unnumbered peoples by the Spirit’s lightning flash.

From the unbegotten Light proceeded
The imperishable Splendour, illuminating with almighty operation⁴,
Whose fiery sound in Sion now reveals
To the nations the consubstantial beacon
Of the Father’s authority through the Son.

Ode 4. Irmos.

Monarch of monarchs, Alone⁵ from the Alone,
Word issuing from the Father who has no cause,
As Benefactor you have unerringly sent out
To the Apostles your Spirit, equal in strength,
As they sing, ‘Glory to your might, O Lord!’

Troparia.

Having by a word mixed the divine bath of rebirth
With a compounded nature,
You rain down upon me a stream from your immaculate,
Pierced side, O Word of God,
Sealing me with the fervour of the Spirit⁶.

All things bend the knee to the Advocate,
To the Offspring of the Father, to the consubstantial Father;
For they know unerringly⁷ in three Persons
One, unapproachable, timeless Essence;
For the grace of the Spirit has caused light to shine.

As many as are worshippers of the Essence with Triple Light,
Be all of you made perfect by the Godhead.
For, as our Benefactor, Christ gives perfect supernaturally
And lights a fiery torch⁸ for our salvation,
Furnishing all the grace of the Spirit.

Ode 5. Irmos.

O light-formed children of the Church,
Receive the Spirit’s fire-breathing dew,
A redeeming purification of offences;
For now a law has gone out from Sion,
The torch-tongue-formed grace of the Spirit.

Troparia

As he was well-pleased of his own authority
The un-mastered Spirit comes down from the Father,
Making the Apostles wise with tongues,
Might of the Father, one in form, setting the seal
Upon the life-bearing word, which⁹ the Saviour spoke.

God the Word, all-sovereign, healed the minds
Of the Apostles of sin, and made ready
An immaculate dwelling for himself;
Now the light of the Spirit dwells in them,
Equal in strength and consubstantial.

Ode 6. Irmos.

As pardon and salvation for us,
Christ, our Master, you shone from the Virgin,
That like the prophet Jonas from the belly
Of the sea beast, you might snatch from corruption
The whole fallen race of Adam.

Troparia

Almighty, renew a cherished, a right Spirit
Within us, to hold it eternally,
Who is ever united and proceeding from the Father,
Purging hateful matter, burning¹⁰
Defilements and filth of minds.

For the Apostles who awaited your coming
In Sion you establish with fiery wind
A longed for dignity, O Spirit,
Knowledge of the Word begotten of the Father,
Swiftly exposing the harsh chatter of the nations’ cajoleries¹¹.

Ode 7.

Harmonious melody of instruments decreed
Reverence to the lifeless idol¹² wrought of gold.
But the Advocate’s life-bearing grace
Inspires with reverence to cry, ‘Only Trinity,
Equal in strength, without beginning, blessed are you!’

Troparia

Fools did not recognise the voice spoken of
In prophecy, called it drunkenness wrought of wine¹³,
When the strange sayings of the Apostles were heard¹⁴.
We, the devout, inspired by God, cry out to you,
’Renewer of the universe, blessed are you!’

The seer Joel, inspired by God, thundered an oracle
Of the divine Word, who said,
’Those on whom I pour my Spirit
Will cry out together, "Nature,
Shining-with-threefold-splendour¹⁵, blessed are you!"’

The third hour was blessed with grace,
To indicate that we should worship
Three Persons in singleness of authority;
But now on the one Lord¹⁶ of days,
Son, Father, Spirit, blessed are you!

Ode 8.

The triple radiant type of Godhead’s source
Looses the bonds and turns the flame to dew;
Youths give praise; while all created nature
Blesses the only Saviour and Creator
Of all as Benefactor.

Troparia

Coming to rest in appearance like-fiery-tongues,
The Spirit, caused remembrance of the mortal-saving words
Which Christ, heard-as-from-the-Father¹⁷, spoke
To the Apostles. Creation, once estranged,
Now reconciled, sings of you as blessed.

As Saviour, coming of his own authority,
Light shining of itself and provider of light,
You sent¹⁸ to the Apostles, bringing himself
As a precious wind. While to your servants
You distribute the Spirit so earnestly prayed for.

The spirit-filled mouth of Prophets sang
Of your sojourning, high Lord, in bodily form.
And your Spirit proceeding from the Father’s bosom,
Uncreated-cofashioning-cothroned,
You send to believers for the worship of the incarnation.

Ode 9.

Hail, Queen, glory of virgins and mothers;
For every mouth fluent and eloquent
With oratory has not the strength to sing you worthily;
But every mind is dizzy when it seeks to understand
Your giving birth; therefore with one accord we glorify you.

Troparia.

It is right to tell of the Maiden who produced life;
For she alone concealed in the vortex¹⁹ of her womb
The Word, who heals the sick nature of mortals.
Now seated on the throne at the right hand
Of the Father, he has sent the grace of the Spirit.

On as many as the grace which flows from God has breathed,
Resplendent, dazzling, transformed
With a strange, most glorious transformation,
We have come to know the Essence of equal might, indivisible,
Wise, of triple radiance; and we give It glory.

1. The word used of Moses in the Septuagint.
2. This phrase is from St Gregory the Theologian. In his Theological Oration On The Son he says, ‘One could perhaps say that the Son’s relationship is that of definition to term defined, since ’word’ has the meaning in Greek of ’definition’. … The Son is the concise and simple revelation of the Father’s nature’. The only other English versions I have seen, not realising this, mistranslate. That of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery [HTM] even violates elementary Greek grammar.
3. HTM again perpetrates an elementary howler, translating the adverb halis as though it were halos, ‘of the sea’.
4. A hapax.
5. This again is an allusion to one of St Gregory the Theologian’s theological poems. HTM again disregards both spelling and grammar.
6. The phrase used as the zeon is poured into the chalice in the earlier, and more correct, text of the Liturgy.
7. HTM, which apparently regards neuter and feminine as the same thing, mistranslate this adverb.
8. This verb is a hapax, though it is not listed in Lampe.
9. HTM here treat masculine and neuter as the same and therefore mistranslate.
10. Pace HTM, this adjective, which is genitive plural, qualifies ‘defilements’, not ‘Spirit’, which is neuter singular.
11. An onomatopoeic word used to describe the smacking of the lips. It passes as such into Latin. Lampe’s reference to ‘barbarian speech’ slightly misses the point, I think. The word is used, for example by St Theodore the Studite, to describe the sort of noises used to attract a unbroken horse.
12. A rare, poetic, word meaning strictly a ‘wooden idol’ and used colloquially of a ‘blockhead’.
13. There is an intentional play on ‘wrought of gold’ in the previous troparion.
14. The verb is a hapax, literally ‘to strange-hear’, but Lampe cites an emendation which removes it.
15. In Greek trissophengophotos. One of the many compound coinages in the canon.
16. A play on the Greek for ‘Sunday’, Kyriaki, or ‘Lord’s Day’. Since ‘day’ in Greek is feminine, the word used is ‘Lady’, but in English this would obscure the point.
17. Another hapax.
18. As St Nikodemos points out, this troparion is addressed to Christ. The verb here is from the irregular verb ‘to send’, not the verb ‘to have come’, as HTM seem to think. The difficulty in translation is that the poet also wants to assert the ‘independence’ of the Spirit. He is ‘sent’, but acts on his own authority.
19. The word means an ‘eddy’ or ‘whirlpool’. HTM’s ‘vault’ is singularly inapposite.

This Translation © Archimandite Ephrem, 1997

• < Prev
• Next >