Ephraim: The Nisibene Hymns
Nisibene Hymn 15: The Head and the Members
If the head had not been upright,
perhaps the members would have murmured;
for when, because of a crooked head,
the course of the members is led astray,
they are accustomed to lay the blame on the head.
Refrain: Blessed be he who chose you, the pride of our people!
If now on one who is wholly good
we lay our hatred,
how much more if we were hateful!
Yes, even against God, though he is kind,
bitter people complain.
Be like the head, O members!
Gain rest in his purity,
and pleasantness in his calm;
in his holiness, renown;
and in his wisdom, learning!
Gain discernment in his mildness,
and chastity in his gravity,
and generosity in his poverty!
As he is wholly and altogether lovely,
let us be altogether lovely with him!
See how measured and weighed
are his words and his actions!
Notice how even his steps
keep the measure of peace!
With all his might he holds the bridle on his whole self.
He was master of his youth;
he bound it in the yoke of chastity;
his members were not enticed by lust,
for they were kept under the rod;
his will he held in subjection.
For he was ready beforehand for his rank,
as he was ready beforehand in his way of life,
as he laid his foundations securely.
He became head in his youth,
when they made him preacher to the people.
Excellent was he among preachers,
learned was he among scholars,
and understanding was he among the wise;
chaste was he among his brothers,
and grave among his close friends.
In two dwellings he was
a solitary recluse from his early days;
for he was holy within his body,
and solitary within his house;
openly and in secret he was chaste.
But although we, my brothers and sisters,
have let those measures go astray,
and have lost that savor,
and have become teachers to ourselves
toward the perfection that called us,
yet that measure of Truth
keeps itself in its vessel;
Truth chose it because she saw it had chosen her;
she has kept in it her fragrance and savor
from the beginning to the end.
The head, both chaste and grave,
who was neither wrathful nor hard,
nor transgressed as we did,
set and kept his own measures,
and put a bridle on his thoughts.
He gave an example in his own person:
that as he kept the measure of his time,
so it was right that we should know our time.
We have become strangers to our time,
for we have been witless in the time of discernment.
At the beginning the blast of the wind
in its might chastens the fruit;
then in the meantime the might of the sun;
but when its mightiness is past,
its end gathers its sweetness.
But we: those who were first chastened us,
and those who came next rebuked us,
and those who were last added sweetness to us;
then, when the time of tasting us arrived,
great was our tastelessness.
For we came to maturity
so that we might wean the children from wildness
and lead them to gravity;
but our old age stood in need
of being rebuked like young men.
So he, in kindness, was patient and did not use force,
so that he might add honor to our old age;
and even if it did not know its rank,
let him be magnified who knew its time!
And if someone says that the multitude
should be governed by force and the rod,
as fear is for the thief,
and threats for the plunderer,
and open shame for fools,
yet if, with the head as first,
the members had hurried to move as second,
they would have drawn along what was third,
and the whole body, from the end,
would have followed after them.
Those who were second despised those who were first,
and those who were third despised those who were second;
the ranks were set at nothing, one by another.
While these within despised one another,
they were trampled down as well by those outside.