Hymns and Sermons of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Volume 1

Method.

I have followed this method in editing the Syriac text. Whenever I had several codices of one and the same sermon or hymn at hand, I selected one which, at the time of transcription, I judged to be older or of better quality. I transcribed this as accurately as I could, adding the variant readings of other codices which seemed to be of at least some moment, and I conformed the edition to my copy arranged in this way. Yet, wherever the codex appeared faulty in my judgment, I did not hesitate to replace the more accurate reading supplied by other codices in the faulty place, with the reading of the former codex relegated to the bottom of the page.

I have handled many codices by hand, the description of which is provided below. But since those codices do not belong to the same age—some belonging to the fifth or sixth century, others to the eighth or ninth, others being even more recent—and since the scribes who transcribed the codices did not observe the same laws of orthography, it happens that the same orthography, faithfully expressed according to the codices, is not found everywhere in my edition. Indeed, it was sometimes necessary to correct and add punctuation either from other codices or by my own judgment, because in ancient codices the dots have often faded so that they can no longer be read.

Translation.

I have placed a Latin translation alongside the text for the easier use of readers. In composing it, although I thought that the purity and elegance of language should not be neglected, I nonetheless devoted all my care to ensuring that, by adhering closely to the letter, I might faithfully express the sense of the author and preserve his style as much as the nature of any poetry, especially Syriac, allows. Whatever faults in this matter either I or learned men may find will be found corrected at the end of the work. No one learned in Syriac misses how difficult it is to translate Syriac poems, like Hebrew ones, into the Latin language. The difficulty is further increased by the sublimity and conciseness of the Ephremian style, by the frequent wordplay or assonance, and by other ornaments which can scarcely, or barely, be expressed in Latin. The benevolent reader will the more easily forgive errors, if there are any, because Syriac lexicons do not yet provide all the resources that an interpreter could ask of them.

Annotations.

The annotations placed below the text either indicate the passages of Holy Scripture praised by Ephrem, or refer the reader to other works of the Holy Doctor, or explain his doctrine if anything is obscure. For individual sermons and hymns, the codices from which they were excerpted are indicated. In the prolegomena, there is a discussion, as brief as possible, about the writings of Ephrem based on the testimonies of the ancients, about the versions, codices, and editions, and finally about the authenticity and nature of the sermons and hymns which are contained in...