St. Symeon New Theologian. Hymn 23

Translated from Greek into Russian and Notes by priest Maxim Michailov

Abstract

For the fi rst time the reader is off ered the poetic translation into Russian of the twenty-third Hymn of the St. Symeon the New Theologian (made on the basis of a prose translation by hieromonk Panteleimon (Uspensky) — the forty-fi rst Hymn). In a heart-to heart talk with a reader and sometimes with God Himself, St. Symeon digs into the mystery of the Divine omnipresence and sets forth the theory of Godvision, explaining it with the help of various analogies. Considering that St. Symeon shares his personal spiritual experience here and not just theorises, it is safe to say that this Hymn is a signifi cant contribution to both a school theology and a church asceticism. From the point of view of poetry the text of the Hymn has many wrinkles and lowlights both in translation and in the original. It seems that deviations from the rhythmic pattern and in general the imperfection of St. Symeon’s poems, which his contemporaries had already talked about, was his principled position, some «foolishness» that only emphasized the superiority of content over form.