It’s been a little while since I translated a poem from the first book of the Greek Anthology. So here’s another one–a hymn of praise and prayer to Christ. First is the Greek text as found in the Loeb (volume 67), followed by the Loeb translation (in prose) by W.R. Paton as revised by Michael A. Tueller, followed by my metrical translation, which is blank verse and comprises eight lines to the four in Greek.

Σύνθρονε καὶ συνάναρχε τεῷ πατρὶ πνεύματί τ᾽ ἐσθλῷ,

οἰχομένων ὄντων τε καὶ ἐσσομένων βασιλεύων,

τῷ ταῦτα γράψαντι τεὴν χάριν αὐτὸς ὀπάζοις,

ὄφρα κε σῇς ἐφετμῇσι καλῶς βίου οἶμον ὁδεύοι.

The Loeb translation:

You who share a throne and an unbeginning with your father and the good spirit, reigning over those who have departed, those who are, and those who will be, bestow your own grace on him who wrote this, so that, by your precepts, he may travel well the path of life.

Trans. W.R. Paton, rev. by Michael A. Tueller

My metrical translation:

O Fellow-Throned and Fellow-Unbegun,

Whose fellowship is with the Father and

The Holy Spirit, blessèd Trinity,

You who are King and rule in majesty 

The dead, the living, and those yet to come:

Vouchsafe your grace to him who writes these words,

That he, by heeding your commands, may walk

Upon the wholesome path that leads to life.