Salutation / Introduction

Have in love required of me to tell of their illustrious deeds.

To champions of the faith the doctrine calleth me,

That I should go and behold their contests and their crowns.

Children of the right hand, who have done battle against the left,

Have called me this day to recite the marvellous tale of their conflicts:—

Simple old men, who entered into the fight like heroes,

And nobly distinguished themselves in the strife of blood:

Those who were the salt of our land, and it was sweetened thereby,

And its savour was restored, which had become insipid through unbelief:

Candlesticks of gold, which were full of the oil of the crucifixion,

By which was lighted up all our region, which had turned to darkness:

Two lamps, of which, when all the winds were blowing

Of every kind of error, the lights were not put out;

Good labourers, who from the spring of day laboured

In the blessed vineyard of the house of God right duteously:

Bulwarks of our land, who became to us as it were a defence

Against all spoilers in all the wars that surrounded us:

Havens of peace, a place also of retreat for all that were distressed,

And a resting-place for the head of every one that was in need of succour:

Two precious pearls, which were

An ornament for the bride of my lord Abgar, the Aramæan’s son.

Teachers they were who practised their teaching in blood,

And whose faith was known by their sufferings.

On their bodies they wrote the story of the Son of God

With the marks of combs and scourges which thickly covered them.

They showed their love, not by words of the mouth alone,

But by tortures and by the rending of their limbs asunder.

For the love of the Son of God they gave up their bodies:

Since it beseemeth the lover that for his love he should give up himself.

Fire and sword proved their love, how true it was;

And more beautiful than silver tried in a furnace of earth were their necks.

They looked on God, and, because they saw His exalted beauties,

Therefore did they look with contempt upon their sufferings for His sake.

The Sun of righteousness had arisen in their hearts;

And they were enlightened by it, and with His light chased they away the darkness.

At the idols of vanity, which error had brought in, they laughed,

Instinct with the faith of the Son of God which is full of light.

The love of the Lord was as a fire in their hearts;

Nor could all the brambles of idolatry stand before it.

Fixed was their love on God unchangeably:

And therefore did they look with scorn upon the sword, all athirst as it was for blood.

With guilelessness and yet with wisdom stood they in the judgment-hall,

As they had been commanded by the Teacher of that which is true.

Despising as they did kindred and family, guileless were they;

Forasmuch, also, as possessions and wealth were held in no account by them.

Nor guileless only:  for in the judgment-hall with the wisdom of serpents too

They were heedful of the faith of the house of God.

When a serpent is seized and struck, he guards his head,

But gives up and leaves exposed all his body to his captors:

And, so long as his head is kept from harm, his life abideth in him;

But, if the head be struck, his life is left a prey to destruction.

The head of the soul is men’s faith;

And, if this be preserved unharmed, by it is also preserved their life:

Even though the whole body be lacerated with blows,

Yet, so long as faith is preserved, the soul is alive;

But, if faith is struck down by unbelief,

Lost is the soul, and life has perished from the man.

Shamuna and Guria of the faith as men

Were heedful, that it should not be struck down by persecutors:

For they knew that, if faith is preserved,

Both soul and body are preserved from destruction.

And, because of this, touching their faith were they solicitous,

That that should not be struck down in which their very life was hidden.

They gave up their bodies both to blows and to dislocation,

Yea to every kind of torture, that their faith should not be stricken down;

And, even as the serpent also hides his head from blows,

So hid they their faith within their hearts;

And the body was smitten, and endured stripes, and bore sufferings:

But overthrown was not their faith which was within their hearts.

The mouth betrayeth the soul to death when it speaks,

And with the tongue, as with a sword, worketh slaughter.

And from it spring up both life and death to men:

Denying a man dies, confessing he lives, and the mouth hath power over it.

Denial is death, and in confession is the soul’s life;

And power hath the mouth over them both, like a judge.

The word of the mouth openeth the door for death to enter in;

This, too, calleth for life, and it beameth forth upon the man.

Even the robber by one word of faith

Won him the kingdom, and became heir of paradise, all fraught with blessings.

The wicked judges too, from the martyrs, the sons of the right hand,

Demanded that by word of mouth only they should blaspheme;

But, like true men holding fast the faith,

They uttered not a word by which unbelief might be served.

Shamuna, beauty of our faith, who is adequate to tell of thee?

All too narrow is my mouth for thy praise, too mean for thee to be spoken of by it.

Thy truth is thy beauty, thy crown thy suffering, thy wealth thy stripes,

And by reason of thy blows magnificent is the beauty of thy championship.

Proud of thee is our country, as of a treasury which is full of gold:

Since wealth art thou to us, and a coveted store which cannot be stolen from us.

Guria, martyr, staunch hero of our faith,

Who shall suffice thee, to recount thy beauties divine?

Lo! tortures on thy body are set like gems of beryl,

And the sword on thy neck like a chain of choice gold.

Thy blood upon thy form is a robe of glory full of beauty,

And the scourging of thy back a vesture with which the sun may not compare.

Radiant thou art and comely by virtue of these thy sufferings, so abounding;

And resplendent are thy beauties, because of the pains which are so severe upon thee.

Shamuna, our riches, richer art thou than the rich: