John of Gaza – searchable text

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Tabula Mundi 1.1-9, 307-10

Πῆ φέρομαι; πτερόεις με δι᾽ ἠέρος ἔμφρονι ῥοίζῳ
Σειρήνων λιγύφωνος ἄγει θρόος· ἐν δὲ μενοινῇ
Μουσάων πλήκτροισιν ἱμάσσομαι ἄρσενι κέντρῳ,
ἕρπων ξεῖνα κέλευθα, καὶ αἰθέρι πεζὸς ὁδίτης
λύσσαν ἔχων γονόεσσαν ἀείρομαι·

…φύλαξ δέ τις ᾽Ωκεανοῖο
Ἀγγελικῆς στρατιῆς πτερόεις ἀνέτειλεν ἀβύσσου
υἱέος οὐρανίου τεκμήρια χειρὶ κομίζων,
ἀρρήτου σοφίης νοερὸν ξύλον ἔμφρονος ὄζου.

Where am I taken? The Sirens take me through the air
on the crystalline murmur of their winged voice that bursts with meaning;
The Muses fan my desire using their plectrum as a spur
and I tread the foreign paths of the sky, a traveller on foot, raised by a creative transport.

…Ocean’s winged guardian,
belonging to the angelical host, rises from the abyss,
in his hands he brings the symbol of the celestial son,
the noetic wood, the spiritual branch of unspeakable wisdom.

Source

D. Gigli (2011), ‘John of Gaza and the Late Antique Greek Ekphrastic Poetry’, in David Hernández de la Fuente (ed.), New Perspectives on Late Antiquity (Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars), 288-304

Anacreontics 6. 76-80

Γάνυμαι τὰ τερπνὰ πάσχων
ἐσορῶν ἄγαλμα κόσμου
ὑπερουσίῳ φρονήσει,
ὅπερ ἤνυσα ξυνάπτων
νοεροῖς λόγοισι δήσας.

I enjoy feeling pleasure
in admiring with superessential mind
the image of the universe;
I succeed in grasping it
through noetic words.

Source

D. Gigli (2014), ‘Poetic Inspiration in John of Gaza: Emotional Upheaval and Ecstasy in a Neoplatonic Poet’, in K. Spanoudakis (ed.) (2014) Nonnus of Panopolis in Context: Poetry and Cultural Milieu in Late Antiquity with a Section on Nonnus and the Modern World (Berlin/Boston, Walter De Gruyter), 403-20.