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Hymns, I 1-4; 21-29

Τί τό φρικτόν μυστήριον, ὅ ἐν ἐμοί τελεῖται;
Λόγος ἐκφράζειν οὐδαμῶς ἰσχύει, οὐδέ γράφειν
ἡ χείρ μου ἡ ταλαίπωρος εἰς ἔπαινον καί δόξαν
τοῦ ὄντος ὑπέρ ἔπαινον, τοῦ ὄντος ὑπέρ λόγον. […]

Ἐν τούτῳ καί ἡ γλῶσσά μου ἐξαπορεῖ ῥημάτων
καί τά τελούμενα ὁ νοῦς ὁρᾷ, οὐχ ἑρμηνεύει˙
βλέπει καί βούλεται εἰπεῖν καί λόγον οὐχ εὑρίσκει˙
ἀόρατα γάρ καθορᾷ, ἀνείδεα εἰς ἅπαν,
ἁπλᾶ, πάντῃ ἀσύνθετα, ἄπειρα τῷ μεγέθει.
Οὔτε ἀρχήν γάρ καθορᾷ, οὐ τέλος ὅλως βλέπει;
Ἀνακεφαλαιούμενον ὅλον, δοκῶ, ὁρᾶται˙
οὐ τῇ οὐσίᾳ πάντως δέ, ἀλλά τῇ μετουσίᾳ.
Ἐκ τοῦ πυρός ἀνάπτεις γάρ καί πῦρ ὅλον λαμβάνεις …

What is this awesome mystery that is taking place within me?
I can find no words to express it:
My poor hand is unable to capture it,
In describing the praise and glory that belong
To the One who is above all praise,
And who transcends every word […]

Here my tongue does not find any words.
My intellect sees what has happened,
But it cannot explain it;
It can see, and wishes to explain,
But can find no word that suffices,
For what it sees is invisible and entirely formless,
Simple, completely uncompounded,
Unbounded in its awesome greatness.
What I have seen is the totality recapitulated as One,
Received not in essence but by participation.
It is just as if you lit a flame from a live flame:
It is the entire flame you receive.

Source

McGuckin, J.A. (2005), ‘Symeon the New Theologian’s Hymns of Divine Eros : A Neglected Masterpiece of the Christian Mystical Tradition’, 191-2, in Spiritus. A Journal of Christian Spirituality, 5.2: 182–202.

Hymn 30

Βλέπει γάρ αὑτόν ἐν ᾅδη,
τοῦ φωτός τῇ λάμψει λέγω˙
οὐδείς γάρ ἄλλως ἑαυτόν
τῶν ἐκεῖ καθεζομένων
πρό τοῦ λαμψαι φῶς τό θεῖον
ἑαυτόν ἐπιγινώσκει,
ἀλλ᾿ εἰσίν ἐν ἀγνωσίᾳ
τοῦ ἐν ᾧ κρατοῦνται ζόφου
καί φθορᾶς καί τοῦ θανάτου.
Ὅμως βλέπει, ἔνθα λάμπει,
ἡ ψυχή ἐκείνη λέγω,
καί νοεῖ, ὅτι ἐν σκότει
ὅλη ἦν τῷ δεινοτάτῳ
καί φρουρᾷ ἀσφαλεστάτῃ
βαθυτάτης ἀγνωσίας. […]
Ὄντως πᾶς ὁ ταῦτα βλέπων
καί στενάξει καί θρηνήσει
καί συνέπεσθαι θελήσει
τῷ τό φῶς ἐκλάμψαντι Χριστῷ.

He sees himself in hell,
I say, in the shining of light.
For none of those sitting there
can know themselves
before being illuminated
by the divine light,
but are ignorant about the darkness, decay
and death, which restrain them.
But the soul I speak about
sees the light
and understands that the whole of it
was in most terrible darkness
under the strongest confinement
of profound ignorance […]
Truly, the one who sees all that,
would groan and weep,
and would want to follow Christ,
who lit that light.

Source

Baranov, V. (2015), ‘Escaping Plato’s Cave: Some Platonic Metaphors in Symeon the New Theologian’, Scrinium: Journal of Patrology and Critical Hagiography, 11: 181–96.