Kontakion on the Nativity of Christ - St. Romanos the Melodist

A “kontakion” is a poetic form frequently encountered in Byzantine hymnography. It was
probably based in Syriac hymnographical traditions, which underwent an independent
development in Greek-speaking Byzantium. We can perhaps best describe it as a
“sermon in verse accompanied by music”

On the Nativity of Christ

Today the Virgin gives birth to him who is above all being,
and the earth offers a cave to him whom no one can approach.
Angels with shepherds give glory,
and magi journey with a star,
for to us there has been born
 a little Child, God before the ages.

Bethlehem has opened Eden, come, let us see;
we have found delight in secret, come, let us receive
the joys of Paradise within the cave.
There the unwatered root
 whose blossom is forgiveness has appeared.
There has been found the undug well
from which David once longed to drink.
There a virgin has borne a babe
and has quenched at once Adam’s and David’s thirst.
For this, let us hasten to this place where there has been born
 a little Child, God before the ages.

The mother’s Father has willingly become her Son,
the infants’ saviour is laid as an infant in a manger.
As she who bore him contemplates him, she says,
“Tell me, my Child, how were you sown, or how were you planted in me?
I see you, my flesh and blood, and I am amazed,
because I give suck and yet I am not married.
And though I see you in swaddling clothes,
I know that the flower of my virginity is sealed,
for you preserved it when, in your good pleasure, you were born
 a little Child, God before the ages.

“High King, what have you to do with beggars?
Maker of heaven, why have you come to those born of earth?
Did you love a cave or take pleasure in a manger?
See, there is no place for your servant in the inn,
I do not say a place, not even a cave,
for that too belongs to another.
To Sara, when she bore a child,
a vast land was given as her lot. To me, not even a fox hole.
I used the cavern where willingly you made your dwelling,
 a little Child, God before the ages.”

As she spoke such words in secret
and entreated the One who knows what is hidden,
she heard the magi seeking the babe.
At once, the Maiden cried to them, “Who are you?”
They answered her, “And you, who are you,
that you have borne such a Child?
Who is your father, who is she who bore you,
that you have become mother and nurse of a son without father?
On seeing his star we understood that there had appeared
 a little Child, God before the ages.

“For Balaam laid before us precisely
the meaning of the words he spoke in prophecy,
when he said that a Star would dawn,
a Star that quenches all prophecies and auguries;
a Star that resolves the parables of the wise,
and their sayings and their riddles,
a Star far more brilliant than the star
which has appeared, for he is the maker of all the stars,
of whom it was written of old, ‘From Jacob, there dawns
 a little Child, God before the ages.’”

“Save the world, O Saviour. For this you have come.
Set your whole universe aright. For this you have shone
on me and on the magi and on all creation.
For see, the magi, to whom you have shown the light of your face,
fall down before you and offer gifts,
useful, fair and eagerly sought.
For I have need of them, since I am about
to go to Egypt and to flee with you and for you,
my Guide, my Son, my Maker, my Redeemer,
 a little Child, God before the ages.”

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