Primary source · Syriac (the Prayer in Greek)
The Hymns of Ephrem · The Prayer of St Ephrem
Ephrem the Syrian · c. AD 350–373
What this text is
The Harp of the Spirit: madrashe on the Nativity, the Faith, and Nisibis besieged — with the short penitential prayer under his name that the East still recites every Lent.
Profile of Ephrem the Syrian →
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
The Prayer of St Ephrem (Greek, attributed)
ΚύριεO LordκαὶandΔέσποταMasterτῆςof theζωῆςlifeμου,of meπνεῦμαa spiritἀργίαςof slothμήnotμοιto meδῷςgive
Public-domain translations
John Gwynn (NPNF, 1898)
Blessed be that Child, who gladdened Bethlehem today! Blessed be the Babe who made manhood young again today!… O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, of despond, of lust of power, and of vain speaking. (The Lenten prayer, attributed.)
Manuscript witnesses
British Library Syriac codices (Add. 14571 etc.)
5th–6th c.Nitrian-desert manuscripts of the madrashe within a century or two of Ephrem — among the oldest hymn-books of Christendom.
Editio Romana (Assemani)
1732–1746The old Rome edition; superseded by Beck's CSCO volumes.
Provenance
Nisibis and Edessa, c. AD 337–373 — the harp of the Spirit
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Hymnen (CSCO, many vols.)Edmund Beck, 1955–1979The critical corpus with German translation.
- Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns (CWS)Kathleen E. McVey, 1989Standard English selection.