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Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917.

By Gregory Nanzianzen (Trans. Allen W. Chatfield)

To God

O THOU, the One supreme o’er all!

For by what other name

May we upon thy greatness call,

Or celebrate thy fame?

Ineffable! to thee what speech

Can hymns of honor raise?

Ineffable! what tongue can reach

The measure of thy praise?

How, unapproached, shall mind of man

Descry Thy dazzling throne,

And pierce and find thee out, and scan

Where thou dost dwell alone?

Unuttered thou! all uttered things

Have had their birth from thee;

The one unknown! from thee the springs

Of all we know and see!

And all things, as they move along

In order fixed by thee,

Thy watchword heed, in silent song

Hymning thy majesty.

And lo! all things abide in thee,

And through the complex whole,

Thou spread’st thine own divinity,

Thyself of all the goal.

One being thou, all things, yet none,

Nor one nor yet all things;

How call thee, O mysterious One?

A worthy name, who brings?

All-named from attributes thine own,

How call thee as we ought?

Thou art unlimited, alone,

Beyond the range of thought.