7 You washed me clean, Lord, in the
waters of baptism,
but I turned back to a multitude of evil deeds.
Return to me the beauty of my baptism! (Jacob of Serugh, “dowintho (h)I
napšo,” in The Stanzaic Poems of Jacob of Serugh: A Collection of His
Madroshe and Sughyotho [trans. Sebastian P. Brock; Texts from Christian
Late Antiquity 72; Piscataway, N.J. Gorgias Press, 2022], 88)
10 ‘I am the Church, coming from the
Peoples; I have shown love to
the Only-Begotten who was sent;
because His betrothed has shown Him hate, I have shown Him
love.
Through Abgar the Black I am making request that He come and
visit me.
11 ‘I am black, and I am beautiful, O
Daughters of Sion, He is pure
despite your envy.
For the Son of the Glorious One has betrothed me, in order to
bring me into His Bridal Chamber:
though I am ugly, He loves me, for He is able to make me
beautiful from the water (of baptism).
12 ‘I am black with my sins, but fair
because I have repented and
turned around;
I have cast off in baptism that ugly colour,
for the Saviour of all Creation has cleansed me with His
innocent blood’ (Jacob of Serugh, “urhoy šelḥat la-mšiḥo,” in The
Stanzaic Poems of Jacob of Serugh: A Collection of His Madroshe and Sughyotho
[trans. Sebastian P. Brock; Texts from Christian Late Antiquity 72; Piscataway,
N.J. Gorgias Press, 2022], 188)
