15. ANGEL: The Father has revealed to
me, as I do so
now to you,
this mystery which is shared
between Him and His Son, and when He sent me to say
that form you will He shine out over the worlds.
16. MARY: You are made of flame, do
not frighten me;
you are wrapped in coals of fire, do not terrify me.
O fiery being, why should I believe you
seeing that all you have spoken to me is utterly new?
17. ANGEL: It would be amazing in you
if you were to
answer back,
annulling the message which I have brought to you
concerning the conception of the Most High,
whose will it is to reside in your womb.
18. MARY: I am afraid sir, to accept
you,
for when Eve my mother accepted
the serpent who spoke as a friend,
she was snatched away from her former glory.
19. ANGEL: My daughter, he certainly
did use deception
on your mother Eve when he gave her the message,
but just as certainly I am not deceiving you now,
since it is from the True One that I have been sent.
20. MARY: All this that you have
spoken
is most difficult, so do not find fault with me,
for it is not form a virgin that a son will appear,
not from that fruit, a divine being!
21. ANGEL: The Father gave me this
meeting with you
here
to bring you greeting and to announce to you
that form your womb His Son will shine forth.
Do not answer back, disputing this.
22. MARY: This meeting with you and
your presence
here is all very well,
if only the natural order of things did not stir me
to have doubts at your arrival,
for how can there be fruit in a virgin?
23. ANGEL: The angelic hosts quake at
His word:
the moment He was commanded, they do not answer
back;
how is it then that you are not afraid
to enquire into what the Father has willed?
24. MARY: I too quake, sir, and am
terrified,
yet though I am afraid, I find it hard to believe
since nature itself can well convince me
that virgins do not ever give birth.
25. ANGEL: It is the Father’s love
which has so willed
that in your virginity you should give birth to the Son.
it is appropriate you should keep silent, and have faith,
too,
for the will of the Father cannot be gainsaid.
26. MARY: Your appearance is
venerable, your message
full of awe,
your flames are leaping up.
Into the person of your Lord one cannot inquire,
but that I should believe all this is difficult for me. (Mary and the Angel,
15-26, c. 5th century, in Mary and Joseph, and Other Dialogue
Poems on Mary [trans. Sebastian P. Brock; Texts from Christian Late
Antiquity 8; Piscataway, N.J. Gorgias Press, 2011], 14, 16, 18)
