The Wedding-Song of Wisdom
Translated by G. R. S. Mead
Get it in Sphinx
Coming soon to iPhone and Android. Join the waitlist to hear when Sphinx opens.
The opening
PREAMBLE.
The Hymn which forms the subject of this little volume has no traditional title. Like The Hymn of the Robe of Glory, which foiTTied the last of these Echoes, it is found in the Syriac Acis of Judas Thomas, where it is put in the mouth of the Apostle who is said, on his travels, to have been guest of honour at a bridal feast.
In addition to the Syriac we have a Greek text which is plainly a translation. The Greek is in prose, but the Syriac for the most part in verses of twelve syllables, in couplets, “just like The Hymn of the Robe ‘of Glory. As Macke tells us (p. 17), where the Greek and Syriac agree the verses are oi six syllables; or more correctly, as Burkitt has pointed out (p. 277), normally 6 + 6, but sometimes 5+7- Moreover, the Greek can be translated back into metred Syriac where the present Syriac departs from the metre.
An Armenian version also existed, of which, unfortunately, we now possess only the opening and closing lines.
The whole book is in the Sphinx app.
About this edition
- The words
- G. R. S. Mead's English translation, copied word for word.
- Left out
- Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 3 places
- Google's notice on its digitization of the book (the scanning library's, not the book's) (13 blocks)
- The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 4 places
- The printed table of contents (the app makes its own)
- Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 3 places
- Specks at the dark edge of the page, read as characters by the OCR (2 blocks)
- Specks read as characters between two lines, glued to the side title
- A speck at the top of the page, read as characters by the OCR
- The printer's imprint, and the scanning library's labels, call number and barcode (16 blocks)