Understanding the  Prayers and Poetry of St. Gregory of Narek

Three exercises to understand the power of poetic prayers

St. Gregory of Narek's Prayer 39

From his "The Book of Lamentations" l

I am a living book,

written like the scroll in the vision of Ezekiel, inside and out,

listing lamentations, moaning and woe.

I am a city without walls or towers,

a house empty without doors for protection,

salt in looks but without taste,

salty water, unfit for drinking to quench the thirst,

land, unfit for cultivation,

field, barren and covered with briars.

My personal acres, cared for by God,

but formerly cultivated by the devices of the Slanderer,

an olive tree that is wood without fruit,

trees that do not bear fruit to be cut down,

a hopeless, twice dead, talking plant,

a completely burnt out candle that cannot be lit.

Questions:

1. What are the images St. Gregory uses to describe himself?  He says he is a (living book, etc. just look for the simple image, not the elaborations)

2. How does he elaborate on each image? (Discuss the phrases that follow each simple image.)

3. What was the most powerful image for you?

"Conversations with God. from the Depth of My Heart"

translated by Diana Der Hovanessian and Marzbed Margossian in "Anthology of Armenian Poetry"

Elegy 55c

The pagan philosophers labeled death

evil if it were mindless, purposeless.

And I agree because we are dying

like irrational animals and we are not afraid.

We are lost, and not terrified.

We are forgiven and do not accept it humbly,

We are buried and do not struggle.

We are deported and do not panic.

We are falsified and do not protest.

We are worn out and do not try to understand.

We are diminished and do not replenish.

We walk and do not look where we go.

We are enslaved and do not feel put upon.

While it is true that blessed Job

called final rest the aim of man

I might more readily agree if

I had not the burden of deadly deeds

to carry and especially when obvious traps

are laid along the way, but

the one setting the traps in invisible.

The present does not exist, the past

unknown, and the future uncertain.

I am impatient, my nature is doubting.

My feet are uncertain and my mind wandering.

My passions overpowering, and my habits

intemperate. My body hardened by sin,

my desires, loving the world.

My inclination is to follow nature and my nature

is contrary clay. The rains are tumultuous.

My needs are numerous and purposeless everywhere.

My mind is malicious and my desires malevolent.

My life is one day long and pleasures brief.

Illusions are stupid, toys childish.

Labors are in vain and pleasures frivolous.

The shops are stocked with nothingness,

and the stockpiles are made of wind.

I am like a shadow,

my appearance is ridiculous.

The commandments, according to Paul,

were given, but I was found unready.

Sins took the appearance of justice.

I died for life and came to life for loss.

Questions

1. Underline all adjectives (buried, deported, worn out, etc.).  What do these words tell us about how St. Gregory is feeling as he wrote this poem?

2. What images in this prayer/poem can one relate to today?

3. What does the image "contrary clay" mean? (Clay is something you can mold, but contrary brings in the idea of resisting being shaped.)

Become your own mystic poet

Take a moment to pray for inspiration.  Then start your poem like this "Lord, I am ..."  Communicate 5 images of yourself as you feel right now.  First a simple image, then follow with a bit of elaboration. 

For example:

"Lord, I am a budding rose -- a flower in a big garden, soft and bright and all ready inside to bloom" or

"Lord, I am a dull book -- filled with pages and pages of rambling stuff that no one's going to care about in ten years."