Romanian Orthodox Church Chant - The Lord's Lamentations
текст песни

FIRST STASTIS
1. In a grave they laid Thee,
yet, O Christ Thou art Life,
and the armies of the angels beheld amazed,
giving glory that Thou chose to condescend.

2. How, O Life, dost Thou die?
How dost Thou dwell entombed,
Who hast slashed through all the bonds in the
realm of death,
and hast raised the dead in Hades from their
graves?

3. We, O Lord, exalt Thee,
O Christ Jesus, our King,
and we venerate Thy Passion and burial
through which Thou hast brought redemption
from our sins.

4. Thou hast set the measures
of the earth, yet this day
in a narrow tomb dost dwell, Jesus, King of all,
Who hast raised those who were dead up from
their tombs.

5. O mine own Christ Jesus,
Thou art King of the world.
Why hast Thou come down to Hades to seek the
dead?
Is it not to set the race of mortals free?

6. He Who is the Master
of creation appears
as a corpse and lies entombed in a fresh-hewn
grave,
though He emptied every gravesite of its dead.

7. In a grave they laid Thee,
yet, O Christ, Thou art Life.
By Thy death hast Thou abolished the realm of
death,
and upon the world hast poured down streams
of Life.

8. Fairer in His beauty
than all creatures on earth,
He is seen now lying lifeless, his beauty gone,
yet all beauty in creation springs from Him.

9. O mine own sweet Jesus,
Saving Light of the world,
can the darkness of the grave hide Thy Light
within?
Neither thought nor word can say what Thou
hast borne.

10. Neither Nature’s reason,
nor the angels, O Christ,
grasp the mystery enfolding Thy burial,
beyond all our understanding and all words.

11. I revere Thy passion
Thine entombment I praise,
and I magnify Thy might, Loving Friend of
man;
they have ransomed me from passions that
corrupt.

12. When Thy mother saw Thee
brought to slaughter, O Lamb,
she was stabbed with painful torment; her
anguished sobs
called the flock to join her bitter cries of grief.

13. “Woe is me!” the Virgin
mourned through heart-breaking sobs.
“Thou art, Jesus, my most precious, beloved
Son!
Gone is my light, and the Light of all the
world!”

14. “God and Word eternal,
O my Gladness and Joy!
How shall I endure Thy three days inside the
tomb
when my heart is breaking with a mother’s
grief?”

15. “Who will give me water,
and a fountain of tears,”
cried the Virgin Bride of God in her deep
despair,
“that in grief for my sweet Jesus I might weep.”

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the
Holy Spirit.

16. We will sing Thy praises,
Word and God of all things,
with Thy Father and Thy Holy Spirit Thou art
praised,
and we glorify Thy burial divine.

Both now and forever and unto the ages of
ages. Amin.

17. Thou art known as blessed,
Theotokos, most pure.
With our faithful hearts we honour the burial
suffered three days by Thy Son, Who is our
God.

18. In a grave they laid Thee,
yet, O Christ Thou art Life,
and the armies of the angels beheld amazed,
giving glory that Thou chose to condescend.

SECOND STASIS

1. Truly it is right
that we magnify Thee Who bestows Life,
Who upon the Cross with Thine outspread
Hands
all the power of the enemy hast crushed.

2. Truly it is right
that we magnify Thee, our Creator;
through Thy pain have we been released from
pain,
and from all corruption we have been set free.

3. All the earth did shake
and the sun concealed itself in darkness
when they set Thy body into the tomb,
Christ, the Saviour and the never-setting Sun.

4. “Free from pain, my Child,
I, alone among all women, bore Thee.”
said Thy modest Mother with humble voice.
“Now Thy passion brings more pain than I can
bear.”

5. “Torn apart am I,
and my womb, O Word <...>