A Little Advance on the Nativity

 From the Nativity Kontakia, by St. Romanos the Melodist and translated by Archimandrite Ephrem Lash:

Bethlehem has opened Eden, come, let us see;

we have found delight in secret, come, let us receive

the joys of Paradise within the cave.

There the unwatered root whose blossom is forgiveness has appeared.

There has been found the undug well

from which David once longed to drink.

There a virgin has borne a babe

and has quenched at once Adam’s and David’s thirst.

For this, let us hasten to this place where there has been born

a little Child, God before the ages.