After Three Days Thou Didst Rise

This hymn is a translation of Ode I of Canon 2 at Orthros on Ascension in the Byzantine Liturgy.

Here is the original text as it appears in the first edition of Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862). The text in the fifth edition has the differences noted below:

After three days Thou didst rise
Visible to mortal eyes:
First the Eleven worshipped Thee,—
Then the rest in Galilee:
Then a cloud in glory bore
Thee to Thine own native shore.

Boldly David pour’d the strain:
God ascends to Heav’n again:
With the trumpet’s pealing note
Alleluias round Him float;
As He now, by hard-won right,
Seeks the Fount of purest Light!

Crime on crime, and grief on grief,
Left the world without relief:
Now that aged, languid race,
God hath quickened by His grace:
As Thy going up we see,
Glory to Thy Glory be!

(1)Catavasia.
Darkness and awe, when Sinai’s top he trod,
Taught him of faltering tongue the Law of God.
The mist was scattered from his spirit’s eye,
He prais’d and hymn’d the Maker of the sky,
When He That is and was and shall be, passed by.

Words: attr. St. Joseph the Hymnographer, 816-886; tr. John Mason Neale, 1862.
Tune: “Spanish Hymn” arr by Benjamin Carr (1769-1831). (Catavasia is omitted)
Meter: 7.7.7.7.7.7 (Except the Catavasia, which is 10.11.10.10.11)

(1) the catavasia is omitted in the text of the fifth edition.

Here is the original Greek text from which this hymn is translated:

Κανών β’, ᾨδὴ α’, Δεύτερος τῆς Ἑορτῆς 
Ἦχος δ’ 
Ἀνοίξω τὸ στόμα μου
Ἀνέστης τριήμερος, ὁ κατὰ φύσιν ἀθάνατος, καὶ ὤφθης τοῖς ἕνδεκα, καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς Μαθηταῖς, καὶ ἀνέδραμες, Χριστὲ πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα, νεφέλῃ ὀχούμενος, ὁ τοῦ παντὸς ποιητής.

Βοᾷ ἐμφανέστατα, ψάλλων Δαυῒδ ὁ θεόπνευστος. Ἀνέβη ὁ Κύριος, πρὸς τὰ οὐράνια, ἐν ἀλαλαγμῷ, καὶ σάλπιγγος ἠχήσει, καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἀρχίφωτον Πατέρα ἔφθασε.

Γηράσαντα Κύριε, κόσμον πολλοῖς ἁμαρτήμασι, καινίσας τῷ Πάθει σου, καὶ τῇ Ἐγέρσει σου, ἀνελήλυθας, ὀχούμενος νεφέλῃ, πρὸς τὰ ἐπουράνια, δόξα τῇ δόξῃ σου.
Θεοτοκίον 
Δεσπότην ἐκύησας, πάντων πανάμωμε Δέσποινα, τὸν Πάθος ἑκούσιον καταδεξάμενον, καὶ ἀνελθόντα, πρὸς τὸν αὐτοῦ Πατέρα, ὅνπερ οὐ κατέλιπε, κἂν σάρκα εἴληφε.
Καταβασία
«Θείῳ καλυφθεὶς ὁ βραδύγλωσσος γνόφῳ,
Ἐρρητόρευσε τὸν θεόγραφον νόμον.
Ἰλὺν γὰρ ἐκτινάξας ὄμματος νόου,
Ὁρᾷ τὸν ὄντα καὶ μυεῖται Πνεύματος,
Γνῶσιν, γεραίρων ἐνθέοις τοῖς ᾄσμασιν».