The attempt to translate into today's spoken Greek language a text, such as the Akathist Hymn, which has been so beloved that many of its passages are whispered by the faithful along with the priest during the service, and the "historical" Kontakion "To the Unconquered" has been on the lips of every Orthodox Christian for centuries, is by no means an easy task.

Whoever dares to undertake this risks, at best, slipping into a dry, sterilized rendition of a significant text. This is because the text is deeply poetic, with words and phrases that in modern Greek lose their poetic, almost melodic, character.

Aware of all these difficulties, I ventured a minimal approach to this wonderful text, to assist those who struggle to understand it, believing, however, that those who truly wish to feel the "joy" and "delight" of the text should learn to "decrypt" it from the original.

Dora Komini [Excerpt from the introductory text]