Laudator Temporis Acti

Anonymous, "The Capture of Constantinople", tr. Victoria Clark, Why Angels Fall: A Journey Through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo (London: Picador, 2011), page number unknown:

'But send a message to the West asking for three ships to come;
one to take the Cross away, another the Holy Bible,
the third, the best of them, our Holy Altar,
lest the dogs seize it from us and defile it.'
The Virgin was distressed, and the holy icons wept.
'Hush, Lady — do not weep so profusely,
after years and centuries, they will be yours again.'

The Greek, from George Thomson, The Greek Language (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, 1960), p. 53:

Μόν᾿ στεῖλτε λόγο στὴ Φραγκιά, νά ῾ρθοῦνε τρία καράβια,
Τό ῾να νὰ πάρει τὸ Σταυρό, καὶ τἄλλο τὸ βαγγέλιο,
Τὸ τρίτο, τὸ καλύτερο, τὴν ἅγια τράπεζά μας,
Μὴ μᾶς τὴν πάρουν τὰ σκυλιὰ καὶ μᾶς τὴ μαγαρίσουν.
Ἡ Δέσποινα ταράχτηκε, καὶ δάκρυσαν οἱ εἰκόνες.
Σώπασε, κυρὰ Δέσποινα, καὶ μὴ πολυδακρύζεις·
Πάλι μὲ χρόνους, μὲ καιρούς, πάλι δικά σας εἶναι.

See also:

• C.C. Felton, Selections from Modern Greek Writers in Prose and Poetry. With Notes (Cambridge: John Bartlett, 1856), pp. 149 and 206-207
• Arnold Passow, Popularia Carmina Graeciae Recentioris (Leipzig: B.G. Teuber, 1860), pp. 146-147 (number 196)
• Margaret Alexiou, "The historical lament for the fall or destruction of cities," The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition, 2nd ed. (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002), pp. 83-101
• The Philological Crocodile, "Museum Closed: On the Desecration of the Hagia Sophia"

Hat tip: Eric Thomson.