Translation of Poem by Ivan Bunin, Иван Бунин, "Саваоф," "Sabaoth, Lord God of Hosts"

                                 Sabaoth in Spaso-Preobrazhensky Sobor, City of Yaroslavl

Иван Бунин

(1870-1953)

Саваоф

Я помню сумрак каменных аркад,
В средине свет — и красный блеск атласа
В сквозном узоре старых царских врат,
Под золотой стеной иконостаса.

 

Я помню купол грубо-голубой:
Там Саваоф с простертыми руками,
Над скудною и темною толпой,
Царил меж звезд, повитых облаками.

 

Был вечер, март, сияла синева
Из узких окон, в куполе пробитых,
Мертво звучали древние слова.

 

Весенний отблеск был на скользких плитах —
И грозная седая голова
Текла меж звезд, туманами повитых.

July 28, 1908

 

 

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Literal Translation

 

Sabaoth

 

I recall the twilight of the stone arcades,

The light in the middle—and the red gleam of satin

In the show-through pattern of the old royal gates,

Beneath the golden wall of the iconostasis.

 

I recall the cupola [painted] a crude light blue:

There was Sabaoth with arms spread wide,

Over the sparse and dark mob of people,

He reigned there amidst the stars wrapped in clouds.

 

It was evening, March, a bluish glow shone

From the narrow windows that were hewed into the cupola;

Ancient words rang out in deadened tones.

 

There was a glimmer of spring on the slippery flagstones—

And the menacing gray head

Flowed there amidst the stars wrapped in haze.

 

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Literary Translation/Adaptation by U.R. Bowie

 

Sabaoth, Lord God of Hosts

 

I recollect the stone arcades in twilight,

Illumined dim the satin reddish glare

On royal gates with God’s Good News bedight,

Iconostasis, blazing golden blare.    

 

I recollect the cupola, faint lazuline,

With Sabaoth in Glory, arms stretched wide;

Above the meagre throngs who sigh and pine,  

Midst cloud-wreathed stars He looms there, anger-eyed.

 

A March in gloaming, spreading tones of blue

From narrow windows hewed into the dome,

While ancient words below dead air bestrew.

 

On slickness of the flagstones vernal glimmer—

That gray head’s rage and menace in the gloam

Broods on midst stars festooned in hazy shimmer.

 

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Translator’s Notes

 

You’re much more likely to appreciate the descriptive details in this poem if you’ve spent time inside Russian Orthodox churches. The image painted in the central cupola—looking down on the interior of the church and all its parishioners—is often that of an Old-Testament gray-bearded and menacing God as described here.

 

First stanza:

 Royal gates (or Tsar’s gates)—central doors of the iconostasis, directly in front of the altar in an Easter Orthodox church. They sometimes have an open-latticed fretwork pattern, as in Bunin’s original. They also are frequently adorned with an iconic image of the Annunciation, which is Благовещение (literally, the Good News) in Russian.

 Iconostasis—a wall of icons and religious paintings separating the nave from the sanctuary in an Eastern Orthodox church

 

Third stanza:

 Ancient words—allusion to Old Church Slavonic, the language of the liturgy in Russian Orthodox churches

 

                                     Detail from Michelangelo Fresco in Sistine Chapel

                                                                        Royal Gates

                                                          Iconostasis with Royal Gates