Comments

13 responses to “Not in Vain and Not by Chance”

1. 

   Vlad Zarayskiy

   June 23, 2009

   Father, bless.

   Interestingly, St. Philaret (at that time Metropolitan of Moscow) in that poem is responding to a following poem by his contemporary, Alexander Pushkin, the greatest Russian poet.

   “Gift without use, gift made by chance,
   Life, wherefore art thou given me ?
   Or wherefore art thou doomed to end
   By fate’s mysterious decree ?

   Who was it used a hostile power
   From nothingness to call me out
   With passion fill my soul for me
   And agitate my mind with doubt ?

   No purpose is before me set,
   Empty my heart, my mind is bare ;
   Life’s clattering monotony
   Wearies me with a dull despair.”

   After reading Metropolitan’s response, Pushkin replied with another Stanza

   In hours of amusement or idle boredom,
   Once upon a time, I used to confide
   To my lyre the cosseted sounds
   Of madness, indolence and passion.

   But even then I would arrest
   The vibration of the treacherous string
   When your majestic voice
   Suddenly struck me.

   I poured for the streams of sudden tears,
   And to the wounds of my conscience
   The balsam of your fragrant words
   Was a pure delight.

   And now from a spiritual height
   You extend a hand to me
   And with meek and loving strength
   Becalm restless dreams.

   Set a fire by your flame my soul
   Has thrown off the darkness of earthly cares,
   And in a state of holy awe
   The poet listens to the harp of the seraphim*

   (In Pushkin handwriting “the harp of Philaret”, but it was changed in publication, possibly due to censorship reasons”)

   Of course, it’s much better in Russian than in translation 🙂

2. 

   fatherstephen

   June 23, 2009

   I am not sure that there is any poetry in the world to rival Russian poetry. There are no people in the world who have a greater love of language.

3. 

   Sea of Sin

   June 23, 2009

   Beautiful, thank you Vlad and Fr Stephen for sharing this.

   What would these poems be
   it were not for choices made
   by minds and hearts bestowed
   with freedom true any less it would be cruelty.

   🙂

4. 

   An Anxious Anglican

   June 23, 2009

   Father, bless!

   And now for my usual question: where’d you get that wonderful poem? I am unaware of any of St Philaret’s works published in English.

   Thanks again for your presence on the web and in our lives. I have lost track of the number of times that you have salvaged a day of mine that otherwise seemed lost.

5. 

   fatherstephen

   June 23, 2009

   I found it while brousing the net. Sometimes you run across excellent material. I was looking for atonement material and just came across this page with his poem. Father Stephen +

6. 

   coffeezombie

   June 23, 2009

   Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that such a “poetic conversation” simply wouldn’t happen in America today…and that makes me sad. :-/

7. 

   fatherstephen

   June 23, 2009

   Or it would be in “rap”

8. 

   handmaidleah

   June 23, 2009

   The thought of +Met. Jonah or any priest rapping gives me chills…

9. 

   fatherstephen

   June 23, 2009

   It’s not a pretty sight… 🙂

10. 

    tiffanib

    June 23, 2009

    “I am not sure that there is any poetry in the world to rival Russian poetry. There are no people in the world who have a greater love of language.”

    And this is absolutely the truth, Father. Words come out of Russia like they do from no other place. Nothing more frightening to its enemies, nothing more beautiful to its admirers.

11. 

    mary

    June 23, 2009

    the serbian bishop nikolai vellimirovich,his prayers by the lake is poetry to me. i call them his love letters to God.
    mary

12. 

    Debbie

    June 24, 2009

    That was absolutely beautiful!!!

13. 

    Alice C. Linsley

    June 24, 2009

    I bet it is even better in Russian!