Ona pred ikonoj stoyala svyatoyu;
Skrestilisya ruki, usta shevelilis`;
Iz glaz eya slyozy' odna za drugoyu
Po bledny'm shhekam zhemchugami katilis`.

Ona povtoryala vse ch`yo-to nazvan`e,
I vzor ozaryalsya molitvenny'm svetom;
I by'lo tak mnogo lyubvi i stradan`ya,
Tak malo nadezhdy' v molenii e`tom!

Ona preklonilas` i dolgo lezhala,
Pril`nuv golovoyu k zemle bezotvetnoj,
Kak budto v tomlen`i nemom ozhidala,
Chto golos nad neyu razdastsya privetny'j.

No by'lo vse tixo v molchanii nochi,
Lampada merczala vo mrake trevozhnom,
I skorbno smotreli Spasitelya ochi
[Na tu, chto s molen`em prishla nevozmozhny'm!]1

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¹ Rachmaninov: "На очи, просящия о невозможном."

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Text Authorship:

• by Arseny Arkad'yevich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (1848 - 1913), "Молитва", written 1868-1878, first published 1878 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Sergei Vasil'yevich Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943), "Пред иконой", op. 21 (Двенадцать романсов = Dvenadcat' romansov (Twelve songs)) no. 10 (1902) [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• ENG English (Rianne Stam) , copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 90