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 JOHN WOODSWORTH
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Sample English-to-Russian translations 2

Contemporary Ottawa poets:

Miroslava Linda Sabbath
Nostalgia for Paradise [Nostal'gia po raju]
Maniwaki Magnificat [Magnifikat v Maniuaki]

Susan Keyes Hoik (Woodsworth)
For Galina Yakovlevna [Galine Jakovlevne]
The Universe, dance and me (continuing)
[Vselennaja, tanets i ja -- dal'she]

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(page updated 21 June 2002)
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Miroslava Linda Sabbath


Miroslava Linda Sabbath is an Ottawa iconographer, lay theologian, art teacher and poet, as well as president of the Sacred Arts Council of Canada.  The following poems are from her collection Detour to Paradise,  published (informally) earlier in 2002 by Sasquatch Writers Performance Series.  JW has recorded these poems in combination with his piano improvisations made specifically for them. For examples of Ms Sabbath's icon-painting, please click here.  For an audio recording of these poems set against JW's piano improvisations, please click here.
 

Three of his Russian translations of Miroslava Sabbath's poems were included, along with their originals, in a special collection prepared for Ljudmila Putina (wife of the Russian president) at the request of the Russian Embassy in Canada (see heading "Sbornik" on my Poetry page for further details).  Two of these poems are reproduced below in both languages (with their author's permission).

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PLEASE NOTE:
The Russian translations on this page are shown in image representation only.
Unfortunately, they do not have the properties of electronic text.
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Nostalgia for paradise > Nostal'gia po raju
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Nostalgia for Paradise

Miroslava Linda Sabbath


















Daughter of a green star
with heart
                  scorched and shredded
like the bird held captive
                  for a thousand years
continuously
                  clawing of chains
of spiderís silk,
entombed on earth
between streets
and wasted vehicles
                  arriving and departing
on slithering glass,
twisted metal forged by fury.
Frayed memories, fragile filaments
of the nuptial land,
endless dusk
misting an unfathomable lode
of extracted emeralds,
opal eyes whispering silver sonatas
pierced by lightning stabs 
                  of love,
unleashed by celestial kisses.

November 1996
 

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Translated into Russian by John Woodsworth, 27 November 2000

Maniwaki Magnificat > Magnifikat v Maniuaki

Maniwaki is a town in Québec about 100 km north of Ottawa-Gatineau
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Maniwaki Magnificat

Miroslava Linda Sabbath



















My heart remembers
a time when it was a part
of a radiant circle,
a silver highway of light,
shimmering, stretching
from all the suns and moons
sweeping the irridescent
skies with dances,
declaring undying devotion.

Before time,
before space,
before our creation,
my heart remembered
that treasured 
almost forgotten time
when it was
an integral part
of the endless, eternal circle.
 

My heart remembered the sound
of God's hand caressing this earth,
forming the mountains,
cleaving the oceans.
 

I stood for an eternity
still, silent, spellbound,
my bones embalmed in joy
as my heart recalled the splendour
of its own creation.
 

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Translated into Russian by John Woodsworth, 27 November 2000
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*          *          *

Susan Keyes Hoik (Woodsworth)

Susan Keyes Hoik (who happens to be married to JW) has long been involved in the arts -- dance, visual art and, more recently, poetry.  Many of her art works comprise abstract drawings of the human form in various dance movements.  She is currently working on a collection of her art and poetry called: The Universe, dance and me (which also gives the title to the second poem below).  For the past year or so she has been a Board member of the Sasquatch Writers Performance Series.

In 1996 she had the occasion to meet a Russian scholar visiting from St-Petersburg by the name of Galina Yakovlevna.  Their encounter led to the following poem, which describes the heartfelt communication that took place, even though neither spoke the other's language.  The translation was made for Galina Yakovlevna the next day.  Both of her poems on this page and their Russian translations were also included in the collection for Madame Putina (see "Sbornik" on my Poetry page for details).

 For Galina Yakovlevne > Galine Jakovlevne
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For Galina Yakovlevna

Susan Keyes Hoik (Woodsworth)


Talk to me...
speak through my ears
right to the other side...
I'll balance your questions
but my answers 
won't be plain,
for there is too much at stake...
too much you haven't said...
too much I didn't hear...
So...  talk to me...
let the barriers between us
fall by the weight of love...
If you speak 
without saying a word,
I'll understand...
for that silence is not 
empty or vain
but filled with an energy,
a desire to hear words
and respond, even if in half-tones,
for in this conscious awareness
lies a greater need,
for we are one 
in this hour, this moment,
as we communicate 
with a common tongue.
Talk to me...
talk to me... 
     and... 
            I'll understand.
 
27 February 1996


 

Translated into Russian by John Woodsworth, 28 February 1996

The Universe, dance and me (continuing)
For an audio recording of this poem set against JW's piano improvisations, please click here.
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The Universe, dance and me (continuing)

Susan Keyes Hoik (Woodsworth)

















Search, search, search...
try to find
the dancer...
conscious realms of moving grace,
pace your space, laced with filigreed
points of crocheted lace,
intricate, weaving shapes
of wondrous beings
moving, dancing,
intertwined and bound 
by muscled tones,
flexing, freezing,
stark stars,
twinkling bright, breathing light,
lifting, heaving...
sweated drops
of oceans, continents, emerging into
life-giving, earth-dancing, 
earth-glittering,
sparkling, living...
Dancing with the Universe,
choreographed variations ad infinitum,
moving space-probes, space-ships, 
space-communications,
filling space with rhythms,
vibrating, pulsating,
dancing to signs and signals...

The Universe is dancing...

The dancer is --
The Universe is --
                         dancing with me?
 

Ottawa
16 August 1989
 
 

 

Translated into Russian by John Woodsworth, 7 October 2000

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you... 
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

-- John 14:27
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E-mail : <jw[at ]kanadacha.ca>
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