The Book of Job tells how the Devil tested a prosperous and pious man with the loss of his possessions, children and health, but found that the man
still refused to renounce God. Still intact was his patience and perseverance, and his belief in God's goodness, faithfulness and restorative powers. The Book was well-known
to all church-going people, which was the vast majority in Russia, including Lomonosov himself. The Ode uses or incorporates only a few verses of the Book, which Lomonosov, being also a
good scientist, duly enumerated. The poem is well regarded and has similarities to Derzhavin's work, notably his 'To Rulers and Judges' (see the Derzhavin translations ebook.)
Lomonosov was a 'materialist philosopher' but also a believer in the Orthodox Church. For many Russians, the book of Job, was also one of the most attractive, tragic and philosophical books in the Old Testament,
well known in the XVIII century' and becoming a textbook in the next. {1}
The Russian text is:
ОДА, ВЫБРАННАЯ ИЗ ИОВА,
ГЛАВЫ 38, 39, 40 и 41
О ты, что в горести напрасно
На бога ропщешь, человек,
Внимай, коль в ревности ужасно
Он к Иову из тучи рек!
Сквозь дождь, сквозь вихрь, сквозь град блистая
И гласом громы прерывая,
Словами небо колебал
И так его на распрю звал:
Сбери свои все силы ныне,
Мужайся, стой и дай ответ.
Где был ты, как я в стройном чине
Прекрасный сей устроил свет;
Когда я твердь земли поставил
И сонм небесных сил прославил
Величество и власть мою?
Яви премудрость ты свою!
Где был ты, как передо мною
Бесчисленны тьмы новых звезд,
Моей возжженных вдруг рукою
В обширности безмерных мест,
Мое величество вещали;
Когда от солнца воссияли
Повсюду новые лучи,
Когда взошла луна в ночи?
Кто море удержал брегами
И бездне положил предел,
И ей свирепыми волнами
Стремиться дале не велел?
Покрытую пучину мглою
Не я ли сильною рукою
Открыл и разогнал туман
И с суши сдвигнул Океан?
5. Возмог ли ты хотя однажды
Велеть ранее утру быть,
И нивы в день томящей жажды
Дождем прохладным напоить,
Пловцу способный ветр направить,
Чтоб в пристани его поставить,
И тяготу земли тряхнуть,
Дабы безбожных с ней сопхнуть?
6. Стремнинами путей ты разных
Прошел ли моря глубину?
И счел ли чуд многообразных
Стада, ходящие по дну?
Отверзлись ли перед тобою
Всегдашнею покрыты мглою
Со страхом смертные врата?
Ты спер ли адовы уста?
7. Стесняя вихрем облак мрачный,
Ты солнце можешь ли закрыть,
И воздух огустить прозрачный,
И молнию в дожде родить,
И вдруг быстротекущим блеском
И гор сердца трясущим треском
Концы вселенной колебать
И смертным гнев свой возвещать?
8. Твоей ли хитростью взлетает
Орел, на высоту паря,
По ветру крила простирает
И смотрит в реки и моря?
От облак видит он высоких
В водах и в пропастях глубоких,
Что в пищу я ему послал.
Толь быстро око ты ли дал?
9. Воззри в леса на Бегемота,
Что мною сотворен с тобой;
Колючей терн его охота
Безвредно попирать ногой.
Как верьви сплетены в нем жилы.
Отведай ты своей с ним силы!
В нем ребра как литая медь;
Кто может рог его сотреть?
10. Ты можешь ли Левиафана
На уде вытянуть на брег?
В самой средине Океана
Он быстрой простирает бег;
Светящимися чешуями
Покрыт, как медными щитами,
Копье, и меч, и молот твой
Считает за тростник гнилой.
11. Как жернов сердце он имеет,
И зубы страшный ряд серпов;
Кто руку в них вложить посмеет?
Всегда к сраженью он готов;
На острых камнях возлегает
И твердость оных презирает.
Для крепости великих сил
Считает их за мягкой ил.
12. Когда ко брани устремится,
То море, как котел, кипит,
Как печь, гортань его дымится,
В пучине след его горит;
Сверкают очи раздраженны,
Как угль, в горниле раскаленный,
Всех сильных он страшит, гоня.
Кто может стать против меня?
13. Обширного громаду света
Когда устроить я хотел,
Просил ли твоего совета
Для множества толиких дел?
Как персть я взял в начале века,
Дабы создати человека,
Зачем тогда ты не сказал,
Чтоб вид иной тебе я дал?
14. Сие, о смертный, рассуждая,
Представь зиждителеву власть,
Святую волю почитая,
Имей свою в терпеньи часть.
Он всё на пользу нашу строит,
Казнит кого или покоит.
В надежде тяготу сноси
И без роптания проси.
1743-51
The poem is written in iambic tetrameters, rhymed as follows:
О ты, что в го́рести напра́сно 4A
На бо́га ро́пщешь, челове́к, 4b
Внима́й, коль в ре́вности ужа́сно 4A
Он к И́ову из ту́чи рек! 4b
Сквозь дождь, сквозь вихрь, сквозь град блиста́я 4C
И гла́сом гро́мы прерыва́я, 4C
Слова́ми не́бо колеба́л 4d
И так его́ на ра́спрю звал: 4d
A TTS Audio Recording of the poem:
Philip Nikolayev has an excellent translation, a little free
but generally observing the demanding rhyme scheme. I give his first two stanzas:
You, man, who in your sorrow make
Your plaints, repining against God,
Now hearken to His wrath that spake
To Job out of the whirlwind cloud;
He, in whose voice the thunders drowned,
Flashed bright in the rain, hail and wind,
His words rattling the firmament,
Summoning Job to argument:
Come, muster all you strength, stand bold
There where you are, and answer me.
Where were you when this splendid world
I built with laws of harmony?
When I installed this planet earth
And hosts of angels sang in chorus
My greatness, my authority,
Did they hail your wizardry too?
Ode Selected from Job: Chapters 38, 39, 40 & 41
1. Oh, you that sorrow here in vain
and cry to God with your complaints:
such jealousy is His refrain
no cloud of rivers dims those feints.
Through rain, wind and hail He shines
and in the lightning scatters signs.
Such words will shake the firmament
He calls out Job in argument.
2, Gather up your strength and now
stand firm: with courage answer me:
Where were you when I’d first endow
with light and beauty this you see.
I made the earth, the firmament,
a host of heavenly powers I sent
to show my power and majesty
in wisdom I shall always be.
3. Where we you when before me stand
the countless stars the depths embrace.
Each brief kindled by my hand
throughout great vastnesses of space.
And in that majesty was won
the golden glory of the sun
and everywhere new rays of light
as when fresh moonbeams fill the night.
4. Who kept the sea within its bounds
and put a limit on the deeps?
With the waves’ fierce ceaseless rounds
instruct them strive through ocean steeps?
The covering abysses of mist
with my strong hand I have dismissed.
Cleared paths through thick obscurity
and from the land expelled the sea.
5. If only once, have you not been
the hand that set the hour of dawn,
and to a day’s tormented green
the cool, reviving rains have drawn?
Not to the sailor brought a breeze
that set him on his course with ease?
To shake the earth, its burden be
from the ungodly there set free.
6. Have you not parsed the different ways
the sea progresses into deeps
or many miracles with which we gaze
on monsters that the water keeps.
However murky depths may be,
they open up and you can see
the mortal gate and all too well
the fearful stolen mouth of hell.
7. Can you constrain the whirlwind’s force?
Can you blot out the sun’s bright rays?
When air is clear throughout its course
can you then kindle lightning’s blaze?
And brilliantly, as lightning’s flash;
scourge all men’s hearts with your fierce lash,
or rock from end to end the universe
and lay on men your wrathful curse?
8. Can your cunning mind ascend
as eagles do, the loftiest height,
and in the wind your wings extend
that seas and rivers fill your sight,
and nonetheless observe your prey
however far or deep it lay,
Whenever sent for food or why,
there’s none escape that rapid eye.
9. Observe the woodland giant which
I have made as I made you.
It is its pleasure in that thorny pitch
to trample with a horny shoe.
Its veins accept that through their length
and you may test against your strength.
With ribs of bronze its flanks adorn,
and you match that fearsome horn.
10. Can you pull the great Leviathan
ashore with some mere fishing rod?
Far out to sea can any man
outrun the fins with which they’re shod?
His scales are glowing copper fields,
and cover him like copper shields.
Spear and sword, he will concede,
are no more to him than a rotten reed
11. Like a millstone is his heart,
sharp rows of sickles make his teeth
and the hand just tear apart:
he’s battle ready: underneath
and on the sharpest stones he lies
whose hardness he will much despise:
the falls of fortresses he thinks
are soft as much in which he sinks.
12. And so he rushes fast to arms
while sea is like a cauldron boiling.
His larynx seethes, and wild alarms
disturb the abyss where he’s spoiling
for fight, his eyes are ever glowing
a coal within the furnace sowing
discord on the feeling: none
have strength for such a one.
13. Consider that great space of light
which I had thought to rearrange:
Did I ask for oversight
on everything I had to change?
How I might on that sixth day
create a human out of clay.
You would have done much better then
to tell me fashion other men.
14. Reflect on this, O mortal man,
imagine your creator’s might:
Honour, too, the holy plan
that patience fashion all things right.
All things are built for benefit
whatever makes the end of it.
Life’s a burden that we bear
not in complaint but sober prayer.
We need articles from Russian literary critics on Lomonosov's uses of sources: what parts of the Book of Job he used, to what effect and why.
Unfortunately, the only articles I have been able to locate on the internet (listed below) are rather general and diffuse. Accordingly I will make a brief stab at
these matters, beginning by listing sections from Job that Lomonosov does appear to have incorporated in his Ode. These are (from the New International Version of the Bible):
The LORD Speaks:
Job 38
Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
2 “Who is this that obscures my plans
with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?
12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
13 that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.
34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
Job 39:
“Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
and spread its wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle soar at your command
and build its nest on high?
28 It dwells on a cliff and stays there at night;
a rocky crag is its stronghold.
29 From there it looks for food;
its eyes detect it from afar.
Job 40:
6 Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm:
7 “Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
“Look at Behemoth,
which I made along with you
and which feeds on grass like an ox.
16 What strength it has in its loins,
what power in the muscles of its belly!
17 Its tail sways like a cedar;
the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.
18 Its bones are tubes of bronze,
its limbs like rods of iron.
Job 41:
“Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down its tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
I won't go through these in detail, but it's clear that:
1. Lomonosov's use was selective and partial. Much has been left out. Material is sometimes quoted and sometimes paraphrased.
2. When passages or names are quoted (e.g Behemoth), these should appear as such and not be paraphrased into something else (woodland giant).
3. Lomonosov's poem is not a precis of Job, but an Ode on God's power in the universe, illustrated by selective quotation from the Book of Job.
4. Those illustrations are extended and decorated with poetic fancy.
5. That fancy notwithstanding, Lomonosov is celebrating a scientist's view, which is to glory in the manifold wonder of the world.
We now have to revise the draft in the light of the above, and correct the many verse infelicities of the first draft.
Since this is already an over-long web-page, I hope the amendments will speak for themselves.
Ode Selected from Job: Chapters 38, 39, 40 & 41
1. You, perversely sorrowing,
who, lifting voice to God, complain,
will find His wrath's a fearful thing,
as Job observed through clouded rain.
Through worst of tempests He will shine,
and have the lightning make His sign.
His words will shake the firmament:
He called up Job to argument.
2. Gather all your strength and then
be firm in courage: answer me.
Where were you when I gave to men
the light and beauty round you see.
I made the earth, the firmament;
a host of heavenly powers I sent
to show in power and majesty
the wisdom that will always be.
3. Where we you when before me stand
the countless stars the depths embrace.
Each one was kindled by my hand
throughout the vastnesses of space.
In like magnificence was won
the golden splendour of the sun
and everywhere new rays of light
were as the moonbeams fill the night.
4. Who kept the sea within its bounds
and put a limit on the deeps?
Who monitors the ceaseless rounds
of waves against the rocky steeps?
Who the abysses of mist
with His strong hand He has dismissed?
Who pushed against obscurity
and from the land expelled the sea?
5. Was it ever once your feat
to set the hour that ended dawn,
or to the sun-parched fields of wheat
the cool, reviving rains have drawn?
To sailor brought the breeze’s force
that set him calmly on his course?
Can you cause the earth to quake
and its ungodly fear and shake?
6. Have you dowsed the different ways
the sea progresses into deeps,
or many miracles with which we gaze
on monsters that the ocean keeps.
However murky depths may be,
they open up; can you not see
the gate of death, all too well
the fearful hidden mouth of hell?
7. Can you constrain the whirlwind’s force?
Or dim the very sun’s bright reign?
When air is clear throughout its course
can kindle lightning and the rain?
And brilliantly, as lightning’s flash,
scourge all men’s hearts with your fierce lash?
Or across the trembling universe
inflict on men your wrathful curse?
8. Can your agile mind ascend
as eagles do, the loftiest height,
and in the wind your wings extend
that seas and rivers are in sight,
but, nonetheless, observe your prey,
however far or deep it lay,
that when so sent for food or why,
there's none elude that rapid eye?
9. Observe the woodland Behemoth
I made as even I made you.
In thorny thickets it is never wroth
but tramples with a heavy shoe.
Its veins accept throughout their length
and you may test them with your strength.
Great ribs of bronze its flanks adorn,
and who can match that fearsome horn?
10. You'd pull the great Leviathan
ashore with some mere fishing rod?
Far out to sea can any man
outrun the fins with which it's shod?
Its scales are glowing whale-size fields,
and cover it with copper shields.
Spear and sword, you will concede,
are to it but a broken reed.
11. Like a millstone is its heart,
sharp rows of sickles make its teeth:
who'll dare his hand be torn apart?
It's battle ready. Underneath
and on the sharpest stones it lies
and will those hardnesses despise.
He sees them as the softest silt
compared to how its self is built.
12. And so it rushes fast to arms
while sea is like a cauldron boiling.
Its larynx seethes, and wild alarms
disturb the abyss where it's spoiling
ever to fight, its eyes agleam
as coals within the furnace seem.
The greatest it will fight, for none
has strength to win with such a one.
13. Consider that great space of light
which I had thought to rearrange:
Did I ask for oversight
when lots of little things must change?
And when from first imaginings
I fashioned out those human things,
why did you not entreat me then
to turn out yet still better men?
14. Reflect on this, O mortal man,
imagine your creator’s might:
Honour this, His holy plan
that patience fashion all things right.
All things are for our benefit
however comes our end of it.
If life’s a burden we must bear,
we can’t bemoan what’s wholly there.
1. Автор Попов Д.С «Ода, выбранная из Иова» Useful notes on the poem, in Russian.
2. №6 Ода, выбранная из Иова General article on Job, in Russian.
3. Духовные оды» Ломоносова («Ода, выбранная из Иова», «Переложение псалма 143»), их идейно-художественное своеобразие. Антицерковная сатира Ломоносова («Гимн бороде»), ее связь с духовными одами.
Lomosov's place in literature, in Russian.
4. Mikhail Lomonosov Wikipedia.
5. Mirsky, D.S. A History of Russian Literature (Knopf 1926/ Vintage Books 1958) 43-7.
6. Bristol, E., A History of Russian Poetry (1991, O.U.P.) 52-7.
Russian poem translations on this site: listing.
