Captivating! - Sisters Sing Haunting Russian Hymn, Life is Short, Our Days are Numbered (English Subtitles)
Beautifully & modestly dressed, the Martens Sisters — Madeleine, Amy, & Elizabeth — blend their harmonies with the preeminent singing of Simon Khorolskiy, in this adaptation of Psalm 90
While watching this video, be sure to click the “CC” button to activate English subtitles:
Lyrics (translated into English):
O, Lord, You have been our dwelling place
Even before mountains were born,
Before You created the whole world
And for all the ages You are God.
Thousands of years in Your sight had flashed,
Like a day or like a short hour rushed,
You are carrying us with a sweeping flood,
Days are passing quickly, we’re flying fast.
Chorus:
Turn to us, O Lord!
Show compassion to Your poor slaves,
Satisfy us early with Your mercy
And we will be glad and rejoice in all our days.
Bridge:
For all our years are passed away in Your wrath,
With a moan and sigh we finish our days,
Seventy years that is all,
And even eighty will leave no trace,
We are no more.
We are dismayed by Your divine wrath;
Who can withstand your anger?
Teach us, Lord, to count our days,
So we may get a heart of wisdom.
Original song composed by Simon Khorolskiy
Lyrics adapted by Simon Khorolskiy & Zarina Kozlov
Based on Psalm 89 (90 in English)
Sung by Simon Khorolskiy and The Martens Sisters — Madeleine, Amy, and Elizabeth
Original lyrics (in Russian):
Господи, Ты нам прибежище,
Прежде нежели горы родились,
Ты образовал вселенную
И во веки вечные Бог - Ты
Тысячи лет пред лицем Твоим
Промелькнут как день или час один,
Наводнением нас уносишь Ты,
Дни проходят быстро и мы летим
Припев:
Обратись, Господи!
Умилосердись над рабами Ты,
Рано насыти нас милостью Твоей
И мы будем радоваться
во все наши дни
Бридж:
Все наши дни прошли во гневе Твоем,
Мы теряем как звук наши лета.
Дней наших семьдесят лет,
И восемьдесят пройдет без следа...
И нас уже нет
В смятенье мы от Твоей ярости,
И кто устоит пред гневом Твоим?
Научи нас так счислять дни,
Сердце мудрое чтоб обрести.
There's something about worship songs in Russian which I just love. Can't quite understand why, but it is incredibly lovely. Thanks for sharing.
This song is by far probably my favorite song in Russian.
This was one of the first songs I translated when I really got into learning the language. I translate word4word to help me understand how Russians speak and think.
I would create subtitles in the standard normal translation from Russian (Cyrillic) to English, then I'd repeat another line to also include the Russian in the Latin alphabet which helped me learn how to read in the Cyrillic by comparing the Latin and Cyrillic Characters, then on another line I'd do word4word literal translation. Got a nice collection of Lyrics to some beautiful songs this way.
I would do reverse searches on each word and look at context and how each one is used in other writing examples. It helps a lot and discovered while learning Russian that many of the Russian words for "YOU", seemed to be confusing but are actually equivalent to our Thou, Thee, Thy, Thine, etc. If you know any of the older English, like in KJV, and use that knowledge when learning Russian, it will speed your learning of the numerous Russian pronouns. So when translating songs, I'd use those pronouns in the older English, which helped me drastically better understand it. For some it's strange, but for me it was exciting to come to this realization of how it was in front of me the whole time and so much more simple than I thought.