February 9, 2017 – ICONS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION

In the third quarter of the 17th century, and under the influence of Western European religious engravings, icons of the type called Otche Nash — “Our Father” — began to appear in Russia, first in the Armory School of Moscow, then elsewhere. Icons of this type were never common, and those one finds are somewhat variable in the scenes included.

Here is an example from 1813, painted in the village of Pavlovo na Oke, in Nizhny Novgorod Province:

Let’s examine the rather formidable-looking Church Slavic inscription at the top:

It reads (put into the modern Russian font):

ОТЧЕ НАШЪ ИЖЕ ЕСИ НА НЕБЕСЕХЪ ДА СВЯТИТСЯ ИМЯ ТВОЕ ДА ПРИИДЕТЪ ЦАРСТВИЕ ТВОЕ
OTCHE NASH” IZHE ESI NA NEBESEKH” DA SVYATITSYA IMYA TVOE DA PRIIDET”
TSARSTVIE TVOE

As I have said many times, one does not have to learn the whole Church Slavic language in order to read the great percentage of icon inscriptions. They are very repetitive, so a vocabulary of words commonly used in such inscriptions proves surprisingly useful in the number of icons one is able to read. So don’t waste your time trying to learn the whole language unless you want to go deeply into Slavic studies; learn something else that is pleasant, like Italian, or Romanian, or anything reasonably practical or pleasant.

How then, are we going to translate that long-looking icon inscription? Well, it is not really as intimidating as it looks, and here’s why: We already know it is an icon of the “Lord’s Prayer” — Otche Nash. That is a huge clue, because if we look at the first two words of the inscription, we see they are precisely that — OTCHE NASH.

To translate the remainder of the inscription all we have to do is look at the “Lord’s Prayer” in Church Slavic, and here it is:

I will transliterate and translate it rather literally:

OTCHE NASH” IZHE ESI NA NEBESYEKH” DA SVYATITSYA
FATHER 0F-US WHO IS IN [the] HEAVENS MAY-BE MADE-HOLY
Note: Previously, we have seen otche in the form otets — “father.” when da (the common Russian word for “yes”) is followed by a verb in Church Slavic as here, it takes on the sense of “may it be…” “let it be…” — so “Da Svyatitsya” means basically “let it be made holy” — “May it be sanctified.” You already know its root Svyat, meaning “holy.” This “da + verb” usage is known as the “optative” form, which expresses a wish that something may be so. Izhe means literally “which,” but we can say “who” here.

IMYA TVOE DA PRIIDET” TSARSTVIE TVOE: DA BUDET”
NAME OF-YOU MAY COME KINGDOM OF-YOU MAY BE
Note: There are two “da” form phrases in this line: da priidet” — “may [it] come,” and da budet”, “may [it] be.”

VOLYA TVOYA IAKO NA NEBESI I NA ZEMLI. KHLEB”
WILL OF-YOU AS IN HEAVEN ALSO ON EARTH BREAD
Note: Notice that the word i, normally meaning “and”, means “also” in this line. “As in heaven [so] also on earth.”

NASH” NASOUSHCHNUIY DAZHD’ NAM” DNES’ I OSTAVI
OF-US NECESSARY GIVE US TODAY AND FORGIVE

NAM” DOLGI NASHYA IAKOZHE I MUI OSTAVLYAEM”

US DEBTS OUR JUST-AS ALSO WE FORGIVE

DOLZHNIKOM” NASHUIM”: I NE VVEDI NAS” VO

DEBTORS OF-US AND NOT LEAD US INTO

ISKOUSHENIE NO IZBABI NAS” OT LOUKAVAGO AMIN’

TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM [the] EVIL-ONE AMEN”

So we can see that the title inscription at the top of the icon reads basically, “Our Father, who is in the heavens, may your name be made holy, may your kingdom come….”

In the icon shown above, each scene depicts part of the prayer:

Here is : “Our Father, who is in the heavens…”