IKONA

✜ Song of troubled times
✜ Pesni Bezvremenya
✜ Chant pour une époque troublée
Église Russe orthodoxe - Alexander Blok (1880-1921)
Georgy Sviridov (1915-1998)
James Bowman (countertenor)
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Here He is—Christ in chains and roses beyond the bars of my prison.
The Meek Lamb in white robes has come and gazes into the window of the prison.
In a simple frame, formed by the blue sky, his ikon gazes into the window.
A humble artist has formed the sky.
But the Face and the blue sky are one.
And everything is so close and yet so distant, that, standing next to it, you cannot reach it,
and you will not comprehend the blue Eye, until you yourself become like a path—
until you become just as empty, and lie down, trampled, in a lonely ravine,
until you forget about everything, and stop loving everything,
and fade away, like a dead seed of grain.
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