Polish-English Translation St Faustina's Prayers?

[deedledee]

I take a Traditional view in the Church but I also like Saint Faustina and I am happy to see in another thread that the SSPX and other solid Traditionals seem to approve the Divine Mercy devotionals by including material on their tables even though this devotion didn’t really get started until after the 'Sixties.

That being said, I have some small problems here and there in the prayers and I wonder if someone with fluent Polish-English skills could help me with this, since there might have been questions of translation?

For example, on page 4 in the 3rd edition of the Diary in English, there is a prayer with these words:

“It is no longer in my power
to change, correct or add to the past;
For neither sages nor prophets could do that
And so what the past has embraced I must entrust to God”

and this is followed by this stanza:

“O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire,
I desire to use you as best I can,
And although I am weak and small
You grant me the grace of your omnipotence”

Now, what bothers me about this and did not stop me from continuing in participating in Divine Mercy is that this poem looks very different from the rest of Saint Faustina’s writings.

These two stanzas are excerpted. The second one obviously is heretical, because in it she is shown to be praying to a creature that is not a Saint and she is attributing “omnipotence” to that creature, “the present moment”.

The earlier stanza is a problem because of the phrase “no longer” instead of simply “not”, since that implies a belief that humans once were Gods or God-like, which of course could be said of Satan’s angels, who were originally like the other angels, very near to God, but even when Adam and Eve enjoyed close fellowship with God in the Garden, they were not anything like God.

I really would like to hear from Polish linguists if the original poem was different from the one in this book. The notes in the book suggest that there was a lot of editorial discussion during the translation process and so that is why I am looking for an original that might be more in keeping with Saint Faustina’s overall faithfulness to God.

 

[Garyjohn2]

I don’t think she is praying to the present moment, per say, just addressing it. It looks like a poem/prayer. It’s really common in poetry to say “O this or that.” Seems ok to me.

For example, I could write and pray,

Thanks and praise to God
O my heart, who yearns for God, tremble not and wait upon the Lord.
O my weary feet, do not weep, and wait upon the peace of God.

Or something like that. I guess it can be read different ways though.

I’m sorry I don’t know polish to answer the bulk of your post. I just wanted to help out the little I could!

 

[deedledee]

Well, I found a youtube interview with her Vatican Postulant that suggests there may be problems in translation:

youtube.com/watch?v=g7CrNnOcFrQ

and also I think maybe if she meant to refer to “Eternal” moment it might have been hard to express, speaking of the “Eternity” contained in the “Now”. That would not be heretical, I think. Paul Tillich and some other philosphers may have played with that concept, but poor Sister Faustina was only semi-literate with less than three years of rural schooling. She worked in the kitchen of her convent and her visions were only known to the Mother Supeior and her confessor, who really wasn’t sure what to make of htem.

She may have used some Polish idiom or something that the American English could not accomodate.

Still, I would love to know the details of that.

 

[Nelka]

I cannot find it.

Please copy and paste the polish here for me to see.

 

[JHow]

I take a Traditional view in the Church but I also like Saint Faustina and I am happy to see in another thread that the SSPX and other solid Traditionals seem to approve the Divine Mercy devotionals by including material on their tables even though this devotion didn’t really get started until after the 'Sixties.

That being said, I have some small problems here and there in the prayers and I wonder if someone with fluent Polish-English skills could help me with this, since there might have been questions of translation?

For example, on page 4 in the 3rd edition of the Diary in English, there is a prayer with these words:

“It is no longer in my power
to change, correct or add to the past;
For neither sages nor prophets could do that
And so what the past has embraced I must entrust to God”

and this is followed by this stanza:

“O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire,
I desire to use you as best I can,
And although I am weak and small
You grant me the grace of your omnipotence”

Now, what bothers me about this and did not stop me from continuing in participating in Divine Mercy is that this poem looks very different from the rest of Saint Faustina’s writings.

These two stanzas are excerpted. The second one obviously is heretical, because in it she is shown to be praying to a creature that is not a Saint and she is attributing “omnipotence” to that creature, “the present moment”.

The earlier stanza is a problem because of the phrase “no longer” instead of simply “not”, since that implies a belief that humans once were Gods or God-like, which of course could be said of Satan’s angels, who were originally like the other angels, very near to God, but even when Adam and Eve enjoyed close fellowship with God in the Garden, they were not anything like God.

I really would like to hear from Polish linguists if the original poem was different from the one in this book. The notes in the book suggest that there was a lot of editorial discussion during the translation process and so that is why I am looking for an original that might be more in keeping with Saint Faustina’s overall faithfulness to God.

I think I found is here:

opoka.org.pl/biblioteka/T/TS/faustyna_dzienniczek_wybor1.html

O Boże mój
Gdy patrzę w przyszłość, ogarnia mnie trwoga,
Ale po co zagłębiać się w przyszłość?
Dla mnie jest tylko chwila obecna droga,
Bo przyszłość może w duszy mojej nie zagości.
Czas, który przeszedł, nie jest w mojej mocy,
By coś zmienić, poprawić lub dodać,
Bo tego nie dokazał ani mędrzec, ani prorocy,
A więc co przeszłość w sobie zawarła, na Boga zdać.
O chwilo obecna, ty do mnie należysz cała,
Ciebie wykorzystać pragnę, co tylko jest w mojej mocy,
A chociaż jestem słaba i mała,
Dajesz mi łaskę swej wszechmocy.
A więc z ufnością w miłosierdzie Twoje,
Idę przez życie jak dziecko małe
I składam Ci codziennie w ofierze serce moje
Rozpalone miłością o Twoją większą chwałę.

Your first bit starts at “Czas, który przeszedł”

And your second bit starts at “O chwilo obecna”

I’ll leave the theology to others, but as I read this poem (it is a poem above all), she does address the “present moment” and request its power, because it is only in the present that she can act (hence only it has power). In the last sentence, she switches back to talking about Your mercy, Your glory (which can only mean Christ). I don’t see the middle part as prayer to a created thing, but rather as a use of personification. The vocative case is used to address anyone you call to: Mamo! Tato! Babu! It does not necessarily mean a prayer. (Believe me, when my kids are yelling Tato! Its not a prayer - they want something). It often comes out in translation as “O God!” or “O Present Moment” so that English readers pick up the vocative, but it could just as well be translated without the “O”.

The bit about “no longer in my power”: Czas, który przeszedł, nie jest w mojej mocy,
By coś zmienić,…

I might translate as “That time which is past, it is not within my strength to change, add to or correct, because even the wise men or prophets could not do that…”

The Polish text would not be read to mean that once she had the power to change the past, but now does not have that power - just that she cannot change the past.

I am not a native Polish speaker, however, so I will be interested to hear what others have to say. I would ask my wife (who is Polish), but she fell asleep.

 

[Shin]

Making the best of the present moment is so key to the spiritual life.

The past is gone, the future is uncertain, only the present moment is ours. Which if we make the most of it by a pure intention, doing God’s will to the best of our knowledge, we can both rest happily in that knowledge, of doing the work with God and a clean conscience, and have the gratitude and reliance on God that we need.

Have you noticed the differences in novena translations? There’s a traditional and a softened up version.

 

[ProVobis]

I think I found is here:

Your first bit starts at “Czas, który przeszedł”

And your second bit starts at “O chwilo obecna”

I’ll leave the theology to others, but as I read this poem (it is a poem above all), she does address the “present moment” and request its power, because it is only in the present that she can act (hence only it has power). In the last sentence, she switches back to talking about Your mercy, Your glory (which can only mean Christ). I don’t see the middle part as prayer to a created thing, but rather as a use of personification. The vocative case is used to address anyone you call to: Mamo! Tato! Babu! It does not necessarily mean a prayer. (Believe me, when my kids are yelling Tato! Its not a prayer - they want something). It often comes out in translation as “O God!” or “O Present Moment” so that English readers pick up the vocative, but it could just as well be translated without the “O”.

The bit about “no longer in my power”: Czas, który przeszedł, nie jest w mojej mocy,
By coś zmienić,…

I might translate as “That time which is past, it is not within my strength to change, add to or correct, because even the wise men or prophets could not do that…”

The Polish text would not be read to mean that once she had the power to change the past, but now does not have that power - just that she cannot change the past.

That’s a very good take. It’s a very beautiful poem and I would like someone to speak it to me as I admit I have to being a very slow reader of the Polish. It’s been a very long time since my parents sent me to a Polish school on Saturdays when I could master these writings. My dad was an excellent Polish writer.