We were delighted to come into contact with Olena Prokopovych and her Ukrainian translation! She is an associate professor of Political Science and Political Science Program Director at the Nazareth College in Rochester (NY). Olena was born in Ukraine but has lived in the US for many years. She sent us her direct and literally Ukrainian translation of the Stabat Mater (Analecta-version). She provided a translation of a translation (into English), for the purposes of ‘verification’ or ‘assessment’ of Ukrainian translation by those who do not know Ukrainian. This translation is VERY literal and is most useful for the purposes of understanding each and every word of the Latin text.

Olena was kind enough to point our attention to another Ukrainian translation, by Anatoliy Olikh. Anatoliy Olikh is described as a journalist, historian and translator. It seems that he does a lot of work with Polish and liturgical texts. In Olena’s opinion this translation is wonderful! It is poetic, yet quite close to the original text. It also keeps the poetic rhyming scheme and meter! It has an AAB CCB rhyming form and the 8-8-7 syllable lines in each stanza! It seems to follow the Analecta version with the exception of Stanza 19.

Translation by Olena Prokopovych
Translation by Anatoliy Olikh