European Elegies/Summer/The sail
89.THE SAIL
A lone white sail on the blue sea soars,Far away on the misty foam.What is it seeking on far-off shores?What has it left in the ports of home?
Over waves winging the wild winds shrill,Making the wrack'd mast groan in stress.Ah! It must look for wares of ill,Nor was its last freight happiness.
But still before it the sea gleams blue;Still on the sail shines the golden sun;Still the defiant heart throbs true,Fearless in faith as the gale is run.
From the Russian of Mikhail Yurevich Lermontov.