Beneath a veil of milky white <br />Stands Isaac's like a hoary dovecote, <br />The crozier irritates the grey silences, <br />The heart understands the airy rite. <br /> <br />The wandering specter of the centennial requiem, <br />The grand bearing of the shroud <br />And in a decrepit seine, the Gennesarian gloom <br />Of the Lenten Week. <br /> <br />The Old Testament smoke on warm altars, <br />And the final, orphaned cry of the priest, <br />A regal, humble man: clean snow on his shoulders, <br />And the savage purple mantles. <br /> <br />The eternal cathedrals of Sofia and Peter, <br />Storehouses of air and light, the possessions <br />Of the universal granary <br />And the threshing barn of the New Testament. <br /> <br />The spirit is not drawn to you in sorely troubled times, <br />Here drags the wolf's track of unhappiness <br />Along the cloudy steps; <br />We will never betray it: <br /> <br />For the slave is free, has overcome fear, <br />And preserved beyond measure <br />In the cool granaries, in deep combines, <br />Is the kernel of deep, full faith.<br /><br />Osip Emilevich Mandelstam<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/beneath-a-veil-of-milky-white/
