Palm branch of Palestine, oh tell me, <br />In that far distant home-land fair, <br />Wast rooted in the mountain gravel <br />Or sprung from some vale garden rare? <br /> <br />Once o'er the Jordan's silver billows <br />Fond kissed with thee the Eastern sun? <br />Have the grim gales 'neath starry heavens <br />Swept over thee from Lebanon? <br /> <br />And was a trembling prayer soft whispered, <br />A father's song sung over thee-- <br />When from the parent stem dis-severed <br />By some poor aborigine? <br /> <br />And is the palm tree ever standing, <br />Amid the fierce glare beating down, <br />The pilgrim in the desert luring <br />To shelter 'neath her shadow crown? <br /> <br />Perhaps the leaves ancestral shiver <br />In unappeased parting pain, <br />The branch conceals a homesick longing <br />For desert wilderness again? <br /> <br />Was it a pilgrim who first brought thee <br />To the cold North, with pious hand? <br />Who mused upon his home in sadness, <br />And dost thou bear his tear's hot brand? <br /> <br />Was it Jehovah's favored warrior, <br />His gleaming head transfigured bright, <br />For God and man true-sworn, devoted <br />Unto the victory of light? <br /> <br />Before the wonder-working image <br />Thou stand'st as heaven's defence divine, <br />O branch from out that holy country, <br />The sanctuary's shield and sign! <br /> <br />It darkens, golden lamp light splendors <br />Enveil the cross, the sacred shrine-- <br />The peace of God is wafted o'er us <br />From thee, oh branch of Palestine!<br /><br />Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-palm-branch-of-palestine/
