Mikhail Lermontov (1814–1841)

ON the sightless seas of ether,

Rudderless, without a sail,

Choirs of stars uplift their voices,

Where the mist-waves rise and fail.

Through the hemless fields of heaven

Wander wide and tracelessly

Clouds, unshepherded, unnumbered,

Pale, ephemeral and free.

Hour of parting, hour of meeting,

Neither gladden them, nor fret;

Theirs no yearning toward the future,

Theirs no haunting of regret.

On the grim day of disaster

These remember, worlds away:

Be beyond earth’s reach as these are,

And indifferent as they.