For other versions of this work, see The Sail (Lermontov).
The Sail (1832)
by Mikhail Lermontov, translated by Dmitri Smirnov

The poem was written in 1832. The autograph is preserved in a letter to Maria Lopukhina from 2 September 1832.

Mikhail Lermontov76103The Sail1832Dmitri Smirnov

The Sail

The lonely sail is showing white
Among the haze of the blue sea!..
What does it search in foreign part?
What left it in the native land?..

The waves are playing, wind is whistling,
And bending mast is creaking loud,
Alas, – it does not hunt for pleasure
And nor from pleasure does it run!

Below – a bright stream of azure,
Above – a golden beam of sun,
But it, rebellious, asks for tempests
As if the tempests give a rest!

1832

The note on the translation:

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