1. Hagia Sofia -- here to stop and stare The Lord has ordered people and the tsars! Your dome, as an eyewitness once described it, As if by chains is hanging from the stars. 2. To all a shining light -- age of Justinian, When to steal off for foreign gods unseen Dedicated Diana the Ephesian Hundred and seven marble columns green. 3. To what aspired your generous creator, When high in spirit and in reason blessed, He laid your features on the ground And pointed them directions east and west? 4. The temple shines, in the world's aura bathing, And forty windows -- triumph of the light; On sails under the dome the four archangels Finest of all and basking in delight. 5. This building will outlast people and ages So wise and spherical and nobly built And incandescent weeping of the angels Will not corrode away the darkened gilt. By Osip Mandelshtam Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat https://sites.google.com/site/ibshambat
