Osip Mandelshtam
- Hagia Sophia, by Alistair Noon
- Hagia Sophia, by D. Smirnov-Sadovsky
«Night, street, lamp, drugstore, / A dull and meaningless light. / Go on and live another quarter century - / Nothing will change. There's no way out. You'll die, then start from the beginning, / It will repeat, just like before: / Night, icy ripples on a canal, / Drugstore, street, lam...»
«"Oh, yes, love is free as a bird," / But all the same I am yours! / And all the same I will dream / Of your figure, all aflame! The ravening strength of your fine hands, / Your eyes saddened by betrayal / Are all the madness of my vain passion, / Are all my nights, Carmen! Of you I wil...»
«All valor I forgot and noble deeds / And glory on this grief-filled earth, / While in a simple frame your face / Glowed before me on the desk. The hour arrived, you left the house. / I flung the cherished ring into the night. / You pledged yourself to someone else, / And I forgot your l...»
«Oh, how desperately I want to live: / Immortalize the real, / Personify thefaceless, / Give flesh to the nonexistent! Life's crushing dream may smother me / I may suffocate as I dream, - / And yet a lighthearted youth, perhaps / Will say of me in times to come: Let us forgive his gloo...»