Hey, Wanna Hear a Pretty Poem?

I’m supposed to be writing an essay about this Alexander Blok poem, but instead I will translate it for you. It was written during the Russo-Japanese war.

A girl sang in a church choir
Of all those tired in a foreign land,
Of all the ships, gone out to sea,
Of all, who had forgotten their joy.

How her voice sang, flying up to the cupola;
And a sunbeam shone on her white shoulder,
And from the darkness each one watched and listened
To the white dress sing in the sunbeam.

And it seemed to everyone that there would be joy,
That all the ships were in quiet backwaters,
That in the foreign land all the tired people
Had found themselves bright lives.

And the voice was sweet, and the sunbeam was slender,
And only on high, at the royal gates,
Was the keeper of the secret—and the Child cried,
For no one would come back.

1906