Osip Mandelstam — Your image...

Your image, tormenting and vague, - 

I could not feel it in the fog. 

“O, Lord!” – I uttered by mistake, 

Without intending what I spoke. 

And from my chest, like a great bird, 

God’s name flew, unconfined. 

Ahead of me, dense fog, unfurled, 

And empty cage behind. 

April 1912