Russia is baffling to the mind,
not subject to the common measure;
her ways – of a peculiar kind…
One only can have faith in Russia.
by Фёдор Иванович Тютчев (Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev)
(1869)
translated by Avril Pyman
Fun Fact: Counted amongst the admirers of Tyutchev‘s works were Dostoevsky and Tolstoy along with Nekrasov and Fet then later Osip Mandelstam who, in a passage approved by Shalamov, believed that a Russian poet should not have copy of Tyutchev in his personal library – he should know all of Tyutchev off by heart.