By Alexander Solzhenitsyn
How easy it is to live with you, O Lord!
How easy it is to believe in You.
When my spirit sinks
Or scatters in confusion,
And the very smartest people
Cannot see further than this evening,
And do not know what to do tomorrow,
You send down clear certainty to me
that You exist and that You care
And will ensure that not all the paths of goodness will be blocked.
On the peak of earthly glory
I look back in surprise on the path I have taken
Which I would never have been able
to invent for myself,
An incredible path
Through hopelessness
From which I was yet able
To send humanity a reflection
of Your rays of light.
And for as long as it is necessary that I keep
Reflecting them,
You will let me do so.
And what I do not finish—
well, then,
You have assigned to others the task.
