A poem by Alan Dugan
by Al Mutanabbi
A young soul in my ageing body plays, Though time’s sharp blades my weary visage raze.
***
Hard biter in a toothless mouth is she, The will may wane, but she a winner stays.
***
Spare me to win glory’s forbidden prize, Glory in hardship, sloth in comfort lies.
***
Em’nence is not with cheap comfort bought, Hear the honey gath’rers bee-stung cries
***
No indolent dreaming dawdler am I, Nor am content, while riches I descry.
***
Life’s heaving tides of woe shall spare me not, Unless I, its unblocked courses defy
***
Softly do town girls their faces adorn, But Bedu are from garish colours shorn.
***
Town beauty is with pampered softness sought, The Bedu are with unsought beauty born.
***
Grave harm have lovers to themselves done, Loving, ere understanding life begun.
***
They, with with’ered and wasted souls, After vile, though pretty-faced creatures run.
***
Beauti’ful women, as experienced men know, Are but darkness wrapped in dazzling light aglow.
***
A life of friv’lous youth and worried age, Its futile course to futile death will flow
***
When my hands from brimming cups weakly shook, I awoke, ere sense my wined mind forsook.
***
Shunning choice wines, as rich as purest gold, I, of spring showers silv’ry draught partook.
***
Secrets I keep no companion can discern, Nor to it can wine its potent way burn.
***
Soft women I have for an hour, and then, Deserts I roam, never more to return.
***
Courage to reason second place must take, For valour should not balanced judgment shake.
***
But if both in a hard soul united are, Then Glory’s realms their own demesne shall make.
***
Defiantly live, or in honour die, Midst slashing blades and banners flapping high
***
Rage is best dispatched by lances’ points, and Spearing spiteful chests shall their spite deny.
***
Face with cool, carefree calm life’s caretorn climes, As long as your soul with its body chimes.
***
Your joys of yore have passed beyond recall, And sadness can summon not bygone times.
***
A charger’s saddle is an exalted throne, The best companions are books alone.
***
Without hardship everyone would prevail, The generous are poor, and courage kills its own.
***
One’s ill-conduct brooding mistrust will breed, For dark thoughts on darker suspicions feed.
***
Sland’ring friends with what foes have slandered one, Thus in black nights of doubt one’s life will lead.
***
Fie’ry rashness may as valour be seen, And nervous anger may cowardice mean.
***
Arms are carried by people everywhere, But not all claws are lion’s, nor as keen.
***
Cowards see vapid impotence as sense, Such is treacherous villainy’s defense.
***
Each of valour’s divers forms enriches, But valiant wisdom is of worth immense.
***
Our dead we mourn, though we very well know, That but Vanity they leave ere they go.
***
Reflection upon life’s hard course shall teach, ‘Tis one to die as be slain by a foe.
***
Shoreless you would be of you were a sea. If rain, earth unable to contain ye.
***
Country and people of you I could warn, Of that which only Noah could foresee.
***
Misfortune’s arrows do upon me rain, Countless arrowheads does my heart sustain.
***
As more shafts at my studded heart fly, Steel upon Steel shatters the hardy twain.
***
At times in Bedu tents a home I find, Often, home is atop the camel’s hind,
***
My body a target for the brigand’s lance, To scorching heat my aching face unbind.
***
Though a noble lady and highly born, ‘Tis your unfeminine wisdom we mourn.
***
True spirit is from softer self distilled, As potent wine from sweeter grapes is drawn.
***
A few random poems:
- Seeking Beauty by William Henry Davies
- Cruisers by Rudyard Kipling
- The Couriers by Sylvia Plath
- God Of Roads by Yvor Winters
- The Neighbor by Marge Piercy
- Ольга Седакова – Маленькое посвящение Владимиру Ивановичу Хвостину
- Валерий Брюсов – Италия
- The Rape of the Lock poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- To England poem – Alfred Austin
- A Fountain, a Bottle, a Donkey’s Ears, and Some Books by Robert Frost
- Augustus Gloop… by Roald Dahl
- Brother of All, with Generous Hand. by Walt Whitman
- I have fallen into unconsciousness by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Robert Burns: Where Are The Joys I have Met?:
- Mother, I cannot mind my Wheel by Walter Savage Landor
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 70: That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 6: Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 69: Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 68: Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 67: Ah, wherefore with infection should he live by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 66: Tired with all these, for restful death I cry by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 65: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 64: When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 63: Against my love shall be, as I am now by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 62: Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 61: Is it thy will thy image should keep open by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 5: Those hours, that with gentle work did frame by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 59: If there be nothing new, but that which is by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 58: That god forbid, that made me first your slave by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 57: Being your slave, what should I do but tend by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 56: Sweet love, renew thy force, be it not said by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 55: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 95: How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame by William Shakespeare
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
Alan Dugan (1923 – 2003) an American poet, a contemporary classic of American poetry.