A poem by Alistar Crowley (1875-1947)
So it is eighteen years,
Helena, since we met!
A season so endears,
Nor you nor I forget
The fresh young faces that once clove
In that most fiery dawn of love.
We wandered to and fro,
Who knew not how to woo,
Those eighteen years ago,
Sweetheart, when I and you
Exchanged high vows in heaven’s sight
That scarce survived a summer’s night.
What scourge smote from the stars
What madness from the moon?
That night we broke the bars
Was quintessential June,
When you and I beneath the trees
Bartered our bold virginities.
Eighteen -years, months, or hours?
Time is a tyrant’s toy!
Eternal are the flowers!
We are but girl and boy
Yet -since love leapt as swift to-night
As it had never left the light!
For fiercer from the South
Still flames your cruel hair,
And Trojan Helen’s mouth
Still not so ripe and rare
As Helena’s -nor love nor youth
So leaps with lust or thrills with truth.
Helena, still we hold
Flesh firmer, still we mix
Black hair with hair as gold.
Life has but served to fix
Our hearts; love lingers on the tongue,
And who loves once is always young.
The stars are still the same;
The changeful moon endures;
Come without fear or shame,
And draw my mouth to yours!
Youth fails, however flesh be fain;
Manhood and womanhood attain.
Life is a string of pearls,
And you the first I strung.
You left -first flower of girls! –
Life lyric on my tongue,
An indefatigable dance,
An inexhaustible romance!
Blush of love’s dawn, bright bud
That bloomed for my delight,
First blossom of my blood,
Burn in that blood to-night!
Helena, Helena, fiercely fresh,
Your flesh flies fervent to my flesh.
What sage can dare impugn
Man’s immortality?
Our godhead swims, immune
From death and destiny.
Ignored the bubble in the flow
Of love eighteen short years ago!
Time -I embrace all time
As my arm rings your waist.
Space -you surpass, sublime,
As, taking me, we taste
Omnipotence, sense slaying sense,
Soul slaying soul, omniscience.
A few random poems:
- Wolves by Mary Bone
- Олег Григорьев – Футбол
- Sonnet LX by William Shakespeare
- The Virgin Maid of Orleans, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s sonnet: La Pucelle by T. Wignesan.
- A Paraphrase on an Ode in Horace’s Third Book, beginning thus:— “Inclusam Danaen turris ahenea.” by Abraham Cowley
- Илья Эренбург – О Москве
- Aeneid by Virgil
- A Poet’s Epitaph by William Wordsworth
- The River Has Its Memories by Mary Etta Metcalf
- “I Sometimes Think” by Thomas Hardy
- Quatrain 1693 (Farsi with English Translation) by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Rich Days by William Henry Davies
- Thought. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: How Cruel Are The Parents: Altered from an old English song. tune-“John Anderson, my jo.”
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Комета
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
- Show It At The Beach by Shel Silverstein
- She’s My Ever Lovin’ Machine by Shel Silverstein
- Scum Of The Earth by Shel Silverstein
- Sarah Cynthia Slyvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out by Shel Silverstein
- Rosalie’s Good Eats Cafe by Shel Silverstein
- Rock ‘N’ Roll Band by Shel Silverstein
- Ring Of Grass by Shel Silverstein
- Recipe For A Hippopotamus Sandwich by Shel Silverstein
- Put Something In by Shel Silverstein
- Polly In A Porny by Shel Silverstein
- Point Of View by Shel Silverstein
- Pathetic Way Of Getting Over Me by Shel Silverstein
- On The Way To The Bottom by Shel Silverstein
- Never Bite A Married Woman On The Thigh by Shel Silverstein
- My Mind Keeps Movin’ by Shel Silverstein
- Morgan’s Curse by Shel Silverstein
- Melinda Mae by Shel Silverstein
- Mama I’ll Sing One For You by Shel Silverstein
- Makin’ It Natural by Shel Silverstein
- Lookin’ For Myself by Shel Silverstein
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
