Far in the Further East the skilful craftsman
Fashioned this fancy for the West’s delight.
This rose and azure Dragon, crouching softly
Upon the satin skin, close-grained and white.
And you lay silent, while his slender needles
Pricked the intricate pattern on your arm,
Combining deftly Cruelty and Beauty,
That subtle union, whose child is charm.
Charm irresistible: the lovely something
We follow in our dreams, but may not reach.
The unattainable Divine Enchantment,
Hinted in music, never heard in speech.
This from the blue design exhales towards me,
As incense rises from the Homes of Prayer,
While the unfettered eyes, allured and rested,
Urge the forbidden lips to stoop and share;
Share in the sweetness of the rose and azure
Traced in the Dragon’s form upon the white
Curve of the arm. Ah, curb thyself, my fancy,
Where would’st thou drift in this enchanted flight?
A few random poems:
- Вера Павлова – Торчащее обтесать
- Tip tap RAIN by Neelam Sinha
- The State
- Road-Song of the Bandar-Log by Rudyard Kipling
- Василий Жуковский – Моя богиня
- Олег Бундур – Не верится
- Яков Полонский – А. Н. Майкову (ответ на стихи его: Полонский! Суждено опять судьбою злою)
- Jet by Tony Hoagland
- The Choice by William Butler Yeats
- Robert Burns: Sappho Redivivus: Fragment
- Николай Языков – Подражание псалму
- Sonnet 100: Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long by William Shakespeare
- The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh
- The Song Maker by Sara Teasdale
- 19-19 by Michelle Bonczek Evory
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
- Владимир Маяковский – Буржуазия и пролетариат стали врагами друг против друга… (Главполитпросвет №19)
- Владимир Маяковский – Будь готов
- Владимир Маяковский – Бруклинский мост
- Владимир Маяковский – Бродвей
- Владимир Маяковский – Братство РОСТА БН
- Владимир Маяковский – Богомольное
- Владимир Маяковский – Близится сушь… (Главполитпросвет №184)
- Владимир Маяковский – Били раз… (РОСТА №631)
- Анатолий Жигулин – Обвал
- Анатолий Жигулин – О, жизнь! Я всё тебе прощаю
- Анатолий Жигулин – О, Родина, в неярком блеске
- Анатолий Жигулин – Ночная смена
- Анатолий Жигулин – Невыразимы сладкой тишью
- Анатолий Жигулин – Не надо бояться памяти
- Анатолий Жигулин – Начало поэмы
- Анатолий Жигулин – Москва
- Анатолий Жигулин – Мне помнится рудник Бутугычаг
- Анатолий Жигулин – Марта, Марта! Весеннее имя
- Анатолий Жигулин – Лисенок
- Анатолий Жигулин – Лесные дороги
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

Violet Nicolson ( 1865 – 1904); otherwise known as Adela Florence Nicolson (née Cory), was an English poetess who wrote under the pseudonym of Laurence Hope, however she became known as Violet Nicolson. In the early 1900s, she became a best-selling author. She committed suicide and is buried in Madras, now Chennai, India.