Oh Amber Eyes, oh Golden Eyes!
Oh Eyes so softly gay!
Wherein swift fancies fall and rise,
Grow dark and fade away.
Eyes like a little limpid pool
That holds a sunset sky,
While on its surface, calm and cool,
Blue water lilies lie.
Oh Tender Eyes, oh Wistful Eyes,
You smiled on me one day,
And all my life, in glad surprise,
Leapt up and pleaded “Stay!”
Alas, oh cruel, starlike eyes,
So grave and yet so gay,
You went to lighten other skies,
Smiled once and passed away.
Oh, you whom I name “Golden Eyes,”
Perhaps I used to know
Your beauty under other skies
In lives lived long ago.
Perhaps I rowed with galley slaves,
Whose labour never ceased,
To bring across Phoenician waves
Your treasure from the East.
Maybe you were an Emperor then
And I a favourite slave;
Some youth, whom from the lions’ den
You vainly tried to save!
Maybe I reigned, a mighty King,
The early nations knew,
And you were some slight captive thing,
Some maiden whom I slew.
Perhaps, adrift on desert shores
Beside some shipwrecked prow,
I gladly gave my life for yours.
Would I might give it now!
Or on some sacrificial stone
Strange Gods we satisfied,
Perhaps you stooped and left a throne
To kiss me ere I died.
Perhaps, still further back than this,
In times ere men were men,
You granted me a moment’s bliss
In some dark desert den,
When, with your amber eyes alight
With iridescent flame,
And fierce desire for love’s delight,
Towards my lair you came
Ah laughing, ever-brilliant eyes,
These things men may not know,
But something in your radiance lies,
That, centuries ago,
Lit up my life in one wild blaze
Of infinite desire
To revel in your golden rays,
Or in your light expire.
If this, oh Strange Ringed Eyes, be true,
That through all changing lives
This longing love I have for you
Eternally survives,
May I not sometimes dare to dream
In some far time to be
Your softly golden eyes may gleam
Responsively on me?
Ah gentle, subtly changing eyes,
You smiled on me one day,
And all my life in glad surprise
Leaped up, imploring “Stay!”
Alas, alas, oh Golden Eyes,
So cruel and so gay,
You went to shine in other skies,
Smiled once and passed away.
A few random poems:
- Epigram on the same Laird’s Country Seat by Robert Burns
- To Melancholy- Written On An intensely agitated Day by Nithin Purple
- Николай Некрасов – Детство
- Many Inventions by Rudyard Kipling
- Ольга Ермолаева – Симферопольский скорый
- Buddies by Richard Schiffman
- Ghazal of Rumi by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Robert Burns: Lady Mary Ann:
- What the Coal-Heaver Said by Vachel Lindsay
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мы живём в большом селе Большие Вилы
- Tu Fu – Tu Fu
- Владимир Костров – Сверстницам
- Sonnet 61: Is it thy will thy image should keep open by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet. To A Young Lady Who Sent Me A Laurel Crown poem – John Keats poems
- Mujer Libanesa I poem – Amir Ibn Tawfik poems | Poems and Poetry
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
- Михаил Кузмин – В легкой лени
- Михаил Кузмин – В Канопе жизнь привольная
- Михаил Кузмин – В густом лесу мы дождь пережидали
- Михаил Кузмин – В гроте Венерином мы горим
- Михаил Кузмин – Уж не слышен конский топот
- Михаил Кузмин – Увы, любви своей не скрою
- Михаил Кузмин – Утро (Звезды побледнели)
- Михаил Кузмин – Утраченного чародейства
- Михаил Кузмин – Утешение
- Михаил Кузмин – Туманный день пройдет уныло
- Михаил Кузмин – Трое (Нас было трое)
- Михаил Кузмин – Три раза я его видел лицом к лицу
- Константин Ваншенкин – Городские костры
- Константин Ваншенкин – Ехал я в штабном автомобиле
- Константин Батюшков – На смерть И.П. Пнина
- Константин Батюшков – На поэмы Петру Великому
- Константин Батюшков – На книгу под названием «Смесь»
- Константин Батюшков – Мщение
- Константин Батюшков – Мои пенаты
- Константин Батюшков – Мечта
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.