To make sure
You have not said:
“I love you,”
They smell your breath.
They even smell your heart
Trying times are these, my darling.
They flog love
Tied to the post of the cul-de-sac
We must hide love in the closet.
In this serpentine maze
This crooked cold corner
They feed the fire
With poems and songs
Thinking, too, is risky.
Those who, late at night, knock on the door,
Are there to kill the lamp.
We must hide the light in the closet.
Then there are the butchers
Stationed at all cross-roads,
Armed with a block and a bloody cleaver.
Trying times these are, my darling.
Surgically,
They plant smiles on lips,
And songs in the mouths.
We must hide joy in the closet.
On lilies and lilacs,
They roast the canaries.
Trying times these are, my darling.
Drunk with victory, the Devil,
Celebrates our wake.
We must hide God in the closet.
A few random poems:
- Владимир Маяковский – Вместо 2 280 товарных вагонов… (РОСТА №920)
- Ballad Of The Press-Gang At Shihao Village by Du Fu
- Омар Хайям – Что плоть твоя, Хайям?
- The Farmer Of Tilsbury Vale by William Wordsworth
- Tree Knowledge
- Наталья Шевченко – Он не в себе
- Владимир Солоухин – Теперь-то уж плакать нечего
- rice_pudding.html
- Bond and Free by Robert Frost
- An Ode To Antares
- was_then.html
- Erin, Oh Erin by Thomas Moore
- Night dyes its hair by Vladimir Marku
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 58. Farewell! – But Whenever You Welcome the Hour. Томас Мур.
- Sonnet Vii
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
- Ольга Седакова – Сновидец
- Ольга Седакова – Сказочка
- Ольга Седакова – Сказка
- Ольга Седакова – Selva selvaggia
- Ольга Седакова – С нежностью и глубиной
- Ольга Седакова – Путешествие волхвов
- Ольга Седакова – Прощание
- Ольга Седакова – Прибавления к “Старым песням”
- Ольга Седакова – Преданья о подвижниках похожи
- Ольга Седакова – Последний читатель
- Ольга Седакова – Плач
- Ольга Седакова – Первая тетрадь
- Ольга Седакова – Памяти поэта
- Ольга Седакова – Памяти одной старухи
- Ольга Седакова – Ни темной старины заветные преданья
- Ольга Седакова – Неужели, Мария, только рамы скрипят
- Ольга Седакова – Несчастен
- Ольга Седакова – Музыка
- Ольга Седакова – Московские картинки
- Ольга Седакова – Маленькое посвящение Владимиру Ивановичу Хвостину
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
