Be still, my heart, and listen,
For sweet and yet acute
I hear the wistful music
Of Khristna and his flute.
Across the cool, blue evenings,
Throughout the burning days,
Persuasive and beguiling,
He plays and plays and plays.
Ah, none may hear such music
Resistant to its charms,
The household work grows weary,
And cold the husband’s arms.
I must arise and follow,
To seek, in vain pursuit,
The blueness and the distance,
The sweetness of that flute!
In linked and liquid sequence,
The plaintive notes dissolve
Divinely tender secrets
That none but he can solve.
Oh, Khristna, I am coming,
I can no more delay.
“My heart has flown to join thee,”
How can my footsteps stay?
Beloved, such thoughts have peril;
The wish is in my mind
That I had fired the jungle,
And left no leaf behind,–
Burnt all bamboos to ashes,
And made their music mute,–
To save thee from the magic
Of Khristna and his flute.
A few random poems:
- Ode for General Washington’s Birthday by Robert Burns
- The Piano-Organ poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Water-Fowl Observed Frequently Over The Lakes Of Rydal And Grasmere by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Корнилов – Черный день
- Louisa: After Accompanying Her On A Mountain Excursion by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Маяковский – Живой труп (РОСТА №182)
- Forty Years Later by Martin Willitts, Jr
- Alfred Lord Tennyson; The Coming Of Arthur poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Lover’s Gifts XLVII: The Road Is by Rabindranath Tagore
- Darling Daughter of Babylon by Vachel Lindsay
- Ольга Берггольц – Лучший город
- The Death Of Grant poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Innocence
- Sonnet Xiii
- Could Man Be Drunk Forever poem – A. E. Housman
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 Берггольц – Слышала, приедешь к нам не скоро ты
- Ольга Берггольц – Синеглазый мальчик, синеглазый
- Ольга Берггольц – Сибиринка
- Ольга Берггольц – Сестре
- Ольга Берггольц – Родине
- Ольга Берггольц – Разговор с соседкой
- Ольга Берггольц – Простите бедность этих строк
- Ольга Берггольц – Придешь, как приходят слепые
- Ольга Берггольц – Потеряла я вечером слово
- Ольга Берггольц – Порука
- Ольга Берггольц – Полуночная
- Ольга Берггольц – Покуда небо сумрачное меркнет
- Ольга Берггольц – Подбирают фомки и отмычки
- Ольга Берггольц – Письмо из Ленинграда
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня о жене патриота
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня о ленинградской матери
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня дочери
- Ольга Берггольц – Первое письмо на Каму
- Ольга Берггольц – Пахнет соснами, гарью, тленьем
- Ольга Берггольц – Память (Всей земною горечью и болью)
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.