Kotri By The River

At Kotri, by the river, when the evening’s sun is low,

The waving palm trees quiver, the golden waters glow,

The shining ripples shiver, descending to the sea;

At Kotri, by the river, she used to wait for me.

So young, she was, and slender, so pale with wistful eyes

As luminous and tender as Kotri’s twilight skies.

Her face broke into flowers, red flowers at the mouth,

Her voice,–she sang for hours like bulbuls in the south.

We sat beside the water through burning summer days,

And many things I taught her of Life and all its ways

Of Love, man’s loveliest duty, of Passion’s reckless pain,

Of Youth, whose transient beauty comes once, but not again.

She lay and laughed and listened beside the water’s edge.

The glancing rirer glistened and glinted through the sedge.

Green parrots flew above her and, as the daylight died,

Her young arms drew her lover more closely to her side.

Oh days so warm and golden! oh nights so cool and still!

When Love would not be holden, and Pleasure had his will.

Days, when in after leisure, content to rest we lay,

Nights, when her lips’ soft pressure drained all my life away.

And while we sat together, beneath the Babul trees,

The fragrant, sultry weather cooled by the river breeze,

If passion faltered ever, and left the senses free,

We heard the tireless river decending to the sea.

I know not where she wandered, or went in after days,

Or if her youth she squandered in Love’s more doubtful ways.

Perhaps, beside the river, she died, still young and fair;

Perchance the grasses quiver above her slumber there.

At Kotri, by the river, maybe I too shall sleep

The sleep that lasts for ever, too deep for dreams; too deep.

Maybe among the shingle and sand of floods to be

Her dust and mine may mingle and float away to sea.

Ah Kotri, by the river, when evening’s sun is low,

Your faint reflections quiver, your golden ripples glow.

You knew, oh Kotri river, that love which could not last.

For me your palms still shiver with passions of the past.

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Poems in English 

• A Prayer For Old Age by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Prayer For My Son by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Nativity by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Memory Of Youth by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Meditation In Time Of War by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: X. His Wildness by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: VIII. Summer And Spring by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: VII. The Friends Of His Youth by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: VI. His Memories by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: V. The Empty Cup by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: IX. The Secrets Of The Old by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: IV. The Death Of The Hare by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: III. The Mermaid by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: II. Human Dignity by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Man Young And Old: I. First Love by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Last Confession by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Friend’s Illness by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A First Confession by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Faery Song by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• A Drunken Man’s Praise Of Sobriety by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats

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Dealing Monster

Doska or the Board – write anything

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Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

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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.

 

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