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.
A few random poems:
- Оливер Голдсмит – Подношение
- Ship Starting, The. by Walt Whitman
- English Poetry. Robert William Service. Dark Glasses. Роберт Уильям Сервис.
- Юрий Левитанский – Белый снег
- I’m Out O’ Door by William Barnes
- Love’s Wisdom poem – Alfred Austin
- Unphrasing by Satish Verma
- Robert Burns: Wilt Thou Be My Dearie?:
- Sonnet 48: How careful was I, when I took my way by William Shakespeare
- Robert Burns: A Bard’s Epitaph:
- Владимир Маяковский – Враги хлеба
- Martha Washington by Sidney Lanier
- On Being Challenged to Write an Epigram in the Manner of Herrick by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Slough poem – John Betjeman poems
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня конченого человека
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
- Иван Крылов – Ода, выбранная из псалма 14-го
- Иван Крылов – Лиса-строитель (Басня)
- Иван Крылов – Лев состаревшийся (Басня)
- Иван Козлов – Умирающая Эрменгарда
- Иван Коневской – Воскресение
- Иван Коневской – В небывалое
- Иван Елагин – Спрашивал ответа
- Иван Дмитриев – Сверчки
- Иван Дмитриев – Старик и трое молодых
- Иван Дмитриев – Смерть и Умирающий
- Иван Дмитриев – Слепец, Собака его и Школьник
- Иван Дмитриев – Шарлатан
- Иван Демьянов – Парикмахер рак-омар
- Иван Демьянов – Одежкин домик
- Иван Бунин – Норд-ост
- Иван Бунин – Ночного неба свод далекий
- Иван Бунин – Ночлег
- Иван Бунин – Ночь идет, и темнеет
- Иван Бунин – Никогда вы не воскреснете, не встанете
- Иван Бунин – Нет солнца, но светлы пруды
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.