Lallji My Desire

“This is no time for saying ‘no'”

Were thy last words to me,

And yet my lips refused the kiss

They might have given thee.

How could I know

That thou wouldst go

To sleep so far from me?

They took thee to the Burning-Ghat,

Oh, Lallji, my desire,

And now a faint and lonely flame

Uprises from the pyre.

The thin grey smoke in spirals drifts

Across the opal sky.

Would that I were a wife of thine,

And thus with thee could die!

How could I know

That thou wouldst go,

Oh, Lallji, my desire?

The lips I missed

The flames have kissed

Upon the Sandal pyre.

If one should meet me with a knife

And cut my heart in twain,

Then would he see the smoke arise

From every severed vein.

Such is the burning, inward fire,

The anguish of my pain,

For my Beloved, whose dying lips

Implored a kiss–in vain!

How could I know

That thou wouldst go,

Oh, Lallji, my desire?

Too young thou art

To lay thy heart

Upon the Sandal pyre.

Thy wife awaits her coming child;

What were a child to me,

If I might take thee in these arms

And face the flames with thee?

The priests are chanting round the pyre,

At dusk they will depart

And leave to thee thy lonely rest,

To me my lonelier heart.

How could I know

Thou lovedst me so?

Upon the Sandal pyre

He lies forsaken.

The flames have taken

My Lallji, my desire!

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• Consider This And In Our Time by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• The Common Life by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Christmas Oratio by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Carry Her Over the Water by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Canzone by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Calypso by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Base Words Are Uttered by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Autumn Song by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• August 1968 by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Atlantis by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• As I Walked Out One Evening by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• As We Like It by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• As the poets have mournfully sung by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Are You There? by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• After Reading a Child’s Guide to Modern Physics by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Academic Graffiti by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• A Walk After Dark by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• A New Year Greeting by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Continual Conversation With A Silent Man by Wallace Stevens by Wallace Stevens

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works