Maktoob

A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)

A shell surprised our post one day

And killed a comrade at my side.

My heart was sick to see the way

He suffered as he died.

I dug about the place he fell,

And found, no bigger than my thumb,

A fragment of the splintered shell

In warm aluminum.

I melted it, and made a mould,

And poured it in the opening,

And worked it, when the cast was cold,

Into a shapely ring.

And when my ring was smooth and bright,

Holding it on a rounded stick,

For seal, I bade a Turco write

Maktoob in Arabic.

Maktoob! “‘Tis written!” . . . So they think,

These children of the desert, who

From its immense expanses drink

Some of its grandeur too.

Within the book of Destiny,

Whose leaves are time, whose cover, space,

The day when you shall cease to be,

The hour, the mode, the place,

Are marked, they say; and you shall not

By taking thought or using wit

Alter that certain fate one jot,

Postpone or conjure it.

Learn to drive fear, then, from your heart.

If you must perish, know, O man,

‘Tis an inevitable part

Of the predestined plan.

And, seeing that through the ebon door

Once only you may pass, and meet

Of those that have gone through before

The mighty, the elite — —

Guard that not bowed nor blanched with fear

You enter, but serene, erect,

As you would wish most to appear

To those you most respect.

So die as though your funeral

Ushered you through the doors that led

Into a stately banquet hall

Where heroes banqueted;

And it shall all depend therein

Whether you come as slave or lord,

If they acclaim you as their kin

Or spurn you from their board.

So, when the order comes: “Attack!”

And the assaulting wave deploys,

And the heart trembles to look back

On life and all its joys;

Or in a ditch that they seem near

To find, and round your shallow trough

Drop the big shells that you can hear

Coming a half mile off;

When, not to hear, some try to talk,

And some to clean their guns, or sing,

And some dig deeper in the chalk –;

I look upon my ring:

And nerves relax that were most tense,

And Death comes whistling down unheard,

As I consider all the sense

Held in that mystic word.

And it brings, quieting like balm

My heart whose flutterings have ceased,

The resignation and the calm

And wisdom of the East.

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 

• Bubbles from Eternity by Muralidharan Mudaliar by Poetry In English
• Black magic by Mrunmayi Mandan by Poetry In English
• Back I Go to My Prison by Ms Tabzeer Yaseen by Poetry In English
• Appease by Muralidharan Mudaliar by Poetry In English
• St. Roach by Muriel Rukeyser by Poetry In English
• The Conjugation of the Paramecium by Muriel Rukeyser by Poetry In English
• Whoever Comes From The Earth by Nelly Sachs by Poetry In English
• Utopia by Ndue Ukaj by Poetry In English
• Tumult by Nicole M Nugent by Poetry In English
• Tip tap RAIN by Neelam Sinha by Poetry In English
• The Waist of Time by The Waist of Time by Poetry In English
• The Shadow of Crows by Ndue Ukaj by Poetry In English
• The Red Earth of Kupungarri by Nicole M Nugent by Poetry In English
• The man with the blue eye by Neelam Shah by Poetry In English
• The Freedom Of Poetry by Ndue Ukaj by Poetry In English
• The Emigrant by Ndue Ukaj by Poetry In English
• The blanket is same always by Neelam Sinha by Poetry In English
• Superficially by Ndue Ukaj by Poetry In English
• Sonnet (XII) : O Buddha ! I do wish to follow your golden middle path by Neelam Sinha by Poetry In English
• Sonnet (XI) : I know me and I do believe in the causation by Neelam Sinha by Poetry In English

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