Meditation on a Bone

A piece of bone, found at Trondhjem in 1901, with the following runic inscription (about A.D. 1050) cut on it: I loved her as a maiden; I will not trouble Erlend’s detestable wife; better she should be a widow.

Words scored upon a bone,

Scratched in despair or rage —

Nine hundred years have gone;

Now, in another age,

They burn with passion on

A scholar’s tranquil page.

The scholar takes his pen

And turns the bone about,

And writes those words again.

Once more they seethe and shout

And through a human brain

Undying hate rings out.

“I loved her when a maid;

I loathe and love the wife

That warms another’s bed:

Let him beware his life!”

The scholar’s hand is stayed;

His pen becomes a knife

To grave in living bone

The fierce archaic cry.

He sits and reads his own

Dull sum of misery.

A thousand years have flown

Before that ink is dry.

And, in a foreign tongue,

A man, who is not he,

Reads and his heart is wrung

This ancient grief to see,

And thinks: When I am dung,

What bone shall speak for me?

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 

• Halo by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Grey eyed Goddess by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Everything ends by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Damned by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Compromising my ego by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Both ways I lose by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Blue flower by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Blue eyes by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Be there for me by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• An ode to you by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• What time are we living in by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• Villanelle: Oscar Victorius by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• To the author(s) of Manimekalai by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• To Don Quixote, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s A Don Quichotte by T. Wignesan. by Poetry In English
• To a woman, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s sonnet: A une femme by T. Wignesan. by Poetry In English
• To a person, they say, frigid, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: A celle que l’on fit froide by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• The Virgin Maid of Orleans, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s sonnet: La Pucelle by T. Wignesan. by Poetry In English
• The Evening Soup, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: La Soupe du soir by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• Prison Souvenirs, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: Prière by T. Wignesan. by Poetry In English
• Prayer, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: Prière by T. Wignesan. 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