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 

• Ольга Берггольц – Озерный край by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Ответ by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – От сердца к сердцу by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Осень (Мне осень озёрного края) by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Она дарить любила by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Огонь, и воду, и медные трубы by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Обещание by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – О, наверное, он не вернётся by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – О, где ты запела by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – О да, простые, бедные слова by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Новогодний тост by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Ни до серебряной и ни до золотой by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Не знаю, не знаю, живу by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Не сына, не младшего брата by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Не может быть, чтоб жили мы напрасно by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Наш сад by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Нам от тебя теперь не оторваться by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Надежда by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – На Ивана-пьющего by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Моя медаль by Ольга Берггольц

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