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?

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Poems in English 

• Валерий Брюсов – Испанская песенка by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Искушение by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Искатель by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Инкогнито by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – In hас lackimarum valle (в этой долине слез ) by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Il bacio by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Игорю Северянину (Строя струны лиры клирной) by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Идут года. Но с прежней страстью by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Идеал by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – И вдруг все станет так понятно by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – И. Туманьяну надпись на книге (Да будет праведно возмездие) by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – И снова давние картины by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – И снова дрожат они, грезы бессильные by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – И он взглянул, и ты уснула, и он ушел, и умер день by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – И небо и серое море by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Грядущие гунны by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Грустный вечер by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Гребцы триремы by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Городу дифирамб by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Город женщин by Валерий Брюсов

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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.

 

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