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 

• Forex Trading Strategies – Divining the Mysteries of Candlestick Charts and Patterns by Poetry In English
• Numbers and the Bible by Poetry In English
• Quality Customer Service – How to Measure Customer Satisfaction by Poetry In English
• Ethiopia – Lalibela by Poetry In English
• Different World Views of Art by Poetry In English
• Distributive Trade II – The Wholesaler by Poetry In English
• 12 Surefire Brainstorming Techniques by Poetry In English
• Factors Affecting the Labor Market – Determination of Wages and The Activities of Trade Unions by Poetry In English
• How To Achieve Self-Realization, The Mother of All Knowledge? by Poetry In English
• The Cosmic Eggs by Poetry In English
• What Are Solar Roofing Shingles? by Poetry In English
• Howard Stern’s Wine by Poetry In English
• Style Ideas For Vests For Women by Poetry In English
• A Life Of Lorenzo Da Ponte:Talent Flies; Practical Reason Walks by Poetry In English
• How to Make Money Online Writing and Selling eBooks by Poetry In English
• Cinema Therapy and The MovieMaking Process by Poetry In English
• God’s Work Ethics by Poetry In English
• Article Writing – Revealed – 4 Priceless Methods to Make Money Through Article Writing by Poetry In English
• 71 Ways For A Writer To Make Money by Poetry In English
• Secrets of Academic Success: Passion by Poetry In English

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

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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.

 

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