A poem by Alistar Crowley (1875-1947)
I to the open road,
You to the hunchbacked street –
Which of us two
Shall the earlier rue
That day we chanced to meet?
I with a heart that’s sound,
You with sick fancies of pain –
Which of us two
Would the earlier rue
If we chanced to meet again?
I jingle homely lore,
While you rhyme is with kiss –
Which of us two
Will the earlier rue
The love of the Hoylake Miss?
Not I the first to go,
Nor I the first to deceive –
Which of us two
Shall the the earliest rue
Our garden of make-believe?
You were a Chinese god,
I an offering fair,
As we entered the
Garden of Allah,
To sing our holy prayer.
Entered with hearts bowed low,
Yet I heard a voice that cried:
For he is the god of the
Sacrifice,
You are the crucified.
It was all make-believe,
A foolish game of play,
Our garden of Allah
A drawing-room,
Our Chinese god of clay.
Strings of bruises for pearls,
Tears for forget-me-nots,
And a deadly pain
Of the sickening shame
Watching the fading spots.
As quickly they faded,
The heart of me faded as well,
Until nothing is left
Of my garden,
But a soul sunk to hell.
Hail!
Poet prend ton lute -Je disparaire,
No more together we’ll enter the
Enchanted garden of make-believe,
Nor my sad soul listen while thine deceive.
No more you’ll be the God of Sacrifice,
Nor I the crucified.
Ah, Garden of Allah -how bitter sweet
Thy fruit. Why breakest thou the heart?
Why spoilest thou the soul with notes
From thy golden lute?
Lo! our garden a common room
Our Chinese god burnt clay, and
The singing of verses a funeral hymn
That awakes with awakening day.
‘Twas all such a meaningless play,
Poet prend ton lute -Je disparaitre.
Hail!
Poet, take my hand -we’ll walk
Still a little way.
I’ll not desert thee at the close of day,
I, too, must pray.
A beggar asking alms of passers-by,
Does not refuse a drink to one who’s dry
That once by him did lie.
Poet, come close -before I leave for aye
Take thou my hand, we’ll walk still
A little way.
One garment covered both to keep us warm,
What harmed the one, was’t not the other’s harm?
Close clasped, one single form.
Was it not meant of aye?
Poet, take thou my hand -we’ll still
Walk a little way.
A few random poems:
- Patience, Hard Thing! The Hard Thing But To Pray poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Вера Полозкова – Или, к примеру, стоял какой-нибудь
- Old People’s Home by W H Auden
- Жан де Лафонтен – Предостережение богов Симониду
- Anacreontics Drinking
- In Effigiem Oliveri Cromwell poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- “To fix her!-’twere a task as vain” by Tobias Smollett
- Love’s Wisdom poem – Alfred Austin
- On An Infant (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Upon The Hills Of Georgia poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Шекспир – Прекрасный облик в зеркале ты видишь – Сонет 3
- The Arrival Of The Bee Box by Sylvia Plath
- Наум Коржавин – Легкость
- Нина Воронель – Дан приказ
- a laugh song by Raj Arumugam
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
- Владимир Высоцкий – Тоска немая гложет иногда
- Владимир Высоцкий – То бишь о чём
- Владимир Высоцкий – Тексты для капустника к 5-летию Театра на Таганке
- Владимир Высоцкий – Татуировка
- Владимир Высоцкий – Там были генеральши, были жёны офицеров
- Владимир Высоцкий – Так оно и есть
- Владимир Высоцкий – Сыт я по горло, до подбородка
- Владимир Высоцкий – Схвати судьбу за горло, словно посох
- Владимир Высоцкий – Свой остров
- Владимир Высоцкий – Свет потушите, вырубите звук
- Владимир Высоцкий – Странная сказка
- Владимир Высоцкий – Старательская
- Владимир Высоцкий – Сорняков, когда созреют
- Владимир Высоцкий – Снова печь барахлит, тут рублей не жалей
- Владимир Высоцкий – Снег скрипел подо мной
- Владимир Высоцкий – Смотрины
- Владимир Высоцкий – Случай на таможне
- Владимир Высоцкий – Случай
- Владимир Высоцкий – Слева бесы, справа бесы
- Владимир Высоцкий – Сколько я, сколько я видел на свете их
More external links (open in a new tab):
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
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
