A poem by Alexander Block – Alexandre Block – Alexandr Blok – Александр Блок
(1880-1921)
The river stretched. It flows, idly grieves,
And washes both banks.
In steppe, above light clay of cliffs
Rinks mourn in ranks.
O Russia! Dear wife! With clearness and pain
We see the lengthy way!
It sent an arrow of ancient Tartar reign;
In breast it lay.
The way through steppes and an incessant plight,
Through your, o Russia, lot!
And alien dark and dark of night
I fear not.
Let be the night. We’ll ride and light in gloom
Camp-fires late.
The holy flag will flash in fume,
And Khan’s steel blade …
And endless battle! We only dream of peace
Through blood and dust …
The mare of steppes flies on and flees,
And tramples the grass …
There’s no end! The miles and cliffs flash past
Stop crazy flood!
The frightened clouds go fast,
Sun sets in blood!
Sun sets in blood! Blood streams from heart away!
O cry, my heart …
There’s no peace! Through steppe the bay
Prolongs the flight!
A few random poems:
- No Labor-Saving Machine. by Walt Whitman
- On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford by William Wordsworth
- Come, My Beloved, Hear From Me by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Song—Sweet Afton by Robert Burns
- Константин Батюшков – На смерть И.П. Пнина
- The Kind Word
- Владимир Набоков – Я на море гляжу из мраморного храма
- Омар Хайям – Кто розу нежную любви привил
- A Pity, We Were Such A Good Invention by Yehuda Amichai
- The face wanted by Vinko Kalinić
- Владимир Костров – Срок настал, московская богема
- Hymn From A Watermelon Pavilion by Wallace Stevens
- Song. A Beautiful Mistress. by Thomas Carew
- Making It Work by Philip Levine
- Олег Чупров – Взлетев высоко и прекрасно
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
- The Old Revolutionary’s Room by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Ode of Welcome by Oliver St. John Gogarty
- O mother, O Merry by Nikunj Sharma
- My Invisible Valentine by Nin Andrews
- My first seen by Osman cisse Hanif
- My Government Frustrates Me by Olaniyi Beloved Abimbola
- Mother’s Love by Nin Andrews
- Living with Cancer by Nin Andrews
- Living in my Bliss by Nina Gabriel
- Life and Love by Nithin Purple
- Let’s pray the divine by Nikunj Sharma
- Knoxville Tennessee by Nikki Giovanni
- Journey Of Life by Nikhil Srinivas
- Jacaranda by Norma Martiri
- Inter-religion Wedding by Nisha Gopalakrishnan
- If I Were a Tree by Norma Martiri
- I was born with a cry by Nur Al-Alam
- How…? by Nizar Sartawi
- From: The Home We Will Never Live In That Place by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Heat Wave by Norma Martiri
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
Alexander Blok (1880-1921), also Block, was a Russian poet, writer, publicist, playwright, translator and literary critic. A classic of Russian literature.