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:
- The Spring passing away by Shailendra Chauhan
- Sonnet Xi
- Poem on Sensibility by Robert Burns
- The Undeniable Pressure of Existence by Patricia Fargnoli
- For Life and Death of a Poet by Marcin Malek
- A Prayer On Going Into My House by William Butler Yeats
- A Tale of Two Cities by Rudyard Kipling
- Liberty, and Love; or, the Two Sparrows by William Somervile
- Владимир Маяковский – Слушай, шахтер!.. (РОСТА №843)
- Оливер Голдсмит – Пыл упований людям дан
- Brother of All, with Generous Hand. by Walt Whitman
- The Princess In The Tower by Sara Teasdale
- Et Le Marbre Creuse… by Martine Morillon-Carreau
- Surreal landscapes by Sunil Sharma
- Олег Сердобольский – Черная считалка
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
- Call It Music by Philip Levine
- Black Stone On Top Of Nothing by Philip Levine
- Bitterness by Philip Levine
- Berenda Slough by Philip Levine
- Belle Isle, 1949 by Philip Levine
- At Bessemer by Philip Levine
- Any Night by Philip Levine
- Another Song by Philip Levine
- Animals Are Passing From Our Lives by Philip Levine
- An Abandoned Factory, Detroit by Philip Levine
- Among Children by Philip Levine
- A Woman Waking by Philip Levine
- A Theory Of Prosody by Philip Levine
- A Sleepless Night by Philip Levine
- Sonnet III: With how sad steps by Sir Philip Sidney
- Sonnet II: Not At First Sight by Sir Philip Sidney
- Sonnet I: Loving In Truth by Sir Philip Sidney
- Song from Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney
- Song by Sir Philip Sidney
- Sleep by Sir Philip Sidney
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.