Song Of The Peri

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

Beauty, the Gift of Gifts, I give to thee.

Pleasure and love shall spring around thy feet

As through the lake the lotuses arise

Pinkly transparent and divinely sweet.

I give thee eyes aglow like morning stars,

Delicate brows, a mist of sable tresses,

That all the journey of thy lie may be

Lit up by love and softened by caresses.

For those who once were proud and softly bred

Shall, kneeling, wait thee as thou passest by,

They who were pure shall stretch forth eager hands

Crying, “Thy pity, Lord, before we die!”

And one shall murmur, “If the sun at dawn

Shall open and caress a happy flower,

What blame to him, although the blossom fade

In the full splendour of his noontide power?”

And one, “If aloes close together grow

It well may chance a plant shall wounded be,

Pierced by the thorntips of another’s leaves,

Thus am I hurt unconsciously by thee.”

For some shall die and many more shall sin,

Suffering for thy sake till seven times seven,

Because of those most perfect lips of thine

Which held the power to make or mar their heaven.

And though thou givest back but cruelty,

Their love, persistent, shall not heed nor care,

All those whose ears are fed with blame of thee

Shall say, “It may be so, but he was fair.”

Ay, those who lost the whole of youth for thee,

Made early and for ever, shamed and sad,

Shall sigh, re-living some sweet memory,

“Ah, once it was his will to make me glad.”

Thy nights shall be as bright as summer days,

The sequence of thy sins shall seem as duty,

Since I have given thee, Oh, Gift of Gifts!–

The pale perfection of unrivalled beauty.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• Гавриил Державин – Философы, пьяный и трезвый by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Амур и Психея by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Жуковскому и Родзянке, приславшим с большими похвалами автору перевод его оды «Бог» на французском языке by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Желание в горняя by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Жан Расин. Рассказ Терамена by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Задумчивость by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Храповицкому (Храповицкий! дружбы знаки) by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Похвала за правосудие by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Похвала комару by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Послание Мурзы Багрима к царевне Доброславе by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Поминки by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Покаяние by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Подражание псалму (Терпел я, уповал на Бога) by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Песенка by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Пчелка by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Охотник by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Осень by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Оковы by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – О удовольствии by Гавриил Державин
• Гавриил Державин – Надежда на бога by Гавриил Державин

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works