A poem by Alexander Block – Alexandre Block – Alexandr Blok – Александр Блок
(1880-1921)
A small circus is amazing;
It’s for kids who are merry and bright;
There a girl and a boy’re gazing
At the ladies, kings, and droll sprites.
… And that terrible music cries over our lot,
Despondently howls the bow…
The scary sprite has captured a tiny tot,
With cranberry juice dripping down.
– The boy –
He’ll be rescued from a new burst of anger
With a wave of a delicate hand.
There – lights coming on,
See their growing reflection?
See the smoke? See the torch on the stand?
This must be the royal procession.
– The girl –
Come now, why all this teasing talk?
This is the devil’s escort…
In the daylight the queen goes out for a walk,
Head to toe with rosebuds decorated.
And escort of knights hold the train of her frock
And jingle their swords, all excited.
Suddenly the clown twists in the lights
Screaming, «Please help me! Please help!
I am bleeding red cranberry juice!
I have bandages made of rags!
I have a paper helmet on my head!
I’ve a wooden sword in my hand!»
Here both the girl and the boy broke into tears,
And the merry street circus shut its doors.
A few random poems:
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- Николай Огарев – Смутные мгновенья
- In Adoration by Sappho
- Владимир Маяковский – Раньше иностранцы шли в Россию как разбойники и воры… (Роста №105)
- The Ladies by Rudyard Kipling
- An Ode to Beer
- On the Countess of Burlington Cutting Paper poem – Alexander Pope
- To the Lady Margaret Ley poem – John Milton poems
- Inscription For A Hermitage In The Author’s Garden by William Cowper
- A Song On The Baths by William Strode
- The Aisne
- Владимир Маяковский – Радуются ли империалисты-победители? (Главполитпросвет №335)
- Ольга Седакова – Плач
- Untitled XIX by Yunus Emre
- Владимир Британишский – Не поселятся ли олени
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
- Another Way Of Love by Robert Browning
- Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning
- An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Kar by Robert Browning
- Among the Rocks by Robert Browning
- Aix In Provence by Robert Browning
- Abt Vogler by Robert Browning
- A Woman’s Last Word by Robert Browning
- A Toccata Of Galuppi’s by Robert Browning
- A Serenade At The Villa by Robert Browning
- A Pretty Woman by Robert Browning
- A Lovers’ Quarrel by Robert Browning
- A Light Woman by Robert Browning
- A Grammarian’s Funeral by Robert Browning
- The Song of Death by Robert Burns
- The Ploughman’s Life by Robert Burns
- The Ordination by Robert Burns
- The Inventory by Robert Burns
- The Farewell to the Brethren of St. James’s Lodge by Robert Burns
- The Brigs of Ayr by Robert Burns
- Suppressed Stanzas of “The Vision” by Robert Burns
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.