The Black Shawl poem – Alexander Pushkin

A poem by Alexander Pushkin – Pouchkine, Pooshkin (1799-1837), in English translation

As of senses bereft, at a black shawl I stare,

And my chill heart is tortured with deadly despair.

When dreaming too fondly in credulous youth,

I loved a Greek maiden with passion and truth.

My Greek girl was gentle and loving and fair;

But my joy quickly sank in a day of despair.

Once I feasted gay friends; ere the banquet was o’er

A Jew, the accursed, softly knocked at my door.

“Thou art laughing,” he whispered,”in pleasure’s mad whirl;

But she hath betrayed thee, thy young Grecian girl.”

I cursed him; but gold as a guerdon I gave,

And took as companion my trustiest slave.

My swift charger I mounted; at once we depart,

And the soft voice of pity was stilled in my heart.

The Greek maiden’s dwelling I hardly could mark,

For my limbs they grew faint, and my eyes they grew dark.

I silently entered-alone and amazed;

An Armenian was kissing the girl as I gazed.

I saw not the light; but I seized my good blade;

The betrayer ne’er finished the kiss that betrayed.

On his warm, headless body I trampled, then spurn’d,

And silent and pale to the maiden I turned.

I remember her prayers-in her blood how she strove;

Then perished my Greek girl-then perished my love.

I tore the black shawl from her head as she lay,

Wiped the blood-dripping weapon, and hurried away.

When the mists of the evening rose gloomy, my slave

Threw each corpse in the Danube’s dark fastrolling wave.

Since then no bewildering eyes can delight;

Since then I forbear festive banquets at night.

As of senses bereft, at a black shawl I stare,

And my chill heart is tortured with deadly despair.

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 

• Failure by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Dust by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Doubts by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Dining-Room Tea by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Desertion by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Dead Men’s Love by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Day That I Have Loved by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Day And Night by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Dawn by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Clouds by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Choriambics — II by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Choriambics — I by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Charm, The by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Busy Heart, The by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Blue Evening by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Beauty and Beauty by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• Ante Aram by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• And love has changed to kindliness by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• A Memory by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• A Letter to a Live Poet by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke

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