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.
A few random poems:
- Robert Burns: My Wife’s A Winsome Wee Thing:
- The Isle Of Portland poem – A. E. Housman
- “O you, far colder, whiter” by Torquato Tasso
- Wisdom by William Butler Yeats
- The Water-Nymph poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Letter In November by Sylvia Plath
- Before
- Sonnet 50: How heavy do I journey on the way by William Shakespeare
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Солнце садится
- Pity For Poor Africans by William Cowper
- Orlando Furioso Canto 11 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Владимир Набоков – Большая медведица
- Robert Burns: The Deil’s Awa Wi’ The Exciseman:
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Люцерн
- The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh
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
- Anteater by Shel Silverstein
- All The Time In The World by Shel Silverstein
- All About You by Shel Silverstein
- Alimony by Shel Silverstein
- A Light In The Attic by Shel Silverstein
- A Front Row Seat To Hear Ole Johnny Sing by Shel Silverstein
- A Couple More Years by Shel Silverstein
- 25 Minutes To Go by Shel Silverstein
- 100,000 Pennies by Shel Silverstein
- Stir in Stillness by Shruti Talnikar
- Statistic by Shivam Pandya
- Projector by Shreekumar Varma
- Stir in Stillness by Shruti Talnikar
- Noe more unto my thoughts appeare by Sidney Godolphin
- Statistic by Shivam Pandya
- Night At The Marina by Shreekumar Varma
- Projector by Shreekumar Varma
- Lord when the wise men came from farr by Sidney Godolphin
- Kumarakom (after the boat tragedy) by Shreekumar Varma
- Noe more unto my thoughts appeare by Sidney Godolphin
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 Pushkin (1799-1937) was a Russian poet, playwright and prose writer, founder of the realistic trend in Russian literature, literary critic and theorist of literature, historian, publicist, journalist; one of the most important cultural figures in Russia in the first third of the 19th century.