A poem by Alexander Pushkin – Pouchkine, Pooshkin (1799-1837), in English translation
A LEGEND OF THE WATER-SPRITE
In forest depths, beside a mere,
A monk once made his habitation ;
Absorbed in penances severe,
In fast and prayer he sought salvation.
Already by his own poor spade
His grave was hollowed to receive him,
And every day the good saint prayed
That Heaven from earth would soon relieve him.
One summer’s eve, the hermit poor,
At prayer within his narrow room,
Looked out beyond his humble door
And saw the forest wrapped in gloom ;
Night-mists were rising from the mere,
Between the clouds the moon ‘gan peep;
The monk unto the pool drew near
And gazed into its waters deep.
He saw himself-drew back perturbed
By fears he ne’er had known before ;
For, lo, the waters were disturbed,
Then suddenly grew calm once more ;
“While fitful as a twilight shade,
Than virgin snow more purely white,
From out the pool appeared a maid
Approaching in the silver light.
She shook the bright drops from her hair
And gazed upon the anchorite ;
To look upon her form so fair
The good monk trembled with affright.
And he beheld her from afar
With head and hand strange signals make,
Then swifter than a shooting star
Dive back into the silent lake.
All night the hermit could not sleep,
All day in agony he prayed ;
But still he could not choose but keep
The image of that wondrous maid
Before him. So, when day did wane,
And overhead the moon was bright,
He watched, and saw her come again
In all her beauty, dazzling white.
She beckoned to him where he stood,
And gave him greeting glad and free.
She played and splashed about the flood,
She laughed and danced in childish glee,
As softly to the monk she cried :
” Come hither, monk, and join me here!”
Then suddenly she dipped to hide
Her beauty in the darkling mere.
The third day came-grown mad with love,
The hermit sought th’ enchanted shore
Ere yet night’s veil was drawn above,
And waited for the maid once more.
Dawn broke-the monk had disappeared . . .
And now the frightened children say
He haunts the pool: and lo! his beard
Floats on the water night and day.
A few random poems:
- Monadnock in Early Spring poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- With Antecedents. by Walt Whitman
- The Handsome Heart poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Twenty-Four Hokku On A Modern Theme poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Peace Universal Good
- Epistle To John Hamilton Reynolds poem – John Keats poems
- On A Goldfinch, Starved To Death In His Cage by William Cowper
- Алексей Жемчужников – Современному гражданину
- Calidore: A Fragment poem – John Keats poems
- Evenèn Light by William Barnes
- Doomes-Day: The Ninth Houre by William Alexander
- Inscriptions For A Seat In The Groves Of Coleorton by William Wordsworth
- Sonnet CXXVI by William Shakespeare
- The Gardener LXIV: I Spent My Day by Rabindranath Tagore
- A Message from my Lodge at Wangchuan to Pei Di by Wang Wei
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
- Hope by Walter William Safar
- Freedom by Walter William Safar
- Forest by Walter William Safar
- Cry of the Betrayed Earth by Walter William Safar
- Christmas Star by Walter William Safar
- Beloved Ireland by Walter William Safar
- American Soil by Walter William Safar
- America by Walter William Safar
- Against All Streams by Walter William Safar
- A window into the world by Walter William Safar
- A Poem to my Beloved by Walter William Safar
- Bound Home to Mount Song by Wang Wei
- Answering Vice-Prefect Zhang by Wang Wei
- At the Lake Pavilion by Wang Wei
- Duckweed Pond by Wang Wei
- Bamboo Adobe by Wang Wei
- Deer Enclosure by Wang Wei
- Farewell to Hsin Chien at Hibiscus Pavilion by Wang Wei
- Farewell by Wang Wei
- For P’ei Ti by Wang Wei
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.