The Temple Dancing Girl

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

You will be mine; those lightly dancing feet,

Falling as softly on the careless street

As the wind-loosened petals of a flower,

Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour.

And all the Temple’s little links and laws

Will not for long protect your loveliness.

I have a stronger force to aid my cause,

Nature’s great Law, to love and to possess!

Throughout those sleepless watches, when I lay

Wakeful, desiring what I might not see,

I knew (it helped those hours, from dusk to day),

In this one thing, Fate would be kind to me.

You will consent, through all my veins like wine

This prescience flows; your lips meet mine above,

Your clear soft eyes look upward into mine

Dim in a silent ecstasy of love.

The clustered softness of your waving hair,

That curious paleness which enchants me so,

And all your delicate strength and youthful air,

Destiny will compel you to bestow!

Refuse, withdraw, and hesitate awhile,

Your young reluctance does but fan the flame;

My partner, Love, waits, with a tender smile,

Who play against him play a losing game.

I, strong in nothing else, have strength in this,

The subtlest, most resistless, force we know

Is aiding me; and you must stoop and kiss:

The genius of the race will have it so!

Yet, make it not too long, nor too intense

My thirst; lest I should break beneath the strain,

And the worn nerves, and over-wearied sense,

Enjoy not what they spent themselves to gain.

Lest, in the hour when you consent to share

That human passion Beauty makes divine,

I, over worn, should find you over fair,

Lest I should die before I make you mine.

You will consent, those slim, reluctant feet,

Falling as lightly on the careless street

As the white petals of a wind-worn flower,

Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour.

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 

• The Tame Bird Was In A Cage by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Sun Of The First Day by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Portrait — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Music Of The Rains – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Merchant by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Lost Star — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Last Bargain by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Kiss by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Kiss — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Home by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Hero — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Golden Boat by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XXVII: Trust Love by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XXVI: What Comes From Your Willing Hands by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XXIX: Speak To Me My Love by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XI: Come As You Are by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXXIX: I Often Wonder by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LVII: I Plucked Your Flower by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LV: It Was Mid-Day by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Call Of The Far — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore

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