The Pleasure of Princes

What pleasures have great princes? These: to know

Themselves reputed mad with pride or power;

To speak few words — few words and short bring low

This ancient house, that city with flame devour;

To make old men, their father’s enemies,

Drunk on the vintage of the former age;

To have great painters show their mistresses

Naked to the succeeding time; engage

The cunning of able, treacherous ministers

To serve, despite themselves, the cause they hate,

And leave a prosperous kingdom to their heirs

Nursed by the caterpillars of the state;

To keep their spies in good men’s hearts; to read

The malice of the wise, and act betimes;

To hear the Grand Remonstrances of greed

Led by the pure; cheat justice of her crimes;

To beget worthless sons and, being old,

By starlight climb the battlements, and while

The pacing sentry hugs himself for cold,

Keep vigil like a lover, muse and smile,

And think, to see from the grim castle steep

The midnight city below rejoice and shine:

“There my great demon grumbles in his sleep

And dreams of his destruction, and of mine.”

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 

• Give Me Back My Rags #12 by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• The Prisoners Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• The Craftsmen Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• Before The Game by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• Far Within Us #1 by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• The Benefactors Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• The Enemies Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• Hide-And-Seek by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• The Owners Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• The Little Box by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• Race by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• In The Village Of My Ancestors by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• Last News About The Little Box by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• Give Me Back My Rags by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• Far Within Us #5 by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• Far Within Us #4 by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• A Forgetful Number by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• A Conceited Mistake by Vasko Popa by Vasco (Vasko, Василе) Popa
• Words – “My only friends forever” by Vasishta Sharma Gudi by Poetry In English
• Winter Wind by Vasil Slavov by Poetry In English

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