A poem by Alexander Block – Alexandre Block – Alexandr Blok – Александр Блок
(1880-1921)
The restaurants on hot spring evenings
Lie under a dense and savage air.
Foul drafts and hoots from dunken revelers
Contaminate the thoroughfare.
Above the dusty lanes of suburbia
Above the tedium of bungalows
A pretzel sign begilds a bakery
And children screech fortissimo.
And every evening beyond the barriers
Gentlemen of practiced wit and charm
Go strolling beside the drainage ditches —
A tilted derby and a lady at the arm.
The squeak of oarlocks comes over the lake water
A woman’s shriek assaults the ear
While above, in the sky, inured to everything,
The moon looks on with a mindless leer.
And every evening my one companion
Sits here, reflected in my glass.
Like me, he has drunk of bitter mysteries.
Like me, he is broken, dulled, downcast.
The sleepy lackeys stand beside tables
Waiting for the night to pass
And tipplers with the eyes of rabbits
Cry out: “In vino veritas!”
And every evening (or am I imagining?)
Exactly at the appointed time
A girl’s slim figure, silk raimented,
Glides past the window’s mist and grime.
And slowly passing throught the revelers,
Unaccompanied, always alone,
Exuding mists and secret fragrances,
She sits at the table that is her own.
Something ancient, something legendary
Surrounds her presence in the room,
Her narrow hand, her silk, her bracelets,
Her hat, the rings, the ostrich plume.
Entranced by her presence, near and enigmatic,
I gaze through the dark of her lowered veil
And I behold an enchanted shoreline
And enchanted distances, far and pale.
I am made a guardian of the higher mysteries,
Someone’s sun is entrusted to my control.
Tart wine has pierced the last convolution
of my labyrinthine soul.
And now the drooping plumes of ostriches
Asway in my brain droop slowly lower
And two eyes, limpid, blue, and fathomless
Are blooming on a distant shore.
Inside my soul a treasure is buried.
The key is mine and only mine.
How right you are, you drunken monster!
I know: the truth is in the wine.
A few random poems:
- Barnacles by Sidney Lanier
- O Blush Not So! poem – John Keats poems
- Stir in Stillness by Shruti Talnikar
- Elegie IV: On The Death of Prince Henrie by William Alexander
- Nomenclature
- Николай Огарев – Отцу
- Nevertheless by Marianne Moore
- The Wind Speaks poem – Alfred Austin
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Напрасные жертвы
- Sonnet 12
- At Night by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Высоцкий – Иван да Марья
- General William Booth Enters into Heaven by Vachel Lindsay
- Come, Rest in this Bosom by Thomas Moore
- Владимир Высоцкий – И душа, и голова, кажись, болит
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
- Ольга Берггольц – Слышала, приедешь к нам не скоро ты
- Ольга Берггольц – Синеглазый мальчик, синеглазый
- Ольга Берггольц – Сибиринка
- Ольга Берггольц – Сестре
- Ольга Берггольц – Родине
- Ольга Берггольц – Разговор с соседкой
- Ольга Берггольц – Простите бедность этих строк
- Ольга Берггольц – Придешь, как приходят слепые
- Ольга Берггольц – Потеряла я вечером слово
- Ольга Берггольц – Порука
- Ольга Берггольц – Полуночная
- Ольга Берггольц – Покуда небо сумрачное меркнет
- Ольга Берггольц – Подбирают фомки и отмычки
- Ольга Берггольц – Письмо из Ленинграда
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня о жене патриота
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня о ленинградской матери
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня дочери
- Ольга Берггольц – Первое письмо на Каму
- Ольга Берггольц – Пахнет соснами, гарью, тленьем
- Ольга Берггольц – Память (Всей земною горечью и болью)
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 Blok (1880-1921), also Block, was a Russian poet, writer, publicist, playwright, translator and literary critic. A classic of Russian literature.