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:
- That Music Always Round Me. by Walt Whitman
- Two Campers In Cloud Country by Sylvia Plath
- The Great Carbuncle by Sylvia Plath
- Let me draw your face by St Antoine de la Vuadi
- Brought From Beyond poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Epigram on Miss Davies by Robert Burns
- Robert Burns: Wandering Willie: Revised Version
- The Heart’s House by Sara Teasdale
- The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Tenants Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Олег Бундур – Родня
- The West Wind by William Cullen Bryant
- The Look by Sara Teasdale
- On Hearing The Bag-Pipe And Seeing “The Stranger” Played At Inverary poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet To Byron poem – John Keats 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
- Олег Григорьев – Угро
- Олег Григорьев – Участковый стал в двери стучать
- Олег Григорьев – Ты боишься высоты
- Олег Григорьев – Тонет муха в сладости
- Олег Григорьев – Схватили за ногу правую
- Олег Григорьев – Стаканы
- Олег Григорьев – Совершенно откровенно
- Олег Григорьев – Слезы
- Олег Григорьев – Сказал я девушке кротко
- Олег Григорьев – Шмель
- Олег Григорьев – Секрет
- Олег Григорьев – С длинным батоном под мышкой
- Олег Григорьев – Разбил в туалете сосуд
- Олег Григорьев – Прометей
- Олег Григорьев – Приехала жена из Сочи
- Олег Григорьев – Полосатая оса
- Олег Григорьев – Пляж давно опустел
- Олег Григорьев – Пьет оса кисель из чашки
- Олег Григорьев – Папа вазу опрокинул
- Олег Григорьев – Однажды Сережа и Оля
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.