A poem by Alexander Block – Alexandre Block – Alexandr Blok – Александр Блок
(1880-1921)
III
Our sons have gone
to serve the Reds
to serve the Reds
to risk their heads!
O bitter,bitter pain,
Sweet living!
A torn overcoat
an Austrian gun!
-To get the bourgeosie
We’ll start a fire
a worldwide fire, and drench it
in blood-
The good Lord bless us!
-O you bitter bitterness,
boring boredom,
deadly boredom.
This is how I will
spend my time.
This is how I will
scratch my head,
munch on seeds,
some sunflower seeds,
play with my knife
play with my knife.
You bourgeosie, fly as a sparrow!
I’ll drink your blood,
your warm blood, for love,
for dark-eyed love.
God, let this soul, your servant,
rest in peace.
Such boredom!
XII
… On they march with sovereign tread…
‘Who else goes there? Come out! I said
come out!’ It is the wind and the red
flag plunging gaily at their head.
The frozen snow-drift looms in front.
‘Who’s in the drift! Come out! Come here!’
There’s only the homeless mongrel runt
limping wretchedly in the rear …
‘You mangy beast, out of the way
before you taste my bayonet.
Old mongrel world, clear off I say!
I’ll have your hide to sole my boot!
The shivering cur, the mongrel cur
bares his teeth like a hungry wolf,
droops his tail, but does not stir …
‘Hey answer, you there, show yourself.’
‘Who’s that waving the red flag?’
‘Try and see! It’s as dark as the tomb!’
‘Who’s that moving at a jog
trot, keeping to the back-street gloom?’
‘Don’t you worry ~ I’ll catch you yet;
better surrender to me alive!’
‘Come out, comrade, or you’ll regret
it ~ we’ll fire when I’ve counted five!’
Crack ~ crack ~ crack! But only the echo
answers from among the eaves …
The blizzard splits his seams, the snow
laughs wildly up the wirlwind’s sleeve …
Crack ~ crack ~ crack!
Crack ~ crack ~ crack!
… So they march with sovereign tread …
Behind them limps the hungry dog,
and wrapped in wild snow at their head
carrying a blood-red flag ~
soft-footed where the blizzard swirls,
invulnerable where bullets crossed ~
crowned with a crown of snowflake pearls,
a flowery diadem of frost,
ahead of them goes Jesus Christ.
A few random poems:
- Николай Гумилев – Новорожденному
- Михаил Кузмин – В саду
- William Stafford – William Stafford
- A Traveller’s Guide to the East Indies by S. K. Kelen
- A Flower Garden At Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire. by William Wordsworth
- A Consolation to Cuckholds by William Wycherley poems
- An Immorality poem – Ezra Pound poems
- An Early Audience at the Palace of Light. (Harmonizing a poem for Secretary Jia Zhi.) by Wang Wei
- Николай Гумилев – Ольге Людвиговне Кардовской
- Николай Тихонов – Длинный путь
- Annan Water poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Георгий Иванов – Теперь тебя не уничтожат
- Postures by Martina Reisz Newberry
- Tip tap RAIN by Neelam Sinha
- Sonnet 131: Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art by William Shakespeare
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
- To Foreign Lands. by Walt Whitman
- To a Western Boy. by Walt Whitman
- To a Pupil. by Walt Whitman
- To a President. by Walt Whitman
- To a Locomotive in Winter. by Walt Whitman
- To a Historian. by Walt Whitman
- To a foil’d European Revolutionaire. by Walt Whitman
- To a Common Prostitute. by Walt Whitman
- To a Certain Civilian. by Walt Whitman
- To a Certain Cantatrice. by Walt Whitman
- Thoughts. by Walt Whitman
- Thoughts. by Walt Whitman
- Thought. by Walt Whitman
- Thought. by Walt Whitman
- Thought. by Walt Whitman
- Thought. by Walt Whitman
- Thought. by Walt Whitman
- Thought. by Walt Whitman
- Thou Reader. by Walt Whitman
- Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling. by Walt Whitman
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.