The Twelve poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster

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.

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 

• Up The Line by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Uncle Sammy by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The New Church Organ by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The Littlle Black-Eyed Rebel by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The House Where We Were Wed by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The Fading Flower by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The Editor’s Guests by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The Country Doctor by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Thanksgiving Day by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Over The Hill From The Poor-House by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Our Army Of The Dead by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• One And Two by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Johnny Rich by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Autumn Days by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Apple-Blossoms by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Two Songs Of Advent by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters
• On Teaching The Young by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters
• Dark spring by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters
• Where My Sight Goes by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters
• To Emily Dickinson by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters

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