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:
- Breathing Stars, Inspiration and the Labyrinth of Correspondence
- The Old Stone Cross by William Butler Yeats
- A Greeting by William Henry Davies
- Drummer Boy by Thomas J Camp
- Scythe Song poem – Andrew Lang poems
- O Why Do You Walk poem – A. E. Housman
- Шекспир – Не позволяю помыслам ревнивым – Сонет 57
- THE WARS by Satish Verma
- Владимир Британишский – Философы! Не верьте островам
- Winter by William Shakespeare
- Robert Burns: The Country Lass:
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 26. Erin, Oh Erin. Томас Мур.
- Love Sonnet XXVIII poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Sad-Eyed and Soft and Grey by William Morris
- Владимир Высоцкий – Сколько я, сколько я видел на свете их
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
- Гавриил Державин – На храм при Гапсале
- Гавриил Державин – На выздоровление мецената
- Гавриил Державин – На возвращение графа Зубова из Персии
- Гавриил Державин – На умеренность
- Гавриил Державин – На рождение царицы Гремиславы
- Гавриил Державин – На прогулку в грузинском саду
- Гавриил Державин – Ключ
- Гавриил Державин – Капнисту
- Гавриил Державин – К силуэту Ивана Ивановича Хемницера
- Гавриил Державин – К правде
- Гавриил Державин – Анакреоново удовольствие
- Гавриил Державин – Анакреон у печки
- Гавриил Державин – Афинейскому витязю
- Галина Гампер – Здесь сегодня все пошло с молотка
- Галина Гампер – Забываю я все
- Галина Гампер – Я вгоняла содержанье
- Галина Гампер – Я повторяю, сердце остужая
- Федор Тютчев – Князю Суворову
- Федор Тютчев – Князю Горчакову
- Федор Тютчев – Каким венком нам увенчать
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.