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:
- My iPod by Roland Bastien
- A Tippling Ballad—When Princes and Prelates, etc. by Robert Burns
- Зинаида Александрова – Песня моряков
- Are You the New person, drawn toward Me? by Walt Whitman
- Has Your Soul Sipped? by Wilfred Owen
- Sonnet 69: Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view by William Shakespeare
- Year’s End by Weldon Kees
- Алексей Толстой – Шумит на дворе непогода
- Катя Пиксаева – Давай поговорим о доброте
- YOU by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Love Equals Insanity by Talha Jafri
- Apology to Delia by William Cowper
- When I’m among a Blaze of Lights by Siegfried Sassoon
- Any Wife To Any Husband by Robert Browning
- The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith
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
- Владимир Британишский – По-польски вместо слова “светлячок”
- Владимир Британишский – По Иртышу
- Владимир Британишский – У этой матери кормящей
- Владимир Британишский – Ты шепчешь мне
- Владимир Британишский – Тверь
- Владимир Британишский – Тропа виляла
- Владимир Британишский – Старая Рига
- Владимир Британишский – Сравнения
- Владимир Британишский – Сон: в детстве, весной, в лесу
- Владимир Британишский – Снились двое товарищей по Салехарду
- Владимир Британишский – Смешанный брак
- Владимир Британишский – Смерть Крылова
- Владимир Британишский – Служба
- Владимир Британишский – В пыльном, душном, купеческом
- Владимир Британишский – В Прикаспии
- Владимир Британишский – В “Онегине”, глава седьмая
- Владимир Британишский – В нашем вновь обретенном ленинградском доме
- Владимир Британишский – В годы войны
- Владимир Британишский – В Емуртлинском форпосте сибирских драгун
- Владимир Британишский – В чащобах памяти кого не встретишь вдруг
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.