The Upas Tree poem – Alexander Pushkin

A poem by Alexander Pushkin – Pouchkine, Pooshkin (1799-1837), in English translation

Deep in the desert’s misery,

far in the fury of the sand,

there stands the awesome Upas Tree

lone watchman of a lifeless land.

The wilderness, a world of thirst,

in wrath engendered it and filled

its every root, every accursed

grey leafstalk with a sap that killed.

Dissolving in the midday sun

the poison oozes through its bark,

and freezing when the day is done

gleams thick and gem-like in the dark.

No bird flies near, no tiger creeps;

alone the whirlwind, wild and black,

assails the tree of death and sweeps

away with death upon its back.

And though some roving cloud may stain

with glancing drops those leaden leaves,

the dripping of a poisoned rain

is all the burning sand receives.

But man sent man with one proud look

towards the tree, and he was gone,

the humble one, and there he took

the poison and returned at dawn.

He brought the deadly gum; with it

he brought some leaves, a withered bough,

while rivulets of icy sweat

ran slowly down his livid brow.

He came, he fell upon a mat,

and reaping a poor slave’s reward,

died near the painted hut where sat

his now unconquerable lord.

The king, he soaked his arrows true

in poison, and beyond the plains

dispatched those messengers and slew

his neighbors in their own domains.

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 

• Medusa by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Moonrise by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Medallion by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Mirror by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Maudlin by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Midsummer Mobile by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Magnolia Shoals by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Metaphors by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Magi by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Medusa by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Maenad by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Medallion by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Lyonnesse by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Maudlin by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Lorelei by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Magnolia Shoals by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Little Fugue by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Magi by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Maenad by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Lyonnesse by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath

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