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.
A few random poems:
- What Hidden Sweetness Is There by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes (Sonnet 29) by William Shakespeare
- Children’s Games by William Carlos Williams
- Как прекрасно твое имя
- Bicycle Ride by Pat Mullan
- The Merry Guide poem – A. E. Housman
- Владимир Высоцкий – Всё было не так, как хотелось вначале
- Dreamers by Siegfried Sassoon
- An Epigram From Homer by William Cowper
- Sonnet (VIII) : Some left crown , some left land and some into exile by Neelam Sinha
- Владимир Британишский – Композитор
- Landscape At The End Of The Century by Stephen Dunn
- Lost Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Robert Burns: To Miss Logan, With Beattie’s Poems, For A New-Year’s Gift, Jan. 1, 1787:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня солдата на часах
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 – Философы, пьяный и трезвый
- Гавриил Державин – Амур и Психея
- Гавриил Державин – Жуковскому и Родзянке, приславшим с большими похвалами автору перевод его оды «Бог» на французском языке
- Гавриил Державин – Желание в горняя
- Гавриил Державин – Жан Расин. Рассказ Терамена
- Гавриил Державин – Задумчивость
- Гавриил Державин – Храповицкому (Храповицкий! дружбы знаки)
- Гавриил Державин – Похвала за правосудие
- Гавриил Державин – Похвала комару
- Гавриил Державин – Послание Мурзы Багрима к царевне Доброславе
- Гавриил Державин – Поминки
- Гавриил Державин – Покаяние
- Гавриил Державин – Подражание псалму (Терпел я, уповал на Бога)
- Гавриил Державин – Песенка
- Гавриил Державин – Пчелка
- Гавриил Державин – Охотник
- Гавриил Державин – Осень
- Гавриил Державин – Оковы
- Гавриил Державин – О удовольствии
- Гавриил Державин – Надежда на бога
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 Pushkin (1799-1937) was a Russian poet, playwright and prose writer, founder of the realistic trend in Russian literature, literary critic and theorist of literature, historian, publicist, journalist; one of the most important cultural figures in Russia in the first third of the 19th century.