Three Songs Of Zahir U Din

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

The tropic day’s redundant charms

Cool twilight soothes away,

The sun slips down behind the palms

And leaves the landscape grey.

I want to take you in my arms

And kiss your lips away!

I wake with sunshine in my eyes

And find the morning blue,

A night of dreams behind me lies

And all were dreams of you!

Ah, how I wish the while I rise,

That what I dream were true.

The weary day’s laborious pace,

I hasten and beguile

By fancies, which I backwards trace

To things I loved erstwhile;

The weary sweetness of your face,

Your faint, illusive smile.

The silken softness of your hair

Where faint bronze shadows are,

Your strangely slight and youthful air,

No passions seem to mar,–

Oh, why, since Fate has made you fair,

Must Fortune keep you far?

Thus spent, the day so long and bright

Less hot and brilliant seems,

Till in a final flare of light

The sun withdraws his beams.

Then, in the coolness of the night,

I meet you in my dreams!

Second Song

How much I loved that way you had

Of smiling most, when very sad,

A smile which carried tender hints

Of delicate tints

And warbling birds,

Of sun and spring,

And yet, more than all other thing,

Of Weariness beyond all Words!

None other ever smiled that way,

None that I know,–

The essence of all Gaiety lay,

Of all mad mirth that men may know,

In that sad smile, serene and slow,

That on your lips was wont to play.

It needed many delicate lines

And subtle curves and roseate tints

To make that weary radiant smile;

It flickered, as beneath the vines

The sunshine through green shadow glints

On the pale path that lies below,

Flickered and flashed, and died away,

But the strange thoughts it woke meanwhile

Were wont to stay.

Thoughts of Strange Things you used to know

In dim, dead lives, lived long ago,

Some madly mirthful Merriment

Whose lingering light is yet unspent,–

Some unimaginable Woe,–

Your strange, sad smile forgets these not,

Though you, yourself, long since, forgot!

Third Song, written during Fever

To-night the clouds hang very low,

They take the Hill-tops to their breast,

And lay their arms about the fields.

The wind that fans me lying low,

Restless with great desire for rest,

No cooling touch of freshness yields.

I, sleepless through the stifling heat,

Watch the pale Lightning’s constant glow

Between the wide set open doors.

I lie and long amidst the heat,–

The fever that my senses know,

For that cool slenderness of yours.

So delicate and cool you are!

A roseleaf that has lain in snow,

A snowflake tinged with sunset fire.

You do not know, so young you are,

How Fever fans the senses’ glow

To uncontrollable desire!

And fills the spaces of the night

With furious and frantic thought,

One would not dare to think by day.

Ah, if you came to me to-night

These visions would be turned to naught,

These hateful dreams be held at bay!

But you are far, and Loneliness

My only lover through the night;

And not for any word or prayer

Would you console my loneliness

Or lend yourself, serene and slight,

And the cool clusters of your hair.

All through the night I long for you,

As shipwrecked men in tropics yearn

For the fresh flow of streams and springs.

My fevered fancies follow you

As dying men in deserts turn

Their thoughts to clear and chilly things.

Such dreams are mine, and such my thirst,

Unceasing and unsatisfied,

Until the night is burnt away

Among these dreams and fevered thirst,

And, through the open doorways, glide

The white feet of the coming day.

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 

• Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt and will do none by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 93: So shall I live, supposing thou art true by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 92: But do thy worst to steal thy self away by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 91: Some glory in their birth, some in their skill by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 90: Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 8: Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 89: Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 88: When thou shalt be disposed to set me light by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 87: Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 86: Was it the proud full sail of his great verse by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 85: My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 84: Who is it that says most, which can say more by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 83: I never saw that you did painting need by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 82: I grant thou wert not married to my Muse by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 81: Or I shall live your epitaph to make by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 80: O, how I faint when I of you do write by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 7: Lo, in the orient when the gracious light by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 79: Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 78: So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

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