A poem by Alan Dugan
by Al Mutanabbi
Resolutions are measured against those who make them; generosity in accordance with the giver.
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Littleness is magnified by small men, while grandeur is deprecated by the great.
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Sayf al-Dawla imposes upon the army his will, yet seasoned armies cannot achieve it.
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He asks from men all that he has in himself, though even lions would not claim to match that.
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Dose al-Hadath know of its red color? Or which of the two pourers was a cloud?
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White-streaked clouds had watered al-Hadath before his arrival; when he approached, it was inundated with skulls.
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The enemy came at you, hauling their weapons as if they traveled on legless horses.
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When their ranks caught the light, their swords remained unseen, since their shirts and turbans were also made from steel.
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You stayed where you were, when doing so meant certain death: as if perdition itself slept while you stood in its eyelid.
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Wounded and fleeting, heroes passed you by, while your face remained bright and your lips, smiling.
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You surpassed the bounds of courage and understanding, until people claimed that you knew the unseen.
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To you belongs the praise for these pearls I pronounce; you are the giver, I the arranger.
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Oh, Sword never sheathed, whom none can doubt and from whom there is no refuge.
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Blessed are warfare, glory and eminence; blessed are your subjects and all of Islam, for you are safe!
Copyright ©:
Translated by Nancy Coffin

A few random poems:
- Epitaph On An Infant. by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Гавриил Державин – К первому соседу
- Listening To Rwanda Genocide by Satish Verma
- Омар Хайям – Цветам и запахам владеть тобой доколе
- Nell Barnes by William Henry Davies
- Владимир Высоцкий – В плен, приказ, не сдаваться
- Sonnet 38: How can my Muse want subject to invent by William Shakespeare
- Демьян Бедный – Весенний благостный покой
- Haunted by Siegfried Sassoon
- Василий Тредиаковский – Описание грозы, бывшей в Гааге
- Жан де Лафонтен – Воля и Неволя
- Silences still voice by Rohini Bhatia Singj
- Алексей Плещеев – На память
- Ольга Седакова – Преданья о подвижниках похожи
- The Seven Of Pentacles by Marge Piercy
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
- Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony by Shel Silverstein
- Listen To The Mustn’ts by Shel Silverstein
- Lemmebesomethin’ by Shel Silverstein
- I’ve Been Working So Hard by Shel Silverstein
- In The Hills Of Shiloh by Shel Silverstein
- In Search Of Cinderella by Shel Silverstein
- I’m So Good That I Don’t Have To Brag by Shel Silverstein
- I’m My Own Grandpa by Shel Silverstein
- If The World Was Crazy by Shel Silverstein
- If I Had A Brontosaurus by Shel Silverstein
- I Once Knew A Woman by Shel Silverstein
- I Can’t Touch The Sun by Shel Silverstein
- I Call That True Love by Shel Silverstein
- Hug O’War by Shel Silverstein
- Hippo’s Hope by Shel Silverstein
- Hector The Collector by Shel Silverstein
- Hard To Please by Shel Silverstein
- Handy Man by Shel Silverstein
- Hamlet As Told On The Street by Shel Silverstein
- For What She Had Done by Shel Silverstein
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
Alan Dugan (1923 – 2003) an American poet, a contemporary classic of American poetry.