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:
- The Season
- An Evening Walk by William Wordsworth
- Ode to Superstition
- Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell
- Ольга Седакова – Три богини
- Route Marchin’ by Rudyard Kipling
- Not out of the running by Margaret Marie Hubbard
- Sonnet 08 poem – John Milton poems
- Somebody Has To by Shel Silverstein
- The Lady’s Second Song by William Butler Yeats
- To Foreign Lands. by Walt Whitman
- The Aisne
- Love’s Wisdom poem – Alfred Austin
- Milton (Alcaics) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Little Fugue by Sylvia Plath
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
- The War Films by Sir Henry Newbolt
- The Black Hawk War of the Artists by Vachel Lindsay
- Repression of War Experience by Siegfried Sassoon
- Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries by A. E. Housman
- CIA Dope Calypso by Allen Ginsberg
- A Day on the Beach of War by Tony Stringfellow
- The Paint-Kings by Washington Allston
- Rosalie by Washington Allston
- On The Luxembourg Gallery by Washington Allston
- Eccentricity by Washington Allston
- Art by Washington Allston
- America To Great Britain by Washington Allston
- Year’s End by Weldon Kees
- The Upstairs Room by Weldon Kees
- The Smiles Of The Bathers by Weldon Kees
- The Furies by Weldon Kees
- The Doctor Will Return by Weldon Kees
- The Bell From Europe by Weldon Kees
- The Beach by Weldon Kees
- Round by Weldon Kees
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.