A poem by Alexander Block – Alexandre Block – Alexandr Blok – Александр Блок
(1880-1921)
In your hidden memories
There are fatal tidings of doom…
A curse on sacred traditions,
A desecration of happiness;
And a power so alluring
That I am ready to repeat the rumour
That you have brought angels down from heaven,
Enticing them with your beauty…
And when you mock at faith,
That pale, greyish-purple halo
Which I once saw before
Suddenly begins to shine above you.
Are you evil or good? You are altogether from another world
They say strange things about you
For some you are the Muse and a miracle.
For me you are torment and hell.
I do not know why in the hour of dawn,
When no strength was left to me,
I did not perish, but caught sight of your face
And begged you to comfort me.
I wanted us to be enemies;
Why then did you make me a present
Of a flowery meadow and of the starry firmament —
The whole curse of your beauty?
Your fearful caresses were more treacherous
Than the northern night,
More intoxicating than the golden champagne of Aï,
Briefer than a gypsy woman’s love…
And there was a fatal pleasure
In trampling on cherished and holy things;
And this passion, bitter as wormwood,
Was a frenzied delight for the heart!
A few random poems:
- the_world.html
- Robert Burns: Epistle To Robert Graham, Esq., Of Fintry: Requesting a Favour
- Из всех искусств кинематограф
- O Singer in Brown by Mary Gilmore
- The Fraser River by Mike Yuan
- paralipomemnon.html
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- Solomon To Sheba by William Butler Yeats
- Lovers on Aran by Seamus Heaney
- Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 5 by William Somervile
- A Wandering Knight by Rixa White
- Robert Burns: To Miss Logan, With Beattie’s Poems, For A New-Year’s Gift, Jan. 1, 1787:
- The Proud Farmer by Vachel Lindsay
- Hear the Voice by William Blake
- Freedom And Love by Thomas Campbell
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
- To Heal by Nithin Purple
- Time To Transplant by Nijole Miliauskaite
- They Tell Of The Warsaw Uprising by Nijole Miliauskaite
- The Witching Hour by Norma Martiri
- The Walk by Noel Angelo Hurley
- The Song of the Cheerful (but slightly sarcastic) Jesus by Oliver St. John Gogarty
- The place that is dark without space and the moonlight off the pond (The Gray) by Olivia Lewis
- The Last Whisper by Nizar Sartawi
- The Fire by Nin Andrews
- The Blacksmith by Olga Dytyniak
- The Battle of an National Icon by Norma Martiri
- The Visit by Nijole Miliauskaite
- That Summer by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Temporary City by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Synesthesia by Orla McGreevy
- Summer Enclosed In A Semi-Dark Cup by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Sound and Spirit by Oladele Hussein
- Song of Medical Dick and Medical Davy by Oliver St. John Gogarty
- Sleeping for Kafka by Nin Andrews
- Sitting Beside The Very Street by Nijole Miliauskaite
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 Blok (1880-1921), also Block, was a Russian poet, writer, publicist, playwright, translator and literary critic. A classic of Russian literature.