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:
- About Wedding Dress
- The Epic of Jack and Jill by Robby Charters
- To Her Beauty by Nithin Purple
- Robert Burns: The Minstrel At Lincluden:
- To a Locomotive in Winter. by Walt Whitman
- Upon A Dying Lady by William Butler Yeats
- Love and Law by Vachel Lindsay
- Kyrenaikos
- Guilt poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Instructor by Rudyard Kipling
- I am a sculptor, a molder of form by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Parted by Siegfried Sassoon
- Essay On The Personal by Stephen Dunn
- Bonnie Lesley by Robert Burns
- Call It Music by Philip Levine
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
- In The New Sun by Philip Levine
- In A Vacant House by Philip Levine
- In A Light Time by Philip Levine
- I Won, You Lost by Philip Levine
- I Sing The Body Electric by Philip Levine
- How Much Earth by Philip Levine
- House Of Silence by Philip Levine
- Holy Day by Philip Levine
- Holding On by Philip Levine
- Heaven by Philip Levine
- Green Thumb by Philip Levine
- Gin by Philip Levine
- Gangrene by Philip Levine
- For The Country by Philip Levine
- Fist by Philip Levine
- Father by Philip Levine
- Everything by Philip Levine
- Coming Close by Philip Levine
- Clouds Above The Sea by Philip Levine
- Clouds by Philip Levine
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.