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:
- Savour Your Life by Ronald G. Auguste
- Since We Must Die poem – Alfred Austin
- Юлия Друнина – Два вечера
- Sonnet CIII by William Shakespeare
- On A Thief (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- I Want Those Words Today by Pandian Chelliah
- Альфред де Мюссе – Да, женщины, тут нет ошибки
- Poets to Come. by Walt Whitman
- Henry Purcell poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- A Sleepless Night by Philip Levine
- The Rose Of Battle by William Butler Yeats
- When the Lad for Longing Sigh poem – A. E. Housman
- Омар Хайям – Если гурия страстно целует в уста
- English Poetry. Katharine Tynan. A Woman Commends Her Little Son. Кэтрин Тайнен.
- The Land of Counterpane by Robert Louis Stevenson
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
- Great-Heart by Rudyard Kipling
- Gethsemane by Rudyard Kipling
- Gentlmen-Rankers by Rudyard Kipling
- Gehazi by Rudyard Kipling
- Fuzzy-Wuzzy by Rudyard Kipling
- Ford o’ Kabul River by Rudyard Kipling
- For To Admire by Rudyard Kipling
- For All We Have And Are by Rudyard Kipling
- Follow Me ‘ome by Rudyard Kipling
- Farewell and adieu… by Rudyard Kipling
- Evarra And His Gods by Rudyard Kipling
- England’s Answer by Rudyard Kipling
- Eddi’s Service by Rudyard Kipling
- Doctors by Rudyard Kipling
- Divided Destinies by Rudyard Kipling
- Delilah by Rudyard Kipling
- Dedication by Rudyard Kipling
- Dane-Geld by Rudyard Kipling
- Cuckoo Song by Rudyard Kipling
- Cruisers by Rudyard Kipling
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.