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:
- Hidebound by Shaunna Harper
- Autumn Day by Rainer Maria Rilke
- “`Know, Nature, like the cuckoo, laughs at law” poem – Alfred Austin
- Юлия Друнина – Ты должна
- Night on the Convoy by Siegfried Sassoon
- English Poetry. David Herbert Lawrence. Whales Weep Not!. Дэвид Герберт Лоуренс.
- Where’s the Poet? poem – John Keats poems
- Николай Глазков – Без поражений нет побед
- Нина Воронель – Бывает, что вещи меня ненавидят
- Николай Языков – П. В. Киреевскому (Ты крепкий, праведный стоятель)
- Gratitude To The Unknown Instructors by William Butler Yeats
- For Mêng Hao-jan by Wang Wei
- Drunken Memories Of Anne Sexton
- The Epic of Jack and Jill by Robby Charters
- To The Right Honourable William, Earl Of Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary Of The State For North-America, by Phillis Wheatley
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
- Dews of Silence by Raju Baruah
- Catching the Rain by Raj Napal
- Blame by Raj Napal
- Better Be by Raj Napal
- Be Prepared by Raj Napal
- An empty photo album by Raj Napal
- Your Dog Dies by Raymond Carver
- Written Manna by Rangam Chiru
- What The Doctor Said by Raymond Carver
- Tyburn by Ramesh Anand
- The Scratch by Raymond Carver
- The Passing Cloud by Rashmi Sreekumar
- The Mountain Crumbles by Rashmi
- The Moon’s Truth (before the war) by Reena Ribalow
- The Heart Chirps by Ramesh Anand
- The Current by Raymond Carver
- The Cobweb by Raymond Carver
- The Best Time Of The Day by Raymond Carver
- Stupid by Raymond Carver
- Still Life by Reena Ribalow
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.