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:
- Howard Stern’s Wine
- Владимир Британишский – Аркадия
- Irish Love Song by Margaret Widdemer
- Константин Бальмонт – Да, я люблю одну тебя
- Robert Burns: Up In The Morning Early:
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Переход
- Федор Сологуб – Сладко мечтается мне
- Robert Burns: Deluded Swain, The Pleasure:
- Merrow Down by Rudyard Kipling
- Eclogue:–Racketèn Joe by William Barnes
- A Grace before Dinner by Robert Burns
- Константин Батюшков – Мои пенаты
- Владимир Луговской – Повелитель бумаги
- Discretion by Satish Verma
- Snow & Ice by Quincy Troupe
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
- Funeral Day Thoughts by Sudheesh Vs
- Flying Home by Sudeep Sen
- Do You Remember 1914 Grandad? by Steve Sant
- Crossroads by Suchi Gaur
- Closure by Suchi Gaur
- Borrowed Verses by Subhash Misra
- A Different September by Steve Sant
- Zen-moment by Sunil Sharma
- Young mother by Sunil Sharma
- Winter dusk at the railway halt by Sunil Sharma
- Valley-dawn by Sunil Sharma
- The workers by Sunil Sharma
- The light from an earthen lamp by Sunil Sharma
- The humble earthen lamp by Sunil Sharma
- The gypsy song by Sunil Sharma
- The Chant of the Indignant of the World by Sunil Sharma
- Surreal landscapes by Sunil Sharma
- To a son abroad by Sunil Sharma
- Relations by Sunil Sharma
- Pharaohs, Protests and Public by Sunil Sharma
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.