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:
- A Conversation At Dawn by Thomas Hardy
- Robert Burns: Raving Winds Around Her Blowing: I composed these verses on Miss Isabella M’Leod of Raza, alluding to her feelings on the death of her sister, and the still more melancholy death of her sister’s husband, the late Earl of Loudoun, who shot himself out of sheer heart-break at some mortifications he suffered, owing to the deranged state of his finances.-R.B., 1971.
- Иван Барков – Торжественным воротам
- The Plunge poem – Ezra Pound poems
- In Memory Of Alfred Pollexfen by William Butler Yeats
- Rural Architecture by William Wordsworth
- Олег Григорьев – Жена торговала колбасой
- Robert Burns: My Native Land Sae Far Awa:
- Николай Языков – Вечер (Прохладен воздух был)
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Hymn to Spiritual Desire. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- Юлия Друнина – Ты рядом
- Integrity
- Four Days In Vermont by Robert Creeley
- Letter To A Purist by Sylvia Plath
- What the Miner in the Desert Said by Vachel Lindsay
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
- At the Galleria Shopping Mall by Tony Hoagland
- America by Tony Hoagland
- A Color of the Sky by Tony Hoagland
- To His Mistress In Absence by Torquato Tasso
- “What weeping, or what dewfall,” by Torquato Tasso
- “Once we were happy” by Torquato Tasso
- “O you, far colder, whiter” by Torquato Tasso
- “Life of my life, you seem to me” by Torquato Tasso
- “Hedge, that divides the lovely” by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 07 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 06 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 05 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 02 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 04 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 01 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 05 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 04 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
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.