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:
- The Lamp by Sara Teasdale
- What Work Is by Philip Levine
- Easter Communion poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Юлия Друнина – Зной
- Pensive and Faltering. by Walt Whitman
- Forfeiture
- Evening Love Song by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Оливер Голдсмит – Эпитафия Неду Пардону
- Carrion Comfort poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- On Carpaccio’s Picture: The Dream of St. Ursula poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Study in Hands by Théophile Gautier
- Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 X. Rob Roy’s Grave by William Wordsworth
- Виктор Гончаров – Опять пришла пора дождей
- Николай Карамзин – Тацит
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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
- Even if I don’t hear your voice, I know by Vinko Kalinic
- Don’t know the answer by Vinko Kalinic
- Dog’s love by Vinko Kalinić
- Dear Traffic Signal by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Confessions of a Software Engineer by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Black song about a black woman and red wine by Vinko Kalinić
- Birthday party blunder by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Beautiful Stranger by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Ballad about a stinking flower by Vinko Kalinic
- Altar amid the sea by Vinko Kalinic
- Aeneid by Virgil
- Eclogue VIII by Virgil
- Eclogue VI by Virgil
- Eclogue IV by Virgil
- Eclogue III by Virgil
- Eclogue V by Virgil
- Ecologue IX by Virgil
- Ecologue I by Virgil
- Eclogue X by Virgil
- You by Vladimir Mayakovsky
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.