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:
- Robert Burns: Up In The Morning Early:
- If Only
- Владимир Вишневский – Я желаю вам громких успехов
- Юрий Коринец – Кто очень болен
- The Sick Stockrider
- Any Soul That Drank the Nectar by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- An Answer poem – Alfred Austin
- The Deeper Shadow by Pierre Reverdy
- A Gift poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- plato.html
- Наум Коржавин – Перевал
- A Friend’s Illness by William Butler Yeats
- Ode To A Loved One by Sappho
- Scented Herbage of My Breast. by Walt Whitman
- Night At The Marina by Shreekumar Varma
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
- Hail, Zaragoza! If With Unwet eye by William Wordsworth
- Hail, Twilight, Sovereign Of One Peaceful Hour by William Wordsworth
- Guilt And Sorrow, Or, Incidents Upon Salisbury Plain by William Wordsworth
- Great Men Have Been Among Us by William Wordsworth
- Goody Blake And Harry Gill by William Wordsworth
- Gipsies by William Wordsworth
- George and Sarah Green by William Wordsworth
- From The Italian Of Michael Angelo by William Wordsworth
- From The Dark Chambers Of Dejection Freed by William Wordsworth
- From The Cuckoo And The Nightingale by William Wordsworth
- Foresight by William Wordsworth
- Fidelity by William Wordsworth
- Feelings Of The Tyrolese by William Wordsworth
- Feelings Of A Noble Biscayan At One Of Those Funerals by William Wordsworth
- Feelings of A French Royalist, On The Disinterment Of The Remains Of The Duke D’Enghien by William Wordsworth
- Extract From The Conclusion Of A Poem Composed In Anticipation Of Leaving School by William Wordsworth
- Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg by William Wordsworth
- Expostulation and Reply by William Wordsworth
- Even As A Dragon’s Eye That Feels The Stress by William Wordsworth
- Epitaphs Translated From Chiabrera by William Wordsworth
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.