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:
- On The Tomb Of A Priestess Of Artemis by Sappho
- Base of all Metaphysics, The. by Walt Whitman
- PERCEPTION by Satish Verma
- Falling Action by Ruth Madievsky
- Sonnet. On The Sea poem – John Keats poems
- Autumn by Stevie Smith
- Without Ceremony by Thomas Hardy
- Sonnet L by William Shakespeare
- Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament poem – Andrew Lang poems
- The King of Yellow Butterflies by Vachel Lindsay
- Алишер Навои – Если б был я быстрым ветром
- Константин Бальмонт – Черные вороны
- Rhapsody on a Windy Night by T. S. Eliot
- Николай Языков – Альпийская песня
- Closure by Suchi Gaur
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
- Эмиль Верхарн – Завершение
- Эмиль Верхарн – Занавески
- Эмиль Верхарн – Законы
- Эмиль Верхарн – Заблуждение
- Эмиль Верхарн – Я радость бытия принес тебе в подарок
- Эмиль Верхарн – Я покидаю сна густую сень
- Эмиль Верхарн – Хвала человеческому телу
- Эмиль Верхарн – Холод
- Эмиль Верхарн – Хлебопечение
- Эмиль Верхарн – Вперед
- Эмиль Верхарн – Вот лампа зажжена
- Эмиль Верхарн – Восстание
- Эмиль Верхарн – Воскресное утро
- Эмиль Верхарн – Вокруг моего дома
- Sergei Esenin (Serguei Yesenin, Sergueï Essénine) – Sounds of Sorrow
- Джон Мильтон – Псалом 8
- Джон Мильтон – Псалом 1
- Джон Мильтон – По случаю своего двадцатитрехлетия
- Джон Мильтон – О своей слепоте
- Джон Мильтон – О Шекспире
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.