A poem by Alistar Crowley (1875-1947)
So it is eighteen years,
Helena, since we met!
A season so endears,
Nor you nor I forget
The fresh young faces that once clove
In that most fiery dawn of love.
We wandered to and fro,
Who knew not how to woo,
Those eighteen years ago,
Sweetheart, when I and you
Exchanged high vows in heaven’s sight
That scarce survived a summer’s night.
What scourge smote from the stars
What madness from the moon?
That night we broke the bars
Was quintessential June,
When you and I beneath the trees
Bartered our bold virginities.
Eighteen -years, months, or hours?
Time is a tyrant’s toy!
Eternal are the flowers!
We are but girl and boy
Yet -since love leapt as swift to-night
As it had never left the light!
For fiercer from the South
Still flames your cruel hair,
And Trojan Helen’s mouth
Still not so ripe and rare
As Helena’s -nor love nor youth
So leaps with lust or thrills with truth.
Helena, still we hold
Flesh firmer, still we mix
Black hair with hair as gold.
Life has but served to fix
Our hearts; love lingers on the tongue,
And who loves once is always young.
The stars are still the same;
The changeful moon endures;
Come without fear or shame,
And draw my mouth to yours!
Youth fails, however flesh be fain;
Manhood and womanhood attain.
Life is a string of pearls,
And you the first I strung.
You left -first flower of girls! –
Life lyric on my tongue,
An indefatigable dance,
An inexhaustible romance!
Blush of love’s dawn, bright bud
That bloomed for my delight,
First blossom of my blood,
Burn in that blood to-night!
Helena, Helena, fiercely fresh,
Your flesh flies fervent to my flesh.
What sage can dare impugn
Man’s immortality?
Our godhead swims, immune
From death and destiny.
Ignored the bubble in the flow
Of love eighteen short years ago!
Time -I embrace all time
As my arm rings your waist.
Space -you surpass, sublime,
As, taking me, we taste
Omnipotence, sense slaying sense,
Soul slaying soul, omniscience.
A few random poems:
- Sonnet 149: Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not by William Shakespeare
- Огюст Барбье – Прогресс
- Robert Burns: I do Confess Thou Art Sae Fair: Alteration of an Old Poem.
- Epistle to James Tennant of Glenconner by Robert Burns
- Sonnet 1: From fairest creatures we desire increase by William Shakespeare
- Николай Карамзин – Прости
- Илона Грошева – Когда приходит Дима в парк
- At This Very Moment by Mary TallMountain
- Новелла Матвеева – Восток, прошедший чрез воображенье
- Wild Soul by Michael Yuan
- Stepping Backward
- The Rao Of Ilore
- Like the gods. . . by Sappho
- Block City by Robert Louis Stevenson
- And She is Spoke by Winifred Mary Letts
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
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Ночной пилигрим
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Ночная песня
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Не называй далекой бездной
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Не касайся моих чертежей
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Нарядно выстлав дол, взбегая на холмы
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – На улице
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – На поле Ватерло
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – На берегу
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Море и капля
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Молкнущий вечер во мгле
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Молись в ночи без плача о заре
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Мой сад
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Метель
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Элегия (Мысль в разлуке с вещим сном)
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Цветок
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Чудом тени
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Черное озеро
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Чем больше в мире я живу
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Час обыкновенный
- Юрий Кузнецов – Простота милосердия
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
