Crossing the Frontier

Crossing the frontier they were stopped in time,

Told, quite politely, they would have to wait:

Passports in order, nothing to declare

And surely holding hands was not a crime

Until they saw how, ranged across the gate,

All their most formidable friends were there.

Wearing his conscience like a crucifix,

Her father, rampant, nursed the Family Shame;

And, armed wlth their old-fashioned dinner-gong,

His aunt, who even when they both were six,

Had just to glance towards a childish game

To make them feel that they were doing wrong.

And both their mothers, simply weeping floods,

Her head-mistress, his boss, the parish priest,

And the bank manager who cashed their cheques;

The man who sold him his first rubber-goods;

Dog Fido, from whose love-life, shameless beast,

She first observed the basic facts of sex.

They looked as though they had stood there for hours;

For years; perhaps for ever. In the trees

Two furtive birds stopped courting and flew off;

While in the grass beside the road the flowers

Kept up their guilty traffic with the bees.

Nobody stirred. Nobody risked a cough.

Nobody spoke. The minutes ticked away;

The dog scratched idly. Then, as parson bent

And whispered to a guard who hurried in,

The customs-house loudspeakers with a bray

Of raucous and triumphant argument

Broke out the wedding march from Lohengrin.

He switched the engine off: “We must turn back.”

She heard his voice break, though he had to shout

Against a din that made their senses reel,

And felt his hand, so tense in hers, go slack.

But suddenly she laughed and said: “Get out!

Change seatsl Be quickl” and slid behind the wheel.

And drove the car straight at them with a harsh,

Dry crunch that showered both with scraps and chips,

Drove through them; barriers rising let them pass

Drove through and on and on, with Dad’s moustache

Beside her twitching still round waxen lips

And Mother’s tears still streaming down the glass.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• Владимир Маяковский – Стихотворение это by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Стихи из предсмертной записки by Владимир Маяковский
• Стихи о советском паспорте – Маяковский: стих “Я достаю из широких штанин” Владимира Маяковского – Poetry Monster by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Стихи о Фоме by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Стих как бы шофера by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Старый мотив (РОСТА №137) by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Стабилизация быта by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Спросили раз меня: “Вы любите ли НЭП?” by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Сплетник by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Современный Козьма Прутков by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Советский Союз, намотай на ус – кто Юз by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Советская азбука (Железо куй, пока горячее…) by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Совет Труда и Обороны сделал ассигнование миллионное… ( Главполитпросвет №64) by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Солнечный флаг by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Солдаты самодержавной армии мясниками бывали… (РОСТА №146) by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Собственную революцию удушив… (РОСТА №443) by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Со страхом и трепетом открывали газету… (РОСТА №705) by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Смыкай ряды by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Смотри, шахтер! (РОСТА №894) by Владимир Маяковский
• Владимир Маяковский – Смотри, рабочий! Вот о чем сегодня речь (Главполитпросвет №166) by Владимир Маяковский

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works