Song Of The Colours By Taj Mahomed

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

_Rose-colour_

Rose Pink am I, the colour gleams and glows

In many a flower; her lips, those tender doors

By which, in time of love, love’s essence flows

From him to her, are dyed in delicate Rose.

Mine is the earliest Ruby light that pours

Out of the East, when day’s white gates unclose.

On downy peach, and maiden’s downier cheek

I, in a flush of radiant bloom, alight,

Clinging, at sunset, to the shimmering peak

I veil its snow in floods of Roseate light.

_Azure_

Mine is the heavenly hue of Azure skies,

Where the white clouds lie soft as seraphs’ wings,

Mine the sweet, shadowed light in innocent eyes,

Whose lovely looks light only on lovely things.

Mine the Blue Distance, delicate and clear,

Mine the Blue Glory of the morning sea,

All that the soul so longs for, finds not here,

Fond eyes deceive themselves, and find in me.

_Scarlet_

Hail! to the Royal Red of living Blood,

Let loose by steel in spirit-freeing flood,

Forced from faint forms, by toil or torture torn

Staining the patient gates of life new born.

Colour of War and Rage, of Pomp and Show,

Banners that flash, red flags that flaunt and glow,

Colour of Carnage, Glory, also Shame,

Raiment of women women may not name.

I hide in mines, where unborn Rubies dwell,

Flicker and flare in fitful fire in Hell,

The outpressed life-blood of the grape is mine,

Hail! to the Royal Purple Red of Wine.

Strong am I, over strong, to eyes that tire,

In the hot hue of Rapine, Riot, Flame.

Death and Despair are black, War and Desire,

The two red cards in Life’s unequal game.

_Green_

I am the Life of Forests, and Wandering Streams,

Green as the feathery reeds the Florican love,

Young as a maiden, who of her marriage dreams,

Still sweetly inexperienced in ways of Love.

Colour of Youth and Hope, some waves are mine,

Some emerald reaches of the evening sky.

See, in the Spring, my sweet green Promise shine,

Never to be fulfilled, of by and by.

Never to be fulfilled; leaves bud, and ever

Something is wanting, something falls behind;

The flowered Solstice comes indeed, but never

That light and lovely summer men divined.

_Violet_

I were the colour of Things, (if hue they had)

That are hard to name.

Of curious, twisted thoughts that men call “mad”

Or oftener “shame.”

Of that delicate vice, that is hardly vice,

So reticent, rare,

Ethereal, as the scent of buds and spice,

In this Eastern air.

On palm-fringed shores I colour the Cowrie shell,

With its edges curled;

And, deep in Datura poison buds, I dwell

In a perfumed world.

My lilac tinges the edge of the evening sky

Where the sunset clings.

My purple lends an Imperial Majesty

To the robes of kings.

_Yellow_

Gold am I, and for me, ever men curse and pray,

Selling their souls and each other, by night and day.

A sordid colour, and yet, I make some things fair,

Dying sunsets, fields of corn, and a maiden’s hair.

Thus they discoursed in the daytime,–Violet, Yellow, and Blue,

Emerald, Scarlet, and Rose-colour, the pink and perfect hue.

Thus they spoke in the sunshine, when their beauty was manifest,

Till the Night came, and the Silence, and gave them an equal rest.

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 

• Youth and Love poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Twilight poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Translated from Geibel poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• To Vernon Lee poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• To E. poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• To Death poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• To Clementina Black poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Village Garden poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Two Terrors poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Sick Man and the Nightingale poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Sequel to a Reminiscence poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Promise of Sleep poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Piano-Organ poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Old Poet poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Old House poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Lost Friend poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Last Judgment poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The First Extra poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The End of the Day poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• The Dream poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy

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