The British
by A. S. J. Tessimond
We are a people living in shells and moving
Crablike; reticent, awkward, deeply suspicious;
Watching the world from a corner of half-closed eyelids,
Afraid lest someone show that he hates or loves us,
Afraid lest someone weep in the railway train.
We are coiled and clenched like a foetus clad in armour.
We hold our hearts for fear they fly like eagles.
We grasp our tongues for fear they cry like trumpets.
We listen to our own footsteps. We look both ways
Before we cross the silent empty road.
We are a people easily made uneasy,
Especially wary of praise, of passion, of scarlet
Cloaks, of gesturing hands, of the smiling stranger
In the alien hat who talks to all or the other
In the unfamiliar coat who talks to none.
We are afraid of too-cold thought or too-hot
Blood, of the opening of long-shut shafts or cupboards,
Of light in caves, of X-rays, probes, unclothing
Of emotion, intolerable revelation
Of lust in the light, of love in the palm of the hand.
We are afraid of, one day on a sunny morning,
Meeting ourselves or another without the usual
Outer sheath, the comfortable conversation,
And saying all, all, all we did not mean to,
All, all, all we did not know we meant.
A few random poems:
- from In Time of War by W H Auden
- Apostroph. by Walt Whitman
- Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant
- A Man Young And Old: VIII. Summer And Spring by William Butler Yeats
- Алишер Навои – Цветком, что счастье нам несет
- Оливер Голдсмит – Послание в прозе и стихах
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 16. I Envy not in any Moods poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Somebody Has To by Shel Silverstein
- Шекспир – Я так тебя люблю – Сонет 36
- Hokku Poems in Four Seasons by Yosa Buson
- The Wind In The Hemlock by Sara Teasdale
- Song—Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns
- The Character Of Holland poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- The Song of the Shirt by Thomas Hood
- The Beginning by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- Алексей Николаевич Толстой – Дафнис подслушивает сов
- Толстой Алексей Николаевич стихи: Читать стихотворения Алексея Толстого – Список произведений, стихов поэта на Poetry Monster
- The Hecatomb to his Mistress by John Cleveland
- To the State of Love. Or the Senses’ Festival. By John Cleveland
- I love you
- A Human Being Needs Strong Tea
- Dog racing
- Dissolve in kisses, I would like to dissolve in your kisses
- Tale of the Pope and of His Workman Balda
- Who of you ever
- Аnything can happen
- Outside the Window, Snow
- You must once
- February 23
- May 19th – the Young Pioneers Day
- Море волнуется, манит к себе
- Море огней украшает причалы, вокзалы
- Кипение
- Каждому сроку – свой путь
- Каждый день и каждый миг судьбу благодарю
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