The Pleasure of Princes

What pleasures have great princes? These: to know

Themselves reputed mad with pride or power;

To speak few words — few words and short bring low

This ancient house, that city with flame devour;

To make old men, their father’s enemies,

Drunk on the vintage of the former age;

To have great painters show their mistresses

Naked to the succeeding time; engage

The cunning of able, treacherous ministers

To serve, despite themselves, the cause they hate,

And leave a prosperous kingdom to their heirs

Nursed by the caterpillars of the state;

To keep their spies in good men’s hearts; to read

The malice of the wise, and act betimes;

To hear the Grand Remonstrances of greed

Led by the pure; cheat justice of her crimes;

To beget worthless sons and, being old,

By starlight climb the battlements, and while

The pacing sentry hugs himself for cold,

Keep vigil like a lover, muse and smile,

And think, to see from the grim castle steep

The midnight city below rejoice and shine:

“There my great demon grumbles in his sleep

And dreams of his destruction, and of mine.”

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 

• Юрий Галансков – Мне больно by Поэзия На Русском
• Юрий Галансков – Человеческий манифест by Поэзия На Русском
• Юрий Галансков стихи: читать все стихотворения, поэмы поэта Юрий Галансков – Поэзия на Poetry Monster by Поэзия На Русском
• Юрий Энтин – Слово про слово by Поэзия На Русском
• Юрий Левитанский – Не брести мне сушею by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Мое поколение by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Кто-то так уже писал by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Кинематограф by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Как зарок от суесловья, как залог by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Иронический человек by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Грач над березовой чащей by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Диалог у новогодней елки by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Что я знаю про стороны света by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Человек, строящий воздушные замки by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Белый снег by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Верховский – Зачем, паук, уходишь торопливо by Юрий Верховский
• Юрий Верховский – Вариации на тему Пушкина by Юрий Верховский
• Юрий Верховский – В майское утро by Юрий Верховский
• Юрий Верховский – Судьба с судьбой by Юрий Верховский
• Юрий Верховский – Рождественскою ночью by Юрий Верховский

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