A poem by Alexander Block – Alexandre Block – Alexandr Blok – Александр Блок
(1880-1921)
The restaurants on hot spring evenings
Lie under a dense and savage air.
Foul drafts and hoots from dunken revelers
Contaminate the thoroughfare.
Above the dusty lanes of suburbia
Above the tedium of bungalows
A pretzel sign begilds a bakery
And children screech fortissimo.
And every evening beyond the barriers
Gentlemen of practiced wit and charm
Go strolling beside the drainage ditches —
A tilted derby and a lady at the arm.
The squeak of oarlocks comes over the lake water
A woman’s shriek assaults the ear
While above, in the sky, inured to everything,
The moon looks on with a mindless leer.
And every evening my one companion
Sits here, reflected in my glass.
Like me, he has drunk of bitter mysteries.
Like me, he is broken, dulled, downcast.
The sleepy lackeys stand beside tables
Waiting for the night to pass
And tipplers with the eyes of rabbits
Cry out: “In vino veritas!”
And every evening (or am I imagining?)
Exactly at the appointed time
A girl’s slim figure, silk raimented,
Glides past the window’s mist and grime.
And slowly passing throught the revelers,
Unaccompanied, always alone,
Exuding mists and secret fragrances,
She sits at the table that is her own.
Something ancient, something legendary
Surrounds her presence in the room,
Her narrow hand, her silk, her bracelets,
Her hat, the rings, the ostrich plume.
Entranced by her presence, near and enigmatic,
I gaze through the dark of her lowered veil
And I behold an enchanted shoreline
And enchanted distances, far and pale.
I am made a guardian of the higher mysteries,
Someone’s sun is entrusted to my control.
Tart wine has pierced the last convolution
of my labyrinthine soul.
And now the drooping plumes of ostriches
Asway in my brain droop slowly lower
And two eyes, limpid, blue, and fathomless
Are blooming on a distant shore.
Inside my soul a treasure is buried.
The key is mine and only mine.
How right you are, you drunken monster!
I know: the truth is in the wine.
A few random poems:
- Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood by William Cullen Bryant
- Олег Чупров – Не хочется мне славы громкой
- Love is a Tree by Rumi
- Николай Заболоцкий – На закате
- Иннокентий Анненский – Еврипид. Ифигения в Авлиде («Ифигения-жертва») (перевод)
- Константин Бальмонт – Морская песня
- Change of Climate by Michael S Wilson
- Stream And Sun At Glendalough by William Butler Yeats
- The Lady’s First Song by William Butler Yeats
- Олег Бундур – Жёлудь
- A Man Young And Old: X. His Wildness by William Butler Yeats
- Юлия Друнина – Жизнь моя не катилась
- Федор Тютчев – Как птичка, раннею зарей
- How Samson Bore Away the Gates of Gaza by Vachel Lindsay
- Fire, Famine, And Slaughter : A War Eclogue by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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
- Limbo Under the Westway poem – André Rostant poems
- A Rainy Night poem – André Rostant poems
- “European Union” by the (Roman/German) Eagles
- 決定
- Decision
- 我的妻子。 安德烈·布勒東一首關於自由戀愛的詩
- Less Time poem – Andre Breton poems
- Freedom of Love poem | L’Union Libre (Ma Femme) – Andre Breton poems
- Le Verbe Etre poem – Andre Breton poems
- Five Ways To Kill A Man poem – Andre Breton poems
- Always for the first time
- I have a dream
- Putin, Our Savior and Dear Friend
- Shame
- A Poem about Lemonade
- About Wedding Dress
- Spirituality of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gerard Manley Hopkins: a shepherd poet
- What Shall I Do For the Land that Bred Me poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- What Being in Rank-Old Nature poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Tom’s Garland poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
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
Alexander Blok (1880-1921), also Block, was a Russian poet, writer, publicist, playwright, translator and literary critic. A classic of Russian literature.