The Stranger poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster

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.

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