The Talisman poem – Alexander Pushkin

A poem by Alexander Pushkin – Pouchkine, Pooshkin (1799-1837), in English translation

Where the sea forever dances

Over lonely cliff and dune,

Where sweet twilight’s vapor glances

In a warmer-glowing moon,

Where with the seraglio’s graces

Daylong toys the Mussulman,

An enchantress ‘mid embraces

Handed me a talisman.

‘Mid embraces I was bidden:

“Guard this talisman of mine:

In it secret power is hidden!

Love himself has made it thine.

Neither death nor ills nor aging,

My beloved, does it ban,

Nor in gales and tempest raging

Can avail my talisman.

Never will it help thee gather

Treasures of the Orient coast,

Neither to thy harness tether

Captives of the Prophet’s host;

Nor in sadness will it lead thee

To a friendly bosom, nor

From this alien southland speed thee

To the native northern shore.

“But whenever eyes designing

Cast on thee a sudden spell,

In the darkness lips entwining

Love thee not, but kiss too well:

Shield thee, love, from evil preying,

From new heart-wounds—that it can,

From forgetting, from betraying

Guards thee this my talisman.”

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Poems in English 

• Snapshots Of A Daughter In Law by Adrienne Rich
• Shattered Head by Adrienne Rich
• Rural Reflections by Adrienne Rich
• Prospective Immigrants Please Note by Adrienne Rich
• Power by Adrienne Rich
• Planetarium by Adrienne Rich
• Paula Becker To Clara Westhoff by Adrienne Rich
• Our Whole Life by Adrienne Rich
• Orion by Adrienne Rich
• On Edges by Adrienne Rich
• November 1968 by Adrienne Rich
• My Mouth Hovers Across Your Breasts by Adrienne Rich
• Moving In Winter by Adrienne Rich
• Miracle Ice Cream by Adrienne Rich
• Living In Sin by Adrienne Rich
• Integrity by Adrienne Rich
• In Those Years by Adrienne Rich
• In The Evening by Adrienne Rich
• In A Classroom by Adrienne Rich
• Implosions by Adrienne Rich

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