A poem by Alexander Block – Alexandre Block – Alexandr Blok – Александр Блок
(1880-1921)
III
Our sons have gone
to serve the Reds
to serve the Reds
to risk their heads!
O bitter,bitter pain,
Sweet living!
A torn overcoat
an Austrian gun!
-To get the bourgeosie
We’ll start a fire
a worldwide fire, and drench it
in blood-
The good Lord bless us!
-O you bitter bitterness,
boring boredom,
deadly boredom.
This is how I will
spend my time.
This is how I will
scratch my head,
munch on seeds,
some sunflower seeds,
play with my knife
play with my knife.
You bourgeosie, fly as a sparrow!
I’ll drink your blood,
your warm blood, for love,
for dark-eyed love.
God, let this soul, your servant,
rest in peace.
Such boredom!
XII
… On they march with sovereign tread…
‘Who else goes there? Come out! I said
come out!’ It is the wind and the red
flag plunging gaily at their head.
The frozen snow-drift looms in front.
‘Who’s in the drift! Come out! Come here!’
There’s only the homeless mongrel runt
limping wretchedly in the rear …
‘You mangy beast, out of the way
before you taste my bayonet.
Old mongrel world, clear off I say!
I’ll have your hide to sole my boot!
The shivering cur, the mongrel cur
bares his teeth like a hungry wolf,
droops his tail, but does not stir …
‘Hey answer, you there, show yourself.’
‘Who’s that waving the red flag?’
‘Try and see! It’s as dark as the tomb!’
‘Who’s that moving at a jog
trot, keeping to the back-street gloom?’
‘Don’t you worry ~ I’ll catch you yet;
better surrender to me alive!’
‘Come out, comrade, or you’ll regret
it ~ we’ll fire when I’ve counted five!’
Crack ~ crack ~ crack! But only the echo
answers from among the eaves …
The blizzard splits his seams, the snow
laughs wildly up the wirlwind’s sleeve …
Crack ~ crack ~ crack!
Crack ~ crack ~ crack!
… So they march with sovereign tread …
Behind them limps the hungry dog,
and wrapped in wild snow at their head
carrying a blood-red flag ~
soft-footed where the blizzard swirls,
invulnerable where bullets crossed ~
crowned with a crown of snowflake pearls,
a flowery diadem of frost,
ahead of them goes Jesus Christ.
A few random poems:
- Альфред Теннисон – Королева мая
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- Lover’s Gifts V: I Would Ask For Still More by Rabindranath Tagore
- XII: Some Verses: Sonnet, To The Authour by William Alexander
- The Sequel to a Reminiscence poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Incommunicado by Sylvia Plath
- On The Death Of A Young Lady Of Five Years Of Age by Phillis Wheatley
- Sporting Acquaintances by Siegfried Sassoon
- On a Sea Fight, Which the Author was in, Betwixt the English and Dutch by William Wycherley
- Suicide Off Egg Rock by Sylvia Plath
- Love by William Shakespeare
- Алексей Плещеев – Мною злых и глупых шуток
- Death In The Lounge Bar by Vernon Scannell
- Владимир Маяковский – Четвертый вывоз
- O Why Do You Walk poem – A. E. Housman
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
- Sonnet. On A Picture Of Leander poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet: Oh! How I Love, On A Fair Summer’s Eve poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet IX. Keen, Fitful Gusts Are poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet IV. How Many Bards Gild The Lapses Of Time! poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet III. Written On The Day That Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet II. To ****** poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet. If By Dull Rhymes Our English Must Be Chain’d poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet I. To My Brother George poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet: Before He Went poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet: As From The Darkening Gloom A Silver Dove poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet: After Dark Vapors Have Oppress’d Our Plains poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet. A Dream, After Reading Dante’s Episode Of Paulo And Francesca poem – John Keats poems
- Song. Written On A Blank Page In Beaumont And Fletcher’s Works poem – John Keats poems
- Song Of Four Faries poem – John Keats poems
- Song. I Had A Dove poem – John Keats poems
- Song. Hush, Hush! Tread Softly! poem – John Keats poems
- Sharing Eve’s Apple poem – John Keats poems
- Otho The Great – Act V poem – John Keats poems
- Otho The Great – Act IV poem – John Keats poems
- Otho The Great – Act III poem – John Keats 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.