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:
- Олег Бундур – Неправильный кот
- The Hand In The Dark
- Hymn on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity poem – John Milton poems
- Childhood by William Barnes
- Release by Marie Starr
- And The Black Scythe With Its Beak of Ibis by Martine Morillon-Carreau
- Fairy Tale by Robert Desnos
- Ольга Ермолаева – Когда распрямлюсь, озирая работу мою
- The Swimmer
- The (REAL) Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare by Ross D Tyler
- Los Able Minded Poets Music Review
- Василий Жуковский – Голос с того света
- Disappointment
- An Anniversary
- Нина Воронель – Маме
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
- Валерий Брюсов – Где-то
- Валерий Брюсов – Газели
- Валерий Брюсов – Г.Г. Бахману (Вся красота тебе доступна)
- Валерий Брюсов – Фонарики
- Валерий Брюсов – Фламандцам
- Валерий Брюсов – Филлида
- Валерий Брюсов – Февраль
- Валерий Брюсов – Фаэтон
- Валерий Брюсов – Фабричная
- Валерий Брюсов – Её колени
- Валерий Брюсов – Еврейским девушкам
- Валерий Брюсов – Эту ночь я дышал тишиной
- Валерий Брюсов – Это я
- Валерий Брюсов – Это – не надежда и не вера
- Валерий Брюсов – Это матовым вечером мая
- Валерий Брюсов – Это было? Неужели?
- Валерий Брюсов – Есть поразительная белость
- Валерий Брюсов – Есть что-то позорное в мощи природы
- Валерий Брюсов – Италия
- Валерий Брюсов – Исполненное обещание романтическая поэма
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.