Venice masks

Saturday 30 December 2017

Mors et Vita - Jacopo Sannazzaro

Alas! when I behold this empty show
  Of life, and think how soon it shall have fled;

Friday 29 December 2017

As Ocean’s Stream - Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev

As ocean’s stream girdles the ball of earth,
From circling seas of dream man’s life emerges,
And as night moves in silence up the firth
The secret tide around our mainland surges.

Thursday 28 December 2017

On the picture of an Infant - Leonidas

Playing near a precipice

While on the cliff with calm delight she kneels,

Tuesday 26 December 2017

A Christmas hymn - Walafrid Strabo

Lumen Inclytum Refulget. 

Through the skies in glory streaming,
Is a star of brightest ray;
O'er the earth the radiant wonder
Drives the shades of night away.

Sunday 24 December 2017

Hymn for the Nativity - Notker Balbulus

Before the ages and the stars of morn
The ever-living Son of God was born;
Whom, as their Maker, heaven and earth adore,
And the wide ocean sings from shore to shore,

Saturday 23 December 2017

Written in Australia - Arthur Adams

The wide sun stares without a cloud:
  Whipped by his glances truculent
The earth lies quivering and cowed.
  My heart is hot with discontent:
  I hate this haggard continent.

Friday 22 December 2017

To Leven Water - Tobias George Smollett

Pure stream, in whose transparent wave
My youthful limbs I wont to lave;

Thursday 21 December 2017

Spring Song of the Birds - King James I of Scotland

Worschippe ye that loveris bene this May,
For of your blisse the Kalendis are begonne,

Wednesday 20 December 2017

No room for the dead - W.J. Anderson

      Yes, the earth is bright
      And hearts are light;

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Artemis - Sappho

Once as a too, too lissome
Maiden was plucking a blossom . . .

Saturday 16 December 2017

A Personal Dog - Vahni Capildeo

it isn't matter
isn't doesn't matter
does it compared
with what shan't
have known your
lines are all
lines of approach

Friday 15 December 2017

Thursday 14 December 2017

Proem - Martin Carter

Not, in the saying of you, are you
said. Baffled and like a root
stopped by a stone you turn back questioning

Wednesday 13 December 2017

The Children's Church - Karl Gerock

The bells of the churches are ringing, —
Papa and mamma have both gone —
And three little children sit singing
Together this still Sunday morn.

Tuesday 12 December 2017

Madhushala (The Tavern) - Harivansh Rai Bachchan

Seeking wine, the drinker leaves home for the tavern.
Perplexed, he asks, "Which path will take me there?"
People show him different ways, but this is what I have to say,
"Pick a path and keep walking. You will find the tavern."

Monday 11 December 2017

Rubai - Sultan Murad II

Cup-bearer, bring, bring here again my
      yestereven's wine;

Friday 8 December 2017

Life's Philosophy - Theodore de Banville

Youth, untouched by melancholy,
Fair as the sun of Italy, —
Cling to thy delicious folly !

Thursday 7 December 2017

Departing - Joe Friggieri

When I'm about to leave forever
I want it to be at night
with crickets singing in the corn

Wednesday 6 December 2017

To a Friend on the Eve of May 1858 - Guido Gezelle

Once I see the flowery wreaths of May,
the month of love for Mary and her Child,
the month of love for thee, my pious friend,
the month of love of poetry, more sweet
Than love to both our blended loving hearts!

Tuesday 5 December 2017

Beauty and the Illiterate - Odysseus Elytis

Often, in the Repose of Evening her soul took a lightness from
                  the mountains across, although the day was harsh and
                  tomorrow foreign.

Sunday 3 December 2017

The Image of God - Francisco de Aldana

O Lord! who seest from yon starry height,
Centred in one the future and the past,
Fashioned in thine own image, see how fast
The world obscures in me what once was bright!

Saturday 2 December 2017

Oil Ailment - Rira Abbasi

And now I know what ails the world: Power
Humility dies on its very own emaciated neck
Even cockroaches rise
Against the sanctity of your body
The world is sated with virus.

Friday 1 December 2017

Up North - Mary Hannay Foott

Into Thy hands let me fall, O Lord,—
Not into the hands of men,—
And she thinned the ranks of the savage horde
Till they shrank to the mangrove fen.

Thursday 30 November 2017

Sonet of Venus and Cupid - Mark Alexander Boyd

Fra banc to banc, fra wod to wod, I rin
Ourhailit1 with my feble fantasie,

Wednesday 29 November 2017

It was the month of May - Juan Lorenzo Segura

It was the month of May, a glorious time,
    When merry music make the birds in boughs,

Tuesday 28 November 2017

Song of a Young Girl - Flavien Ranaivo

Oaf
tlie young man who lives down there
beside the threshing floor for rice;
like two banana-roots
on either side the village ditch,

Monday 27 November 2017

Ode XIV: To the Roman State - Horace

O ship, new waves will bear you back again to sea.
O what are you doing? Bravely seize the port.

Sunday 26 November 2017

Rising at midnight - Gregory the Great

Rising at midnight, one and all awaking,
Chant we in ceaseless round our matins sweet,
And to the Lord, melodious music making.
In tuneful quire our twilight hymns repeat.

Saturday 25 November 2017

Women - Simonides of Amorgos

She from the steed of wanton mane
Shall spurn all servile toil and pain;
Nor shake the sieve, nor ply the mill
Nor sweep the floor, though dusty still.

Friday 24 November 2017

Do not worry for to-morrow - Ben Sira

Do not worry for to-morrow,
As thou dost not know the sorrow
Which to-day bears in its train.

Wednesday 22 November 2017

Up and sing! - Mawlana (Taj ud-Din) Ahmed

Up and sing! O 'anqa-natured1 nightingale!
High in every business doth thy worth prevail:
Sing! for good the words are that from thee proceed;
Whatsoever thou dost say is prized indeed.

Tuesday 21 November 2017

Idyl I: The Stray Cupid - Moschus

As Cupid from his mother Venus strayed,
Thus crying him aloud the goddess said,
"If any one a wandering Cupid see,
The little fugitive belongs to me:

Sunday 19 November 2017

Saturday 18 November 2017

Friday 17 November 2017

Mame - Fatou Dioffé Bâ

Grandfather, last of my Fathers,
My luck, my hope, my essence,
Tell me about my roots, tell me about my rooted self.
Oh Father, how much I wished from you!

Thursday 16 November 2017

Poetry - Lieke Marsman

At the moment it feels a bit like
those times I would try to find
a hiding place behind
the gym building yep, a dank place

Wednesday 15 November 2017

Days of my childhood - Michael Ghazarian Nalbandian

Days of my childhood, like a dream
Ye fleeted, to return no more.
Ah, happy days and free from care,
Ye brought but joy in passing o’er!

Tuesday 14 November 2017

Rear View Mirror - Cheela Chilala

Sweaty hands gripping the wheel
Perspiration on my brow,
My feet weary and my shoes worn,
I drive through life's tough terrain

Monday 13 November 2017

Sunday 12 November 2017

Factory of Tears - Valzhyna Mort

And once again according to the annual report
the highest productivity results were achieved
by the Factory of Tears.

Saturday 11 November 2017

Shadows on the Land, II - Carlos Villagra Marsal

         Ill-fated land,
orphaned by your children,
mansion of forgetfulness
and of punishment.

Friday 10 November 2017

Thursday 9 November 2017

A Girl - Adriaan Morrien

I am too weak to keep up life’s renewal
within myself, my blood is too speechless; see
my fearing hands and see my lap

Wednesday 8 November 2017

Clotilde - Guillaume Apollinaire

Anemone and columbine
Where gloom has lain
Opened in gardens
Between love and disdain

Tuesday 7 November 2017

Sunday 5 November 2017

Saturday 4 November 2017

Mack The Knife - Bertolt Brecht

Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear
And he shows them pearly white.
Just a jack knife has Macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight.

Friday 3 November 2017

The Seeing Blindness - Kushal Poddar

We watch the slim women model
for our favorite potato wafers.
What is silence but the crunching incisions?

Thursday 2 November 2017

The Arms of Bodhisatva - Tiziana Colusso

What is wisdom
if not inscribed in the natural flux of things?

Wednesday 1 November 2017

My Dear and Only Love - James Graham

My dear and only Love, I pray
    This noble world of thee
Be govern'd by no other sway
    But purest monarchy;
For if confusion have a part,
    Which virtuous souls abhor,
And hold a synod in thy heart,
    I'll never love thee more.

Tuesday 31 October 2017

Olympia 12 - Pindar

Daughter of Zeus who sets free, I beseech you, Fortune,
lady of salvation, guard the wide strength of Himera.
By your power are steered fleet ships on the sea,
sudden wars by land, the gatherings heavy
with counsel. Men's hopes, oft in the air,
downward rock again as they shear a heaving sea of lies.

Friday 27 October 2017

The Dramatic Symphony (extract) - Andrey Bely

  1. The by-street was bathed in sun. The road was turning white. In place of the sky there hung a gigantic turquoise.

Thursday 26 October 2017

The Shining Hours (VIII) - Emile Verhaeren

As in the guileless, golden age, my heart
I gave thee, even like an ample flower
That opens in the dew's bright morning hour;
My lips have rested where the frail leaves part.

Wednesday 25 October 2017

Bongwi, the Baboon - Royston Dunnachie Campbell

Grown wrinkled in the suns of noon
And mad from yearning on the moon,
With empty eyes and lifted hands
Our ancient father, Bongwi, stands
Sharp-pencilled on the moonlit sky:
And upward sends his dismal cry,
Blending with eddies of the air
Vague fragments of a mumbled prayer,
That shed upon the plains around
Their ghostly sediment of sound.

Tuesday 24 October 2017

The Breast of the Sea - Syl Cheney-Coker

After our bloody century, the sea will groan
under its weight, somewhere between breasts and anus.
Filled with toxins, her belly will not yield new islands
even though the orphans of East Timor wish it so.

Sunday 22 October 2017

He whom a dream hath possessed - Sheamus O'Sheel

He whom a dream hath possessed knoweth no more of doubting,
For mist and the blowing of winds and the mouthing of words he scorns;
Not the sinuous speech of schools he hears, but a knightly shouting,
And never comes darkness down, yet he greeteth a million morns.

Saturday 21 October 2017

Al-Jilnar - lbn Hani al-Andalusi

In tender age amid green branches
the pomegranate tree’s daughter looked
like the heart of a falcon or of a hawk

Friday 20 October 2017

I Am Woman - Bongiwe Dlamini

I am woman
Empowered, I arise
to birth and nurture nations

Thursday 19 October 2017

Mapmaker - Beatriz Badikian-Gartler

I am Eratosthenes' heir — the librarian
who measured earth. He took an obelisk,
a well, the sun, and made a triangle:
geometry, simple and accurate.

Tuesday 17 October 2017

When I look abroad - Abe no Nakamaro

When I look abroad
O'er the wide-stretched "Plain of Heaven,"

Sunday 15 October 2017

The Hour - Samuel Hanagid

She said: “Be happy that God has helped you reach
The age of fifty in this world,” not knowing
That to me there is no difference between my life’s
Past and that of Noah about whom I heard.

Saturday 14 October 2017

Boy on a swing - Oswald Mtshali

Slowly he moves
to and fro, to and fro,
then faster and faster
he swishes up and down.

Friday 13 October 2017

History - Antonio Preciado Bedoya

Honey flowed everywhere; but that day
they gave it to me
with a rifle

Thursday 12 October 2017

An Attempt to Await - Adeeb Kamal Ad-Deen

1
Which awaits which?
Does the sun await the street?
Or does the street await the people:
The simpletons and the beggars?

Wednesday 11 October 2017

Koha - Glenn Colquhoun

Aunty Kare gave me her recipe for making steamed-pudding.
She sits with me in church.

Tuesday 10 October 2017

Monday 9 October 2017

I do - Steve Page

Ignore the lyrics:
You can't pursue love.
You don't find love.
Love's not a thing to be kept or had;

Wednesday 4 October 2017

The Heron Who Was Hard To Please - Jean de La Fontaine

A long-legged Heron, with long neck and beak,
Set out for a stroll by the bank of a creek.

Tuesday 3 October 2017

Going down there - Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

This is a letter scratched out by candlelight:
I leave it for all those who are also
confined, painfully pressed, split open.

Sunday 1 October 2017

Dies Irae - Thomas of Celano

That day of wrath, that dreadful day.
Shall the whole world in ashes lay,
As David and the Sibyls say.

Saturday 30 September 2017

Thursday 28 September 2017

Vexing - Li Shangyin

Encountering magnificently flavoured food, the spleen, stomach not cooperating
Enjoying drink the whole night, then finding the wine vessel empty

Tuesday 26 September 2017

High Ride in the Streets - Gregor Podlogar

sun rays have ripped open the clouds' bellies
the rain has stopped tourists are exhausted

Sunday 24 September 2017

Adoration - Madame Guyon

I love my God, but with no love of mine,
     For I have none to give;

Saturday 23 September 2017

Always repeating the same mistake - Anat Zecharia

Always repeating the same mistake
going up and down the escalators
passing shops, billboards, neon signs,
hundreds of thousands of things for sale: running shoes
a glass brooch, old-fashioned soap flakes, a small tube
short white socks, buy one, get one free.

Friday 22 September 2017

Landslides - Kevin Isaac

Wishes...frozen in time
Like low-hanging fruits
Sweetening on branches of reminiscences

Thursday 21 September 2017

Grey Hair - Ashjan Al Hendi

Jasmine fixed its heart in her braid
a flowering rivulet
touched her hair
the flavor of perfume
slept on her breath

Wednesday 20 September 2017

Tuesday 19 September 2017

a passing glimpse of the first of may, storypoem - Hipólito Alvarado

this is the morning filled with little flags
birds
              children
people at the fiesta in the park

Monday 18 September 2017

Seven-Headed Beast - Astrid Cabral

The more I age
the more heads I snip from the seven-
headed beast. And then I recognize him,
my intimate, my neighbour.

Sunday 17 September 2017

Mother to be do you ponder the future - Bruce Levitan

Mother to be do you ponder the future,
Wondering whether the world will be safe;
For a new baby will there be some refuge
In a land so filled with orphans and waifs?

Friday 15 September 2017

Calcutta and I - Sunil Gangopadhyay

Calcutta is a dead weight on my heart:
I must destroy her before I go.
I shall seduce her away to Haldia port
and feed her sweets spiked with arsenic—
Calcutta is a dead weight on my heart.

Wednesday 13 September 2017

Mud Flats - Kim Soo-Bok

She lies there with her hugely pregnant body.
At dawn a ship leaves, cutting through her stomach.
As it emerges from her body, headed for the sea,

Tuesday 12 September 2017

When It Is Raining - Zbyněk Hejda

When it is raining,
the pond looks
as if it is just convalescing

Monday 11 September 2017

Two Birds - Anzhelina Polonskaya

Two birds on the grey, ashy sand.
The sleeping bird is on the right; her feathers are dull

Saturday 9 September 2017

Mozart’s Requiem - Stella Vinitchi Radulescu

They have lived a stone life, a star life, a rat life,
tears wiped out by the Siberian wind, packages wrapped
in despair,
moved from prison to prison, from age to age.

Friday 8 September 2017

War and a Woman - Saba Kidane

War and a woman I sing.
A country
needs a woman
to find peace.

Thursday 7 September 2017

Red Thistle - Umberto Piersanti

when the sirocco ceases, the bitter cliff
—the thorns remain through the long winter,
the ox moans as its white mass
sinks down through the snow—
throws out its flowers among the sticks

Wednesday 6 September 2017

Ambush - Gbemisola Adeoti

The land is a giant whale
that swallows the sinker,
with hook, line and bait

Tuesday 5 September 2017

Monday 4 September 2017

Catfish in the Woods -Yoko Danno

My dog suddenly runs off
slipping the leash
startled by a wild beast.

Sunday 3 September 2017

My Small White Dog and I - Silja Walter

My small white clog and I,
We walk through every door we see
We shiver and we cry.
We look for you. We look for me.

Saturday 2 September 2017

Friday 1 September 2017

Illicit - D.H. Lawrence

In front of the sombre mountains, a faint, lost ribbon of
             rainbow,
And between us and it, the thunder;
And down below, in the green wheat, the labourers
Stand like dark stumps, still in the green wheat.

Thursday 31 August 2017

If I Be Waspish, Best Beware My Sting - Lina Ramona Vitkauskas

Hello. I am a:
a. platinum wire thread,
b. legume television,
c. court skald,
d. plasmatic haphazard.

Wednesday 30 August 2017

Excessive Song V - Dan Sociu

Then, on the third day of the Congress, a boundless lethargy
overtook me on the balcony of your hotel room

Tuesday 29 August 2017

Thirst - Siamanto

My soul is listening to the death of the twilight.

Monday 28 August 2017

The New Land - Cyril M. Kanhai

In the darkness tonight
I suddenly became aware
Of the land

Sunday 27 August 2017

Curb for stubborn steed - St. Clement of Alexandria

Curb for stubborn steed,
Making its will give heed;
Wing that directest right,
The wild bird's wandering flight;

Saturday 26 August 2017

Leaves Fell - Juhan Liiv

A gust roused the waves,
leaves blew into the water,
the waves were ash-gray,
the sky tin-gray,
ash-gray the autumn.

Friday 25 August 2017

into the shades - Yoko Danno

         like rescue
         ropes
         wisteria
         flowers
         hanging
         from
         the trellis

Thursday 24 August 2017

A Star - Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

1
Awoken by light, I scratch the glass
of dreams, and find myself
stepping free of shadows and silence.

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Handprints - Khalil Reza Uluturk

Today again the ones
investigating the crime gathered.
They have already prepared the camera with its red shoulder straps
To take my photo - head and profile.

Tuesday 22 August 2017

Love’s Bondman - Fra Guittone d’Arezzo

Great joy it were to me to join the throng
  That thy celestial throne, O Lord, surround,
  Where perfect peace and pardon shall be found,
  Peace for good doings, pardon for the wrong;

Monday 21 August 2017

The Will to Life - Abdellatif Al Ouarari

If people one day aspire for life
People threw the night in the trash bin,
Lifting the chains on the impossible, and answer fate's call
At dawn, they echoed the difficult melody of Abul Kassim
In two sentences, and said:
To fire, this untrue message,
To the wind, the dream of travel!

Thursday 17 August 2017

The Beauty - Du Fu

She is a young woman of matchless beauty
Living unnoticed in a lonely valley.
The daughter of a good family, she says,
But ruined now, with woods and weeds for company.

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Stand and face me - Sappho

Stand and face me, dear; release
That fineness in your irises.

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Monday 14 August 2017

Arai Takako - Specter!

There is a girl who goes nowhere
There is a girl who sucks up severe nourishment
Like a water jug

Sunday 13 August 2017

O, Thou Eternal One! - Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin

O Thou Eternal One! whose presence bright
All space doth occupy, all motions guide;
Unchanged through time's all-devastating flight;
Thou only God! There is no God beside!

Wednesday 9 August 2017

Tuesday 8 August 2017

The Belly Remains - Tchicaya U Tam’si

Sure the belly remains chaste
under a treasure of white bones
then open to a fighter’s song
lost body and soul
in the flames of his passion

Monday 7 August 2017

Himalaya - Lekhnath Paudyal

A scarf of pure white snow
Hangs down from its head to its feet,
Cascades like strings of pearls
Glisten on its breast,

Sunday 6 August 2017

Doubt - Fernand Gregh

Upon the topmost branches dies
A last ray of the setting sun;
A glimmer of strange gilding lies
Upon the leaves' vermilion.

Saturday 5 August 2017

Thursday 3 August 2017

The Millihelen - Sinéad Morrissey

It never looks warm or properly daytime
in black-and-white photographs the sheer cliff-
face of the ship still enveloped in its scaffolding
backside against the launching cradle

Wednesday 2 August 2017

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Most Favoured Guest! - Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba

O Most Favoured Guest who has come with cheer and blessings, you are welcome! You are welcome! You are most welcome without end!

Sunday 30 July 2017

A Little Bird I Am - Madame Guyon

A little bird I am,
Shut in from fields of air,
And in my cage I sit and sing,
To him who placed me there;
Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleases thee!

Saturday 29 July 2017

The Gazelle - Rainer Maria Rilke

Enchanted one: how can one harmonize
Two chosen words so as to reach the rhyme
Which comes and goes in you, as by a sign.
From out your forehead leaf and lyre arise,

Friday 21 July 2017

My English - Zamir Osorov

It was very hard for me
to speak with the West
through translators,

Thursday 20 July 2017

Reality - Rabi’a of Basri

In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.

Wednesday 19 July 2017

Sonnet - Michael Madhusudan Dutt

I am not rich, nay, nor the future heir
To sparkling gold or silver heaped on store;

Tuesday 18 July 2017

Identity Apples - Mbizo Chirasha

I am a fat skeleton, resurrecting
From the sad memories of dada
And dark mysteries of animism
I am Buganda
I bleed hope

Monday 17 July 2017

Security of Person - Lynn Sweeting

That I am here
writing,

not running
from bombs
of chemicals
or fire,

Sunday 16 July 2017

Realization - Śrî Ānanda Āchārya

I will keep the fire of hope ever burning on the altar of my soul,
I will feed it by day and by night with the fuel of industry and the oblation of thought,
Like a spring plant the great purpose is growing in the garden of my heart;

Friday 14 July 2017

Longing for the South - Konstantin Miladinov

If I had an eagle's wings
I would rise and fly on them
To our shores, to our own parts,
To See Stambol, to see Kukus,
And to watch the sunrise: is it
dim there too, as it is here?

Thursday 13 July 2017

Wednesday 12 July 2017

Tuesday 11 July 2017

Human Speech - Rahmat Fa'aola Pele

Human speech can be the sword that separates truth from falsehood
It brings victory to the defenders of justice

Monday 10 July 2017

I hate the cyclic poem - Callimachus

I hate the cyclic poem and I don’t enjoy
The road that goes too far this way and that.

Sunday 9 July 2017

A hymn - Bede

A hymn of glory let us sing;
New songs throughout the world shall ring;
By a new way none ever trod
Christ mounteth to the throne of God.

Saturday 8 July 2017

The Scowl of the Perpetual Dictator - Elvio Romero

What a difficult countenance!
What a complex countenance!
There’s something that draws me to his furrowed brow,
on his patriotic mission.

Friday 7 July 2017

Who are You? - Gopal Prasad Rimal

Here we are fond of our needs,
the vanity which hides them
is dear to us:

Thursday 6 July 2017

Wednesday 5 July 2017

Ice - Torkilk Mørch

In the heart of the ice is fire.
You can touch it, feel it,

Tuesday 4 July 2017

Autopsychography - Fernando Pessoa

The poet is a man who feigns
And feigns so thoroughly, at last
He manages to feign as pain
The pain he really feels,

Monday 3 July 2017

Oh Madagascar - Michael Parfait Andrianjaka

Oh Madagascar the holy
Big island next to Africa
The sea surrounds you
I love you, adore you, and will never deny you
Because you are so wonderful

Sunday 2 July 2017

I look for you early - Solomon Ibn Gabirol

I look for you early,
my rock and my refuge,
offering you worship
morning and night;

Saturday 1 July 2017

My Donkey Says - Reesom Haile

I put on my pants
One leg at a time
And my shoes one after the other.
What's to understand?

Friday 30 June 2017

Electric Lock - Shang Ch'in

Tonight the streetlights where I live went out at midnight as usual.

Thursday 29 June 2017

The Procession - Claribel Alegría

There is a still silence
thinking me
another flayed silence
walking inside me

Wednesday 28 June 2017

The Next Take - Christy Birmingham

You sat there in the dark, collecting dust
For days upon days
As you laid on a bed of pens and
Scissors with a bent handle.

Tuesday 27 June 2017

The Great Despair - Roque Dalton

   My country you do not exist
you’re my silhouette badly drawn that’s all
a word that fooled the enemy

Monday 26 June 2017

i am selfish. with my blackness - Inès Giramata

i am selfish.
with my Blackness.
my Black features.
i am selfish with my Black tears.

Sunday 25 June 2017

The Prophet - Aleksandr Pushkin

I dragged my feet through desert gloom,
Tormented by the spirit's yearning.
And saw a six-winged Seraph bloom
Upon the footpath's barren turning.

Saturday 24 June 2017

#Burundi2015 - Ketty Nivyabandi

may you be more
than a game of cards
may you be more
than dry bones

Friday 23 June 2017

Pink and Blue - Ras Mo

Ever since I was small I try to understand
what it really really means to be a man
because some things I learnt since I was a baby
like pink for a girl and blue for me
so I ask myself constantly
what does it to really mean to be manly
in this pink and blue society
How should I act like a man
How should I act like a man

Thursday 22 June 2017

I had a dream one sultry summer’s night - Martin Kloess

I had a dream one sultry summer’s night
The stardust cast a trail to light my way
A gentle stream was there to guide my flight
To place some purpose to meaning of day

Wednesday 21 June 2017

Nature's Orchestra - Jane Okot P’ Bitek Langoya

The branches of the trees nod in unison
As the trees hum softly
In rhythm to the rattling leaves

Tuesday 20 June 2017

Monday 19 June 2017

Utter - Vahni Capildeo

Night drinks salt water from a bucket, draws
a sleeve from the sea, spills hand across mouth.

Sunday 18 June 2017

The Dream of Dakiki - Ferdowsi

My heart was fired, as from his sight it turned
Toward the world's Sovereign Throne, and inly yearned,
'May I lay hand upon that book some day
And tell, in my own words, that ancient lay!'

Saturday 17 June 2017

I'm Your Slave, You are My Love - Nezim Frakulla

I'm your slave, you are my love,
I turn to you, my beloved,
Save me now or let me perish,

Friday 16 June 2017

Exhortation to the Village (8) - Ateif Khieri

Tomorrow the straitened wars
In darkness, suddenly,
the crates of fruit terrify

Thursday 15 June 2017

Poem - Soad al Kuwari

and I bear all orbits
on the strong arms of my delusion
I am a stain on runaway destiny,

Wednesday 14 June 2017

Daughter of the Low Land - Peter Anyang’-Nyong’o

After I have communed with them,
With dead men’s ideas;
‘Nya dyang’ ’ comes to me
With accusing persuasion:
       ‘Come, “wuod twon”,
        My activities are vital.’

Tuesday 13 June 2017

"Fire" Third State: Voice of Prayer - Rogelio Sinán

- How very late have begun to flow the rivers of dawn!
- What torrential music has seeped through all the wounds!

Monday 12 June 2017

Cavafy's Whip - Adam Fet'hi

The prickly pear,
thorny, of wily fingers, friend to Tunisians on wedding nights
(when the grains of chance ripen) and eid mornings, when
halawa calms
the tufts of burnouses.

Sunday 11 June 2017

Fierce was the wild billow - St. Anatolius of Constantinople

Fierce was the wild billow,
Dark was the night;
Oars laboured heavily,
Foam glimmered white;

Saturday 10 June 2017

Herbs of the Past - Zahir al-Ghafri

Thus ...
did an icy sun hurl you into the depths of the forest
Now the song on the angel’s lips is your guide to life

Friday 9 June 2017

Vafthruthnismol - Snorri Sturluson

Othin spake: 
"Counsel me, Frigg, for I long to fare,
And Vafthruthnir fain would find;
In wisdom old with the giant wise
Myself would I seek to match."

Thursday 8 June 2017

Wednesday 7 June 2017

Camões - Jose Lopes

Among the great poets
You are the greatest still.
You were on a par with the prophets,
You knew how to love!

Tuesday 6 June 2017

Room 421 - Menno Wigman

My mother’s near kaput. She’s got a hutch,
not quite a box, and sits the same day out
each day on her much pissed-on chair. Can stare
at trees outside, and in those trees are birds
that know not who has once begotten them.

Monday 5 June 2017

Sewn Beneath My Lids - Kushal Poddar

Deeper I traverse
into the field of
golden wheat, it gets
stickier, thick with
insane brushstrokes.

Sunday 4 June 2017

Holy Spirit Prayer - Saint Augustine

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit,
That my thoughts may all be holy.

Friday 2 June 2017

Poets Among Each Other - Gyula Illyés

There can be no virtuous man
Who stops writing poetry
And stops telling the truth.

Thursday 1 June 2017

Life - R. H. Lola Koundakjian

She dices the onions finely.
A construction worker, 25, falls to his death.

Wednesday 31 May 2017

Tuesday 30 May 2017

Breathing - Rajathi Salma

Everything happens so quickly
before I can feel it.

Monday 29 May 2017

Roses - Publius Annius Florus

What roses have I seen come with the morn!
Scarce born they were, yet not alike in age:

Sunday 28 May 2017

On the day of death - Peter Damian

Ah, thou bringest dreams of terror,
Thou of life my latest day,
Bringest dreams that shake my pulses,
Fill my bosom with dismay;
Sunk in solemn gloom and anguish
I behold thy parting ray.

Saturday 27 May 2017

Death thinks the Stars at Night are Scabbed over Wounds - Gokçenur C.

Death runs a shop in the Grand Bazaar on Fesçiler Street
Death thinks using foreign words from time to time very cool
Death tries to hide the existence of stripeless zebras from everyone else

Friday 26 May 2017

Tribe of Woods - Warsan Shire

I held down my daughter last night
spread her limbs across the forest
laid her out to rest
crushed berries across her mouth and
gave her my knuckles to chew on

Thursday 25 May 2017

The Premises of Grass - Eugene Ostashevsky

The Laughing Philosopher has entered
the Witless Relocation Program
Outside his window there’s a rooster
that looks like a toaster

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Elegy - Bewketu Seyoum

The fall of every leaf diminishes me,
so when I hear a rustle
I send my eyes out of the window
to look at the trees in the yard.

Tuesday 23 May 2017

Terrorism not a religion - Ammar Butt

“Where is my daughter?”
The mother asks,
Not knowing that her daughter
Couldn’t survive the blast.

Monday 22 May 2017

Sunday 21 May 2017

Saturday 20 May 2017

Calls of Youth - Hermana Ramarui

Give us birth, my elders.
Stop the colonial web.
Open the door to freedom.

Friday 19 May 2017

In Your Absence - L Ölziitögs

In my eyes there are butterflies, a felt hat, mirror and a candle.
In my eyes there are women, an apple, trees and a bird.
In my eyes there are clocks, a key, cloud and the sky.
In my eyes there is everything, except for you.

Thursday 18 May 2017

Berlin. January - Salome Benidze

Step over the grey corpses of angels
shot by this bleak wall
that path will bring you to me:

Tuesday 16 May 2017

Insídia do tempo - Tina Mucavele

The chorus to the song says:
I just wish you were in my shelter during a storm
I just wish I could walk down the street holding hands with you
I just wished you could care a little about me

Monday 15 May 2017

The Shrub - Vojislav Ilić‎

A thunder stricken shrub on a grey hill it rests,
Like a dark almighty giant. And grassy ribbon dense,
Twists around his shape. And playful mountain breeze
Sways the bright flowers and trees.

Sunday 14 May 2017

Civilised Girl - Jully Makini

Cheap perfume
Six-inch heels
Skin-tight pants
Civilised girl

Saturday 13 May 2017

Flight of the Firstborn - Peggy Carr

He streaks past his sixteenth year,
small island life stretched tight
across his shoulders

Thursday 11 May 2017

Blues Fragment - Francisco José Tenreiro

For Langston Hughes

All the melancholy of nights in Georgia
comes to me
this stormy night in Europe
through the solitary voice of the trumpet:

Wednesday 10 May 2017

The Tram Journey - Milena Ercolani

You got on the same tram
only to get off before me,
your steps were slow,
your hand shook slightly,
your gaze was lit by nostalgia...

Tuesday 9 May 2017

Blood in the Kava Bowl - Epeli Hauʻofa

In the twilight we sit drinking kava
from the bowl between us.
Who we are we know and need not say
for the soul we share came from Vaihi.

Monday 8 May 2017

thirsty - Dionne Brand

This city is beauty
unbreakable and amorous as eyelids,
in the streets, pressed with fierce departures,
submerged landings,
I am innocent as thresholds
and smashed night birds, lovesick,
as empty elevators

Sunday 7 May 2017

Lamentations from paradise - Helda Marie

Did you hear the sea calling
as we rowed across the reef to the island?
The same name they gave our forefathers ages ago.
Was that what we heard as frigates hushed?
Laments of the uprooted?

Saturday 6 May 2017

April Woman - Salma Jayyusi

Poem to My Son

I am an April woman:
December ash that consumes itself
frightens me

Friday 5 May 2017

My Sinking Island, Kiribati - Lovelygal

Waves crashing onto shore
Rising higher more and more
People crying, people dying
There is no land to live on anymore

Thursday 4 May 2017

Losing the Old Ways - Theothora Fahorug

A branch was growing on a tree
very happily.
A strong wind came
and broke it off the tree.

Wednesday 3 May 2017

I give you thanks my God - Bernard Binlin Dadié

I give you thanks my God for having created me black
For having made of me
The total of all sorrows,
and set upon my head
the World.
I wear the livery of the Centaur
And I carry the World since the first morning.

Monday 1 May 2017

Hymne Monégasque - Théophile Bellando de Castro

Greetings, to our neighbours!
Greetings, to all those who are watching us!
It is important that you remember the following:

Sunday 30 April 2017

The Poet - Yone Noguchi

Out of the deep and the dark,
A sparkling mystery, a shape,
Something perfect,
Comes like the stir of the day:

Saturday 29 April 2017

Goodman’s Bay II - Christian Campbell

Straight to the bush to gather cracked
bottles of beer and rum, shards of seaglass
smoothed by wind and sand. We Haitian

Friday 28 April 2017

Thursday 27 April 2017

Dream-wall - Asad Chowdhury

Dreams have no doors nor walls
They stroll like open skies,
White birds
flying
circling
In the deep blue sky.

Wednesday 26 April 2017

Flying-Fox - Albert Wendt

More rat than bird,
more superstition than fox,
you hang from that banyan

Tuesday 25 April 2017

The Mural of Arrogance - Mohammad Almoghrabi

     to Amina’s soul

The world is a
wasteland,
a wasteland is my destiny.

Monday 24 April 2017

Custom - Grace Mera Molisa

Custom
is an English word
English
a confluence
of streams of words

Sunday 23 April 2017

Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain - John of Damascus (John Mansur)

Come, you faithful, raise the strain
Of triumphant gladness!
God has brought his Israel
Into joy from sadness,
Loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke
Jacob’s sons and daughters,
Led them with unmoistened foot
Through the Red Sea waters.

Saturday 22 April 2017

Wishes - Niyi Osundare

Wish I could still laugh with the lotus
On the bank of the Nile

Friday 21 April 2017

Know ye not Ivar Sir Alfsön? - Sigrid Undset

Fair goes the dance at Munkolm
   On silver sand.
There danceth Ivar Sir Alfsön —
   Holds the Queen’s own hand.
      Know ye not Ivar Sir Alfsön?

Thursday 20 April 2017

Obeah Night - Jean Rhys

A night I seldom remember
(If it can be helped)
The night I saw Love's dark face
Was Love's dark face
“And cruel as he is”? I've never known that
I've tried my best you may be certain (whoever asks)
My human best

Wednesday 19 April 2017

Love song - Anonymous Misīrī tribesman

Fair without [adornment of] beads and necklace,
I pray for you to God the One the Creator
that graciously He may grant you a divorce.

Tuesday 18 April 2017

Sierra Leone at 48 - Abdulai Walon-Jalloh

I'm in ripe middle age
Facing the difficulties of a new page
Yet I'm expected to be a sage
Though I'm bound in my little cage

Monday 17 April 2017

Differences - Joanne C. Hillhouse

“Is his choice”
He says
Matter of fact
Like the boy deserved to die
For this
Accident of biology

Sunday 16 April 2017

The Day of Easter - Dionysios Solomos

The last cool star of dawn was
foretelling the brightest sunshine;
no cloud, no drift of mist was travelling
across any part of the sky.

Saturday 15 April 2017

Dear Matefele Peinam - Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner

dear matafele peinam,
you are a seven month old sunrise of gummy smiles
you are bald as an egg and bald as the buddha
you are thunder thighs and lightning shrieks

Friday 14 April 2017

The Rood speaks - Cynewulf

“It was long past – I still remember it –
That I was cut down at the copse’s end,
Moved from my root. Strong enemies there took me,
Told me to hold aloft their criminals,
Made me a spectacle. Men carried me
Upon their shoulders, set me on a hill,
A host of enemies there fastened me.

Thursday 13 April 2017

Emerald Dunes - Ketty Nivyabandi

From the depths of misty silences
The night’s last secrets are enfolded
Within the numb necks of old roosters
While the watchmen shamefully doze
Great women rise up,

Monday 10 April 2017

Sunday 9 April 2017

Saturday 8 April 2017

St.Kitts and Nevis Independence 33 - Edrice Lewis Viechweg

We are a nation, proud and free,
Citizens of Liamigua and Oualie.
Fertile Land, Land of Beautiful Waters,
Cherished home of our sons and daughters.

Friday 7 April 2017

How Could You? - Jovon Uwimana

How we used to be!
We were good neighbours,
But I don’t know what we had become by April ‘94.

Thursday 6 April 2017

Modernity in the Desert - Soad al Kuwari

We talk of many things we don’t understand.
Modernity in the desert! The latest
joke in a world full of jokes.

Wednesday 5 April 2017

God's end - Bruce Levitan

Most of us walk around as if
we have our eyes closed;
Like letters that are sans serif
we miss out on what's exposed.

Tuesday 4 April 2017

The passion of St George - Maria Grech Ganado

I drew up short. And, yes, I drew in startled –
  –  that shorn hair, standing on edge
like a black hedgehog, instead of the soft tresses
I’d dreamt had bound my heart –

Monday 3 April 2017

Sunday 2 April 2017

I see it happening - Adam Abdurrahman

I see a dreadful plague
Spreading its pestilence here.
They call it development.
They call it refinement.

Saturday 1 April 2017

Friday 31 March 2017

Who? - Anne Udui

Who are they to come to our isle
      to change the machas to their "so-called"
      style?

Thursday 30 March 2017

The Moon and Spring - Teresa Colom

we don’t write about death only about life

the dead do not write

Wednesday 29 March 2017

A beautiful prayer - Joanne Gobure

I asked God to take away my habit.
God said, No.
It is not for me to take away,
but for you to give it up.

Tuesday 28 March 2017

The Gull - Michael Donhauser

She’s stuck on her legs, sticking to her legs, and ducked down is how she carries her head, tucked into her feathers, turns her beak, a kind of needle, towards the wind.

Monday 27 March 2017

Luxembourg 1939 - Léopold Sédar Senghor

This Luxembourg morning, this Luxembourg autumn,
As I walk back and forth upon my youth,
No strollers, no fountains, no boats in the water,
No children, no flowers.

Sunday 26 March 2017

Saturday 25 March 2017

The one I saw again - Jean Portante

                    The one I saw again
two days ago kept sewing
the same wound up again:

Friday 24 March 2017

I’m Scared! - Adamou Idé

I’m scared!
 Yes, I do not conceal it from you
 I say it: I’m scared!

Thursday 23 March 2017

Weaving - Cresantia Frances Koya-Vaka‘uta

                              Pacific               Women                 Weave
Weaving               woven                 patterns
                                     Pictures                in the                     loom of life
Mosaics                 of culture              and family

Wednesday 22 March 2017

The Lusiad (extract from Book V: Madeira) - Luís Vas de Camões

Nam'd from her woods, with fragrant bowers adorn'd,
From fair Madeira's purple coast we turn'd:

Sunday 12 March 2017

The Christ-child - St Gregory of Narek

The lips of the Christ-child are like to twin leaves;
They let roses fall when he smiles tenderly.

Friday 10 March 2017

The Young Wife's Dream - Siamanto

Year after year, sitting alone at my window,
I gaze on thy path, my pilgrim heart-mate,
And by this writing I wish once more to sing
The tremors of my body and mind, left without a guardian.

Thursday 9 March 2017

I did not find Masood - Rua Salem

I did not find Masood
Or the shop.
Nor did I find my uncle.

Wednesday 8 March 2017

The ghetto - Barnabé Laye

You are in the ghetto, my brother
You are in the ghetto.

Tuesday 7 March 2017

The Mountain Wreath - Petar II Petrović-Njegoš

Montenegrins, do you see this wonder?
Fifty full years I've spun of my life's yarn.

Monday 6 March 2017

A Nightingale in the Cage of My Breast - Farzaneh Khojandi

In this leafy orchard is a nightingale,
a nightingale whose songs are the dawn
and take me into the light,
to the mountains of legendary Farhad,

Saturday 4 March 2017

To be a girl - Raghda Gamal

You never thought that someday
You'll wish to know
What it's like to he a girl...

Friday 3 March 2017

A Monkey at the Window - Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

I
The little boy, playing in bed
while his wounded mother cooks,
is throwing little words and circles
out of the window.

Thursday 2 March 2017

In Search of - Magtymguly Pyragy

My country is Etrek, my people are Goklen,
I am in search of love,
My soul is filled with turbulence,
I am in search of the Sufi leader to bless me with power.

Wednesday 1 March 2017

Tiris - Ali Salem Iselmu

If you ever come
to a wide, white land
dotted with towering black statues

Tuesday 28 February 2017

To Laokein B. - Koulsy Lamko

Every night when the storm blows down sun-dried brick
houses and huts
Every warm night when men are at the mercy of mosquitoes
Every silent night that will echo the howl of the owl
Every night when the revival of the soil will grow its cotyledon

Monday 27 February 2017

The Persian Bride - Elizabeta Bakovska

You speak to me in a language I don't understand.
Your eyes, a blue we don't have,
called me out of the many
pale women's faces there in Susa.

Sunday 26 February 2017

Hiccups - Léon Damas

I gulp down seven drinks of water
several times a day
and all in vain
instinctively
like the criminal to the crime
my childhood returns
in a rousing fit of hiccups

Saturday 25 February 2017

It's the Dream - Olav H. Hauge

It’s the dream we carry in secret
that something miraculous will happen,

Friday 24 February 2017

All Passion Concluded - Mirta Rosenberg

Caprices of light
through the top chink
of the shutters
                         and the heat,
the cold like lime and the sun,

Thursday 23 February 2017

My God - Nyabuoy Gatbel

My God is not a he or she.
My God is not a gender but a spirit.

Wednesday 22 February 2017

Snow, Electricity - Luis Chaves

Clothes out to dry
and those clouds.

There’s a new dog
who follows me everywhere
I go. He is here now,
under the table. When it’s storming
out he flattens himself onto the floor and will not be moved.

Tuesday 21 February 2017

How to Fall in Love with an African City - Gbenga Adesina

In time, you too will come to learn dear friend, the soft rustle,
Soft whoosh of affection for a city like a lover like a love song: Nairobi, Abuja, Dakar
throbbing in your ribs: Accra, Harare, Port Novo, carving a place for themselves, to nestle
In spite of yourself in the jar
of things you call loved.

Monday 20 February 2017

In Your Language - Grigore Vieru

Everybody giggles
In the same old language,
Everybody whimpers
In the same old tongue.

Sunday 19 February 2017

No father - Pope Urban VIII

Brave Saint, no blandishments of earth
Availed to draw thee from God's love;

Saturday 18 February 2017

Thank You for Being a Woman - Jémima Fiadjoe-Prince Agbodjan

Thank you for being a woman
For having been born
To know the pain of childbirth;

Friday 17 February 2017

My beautiful country - Seshie Mauriko

Oh, you beautiful country,
country between sea and territory: I love you.

Thursday 16 February 2017

In the bird’s long silence I step into the day - Shrinivási

In the bird’s long silence I step into the day
like palm trees their song rustles every which way
clearing the air of a bloody past that once held sway

Wednesday 15 February 2017

Fatherland - Alykul Osmonov

Dress warmer, the road with ice and snow is spread
The winter's severe, the blizzard howls at hand
Your ice chill I take upon my own head
By the road I will wait, stop awhile, my Fatherland!

Tuesday 14 February 2017

Where are you? - Aleksa Šantic

When pearls of dew at night are strewn
On meadow flowers in early bloom,
My bosom starts a longing tune:
“Where are you, where are you?”

Monday 13 February 2017

Everyday Lament - Augustin Tin Ujević

How hard it is to be weak,
How hard it is to be alone,
And to be old, yet young!

Sunday 12 February 2017

there is nothing worse - Alain Mabanckou

there is nothing worse
than the grief of black-rhun palms
the sleep of swamps
the silence of passerines

Saturday 11 February 2017

Letter to the Prime Minister - Bhanubhakta Acharya

Everyday I see kind authorities and they get rid of my worries.
I am at peace and at night I watch dances for free.
I do what my friends - mosquitoes, fleas, and bedbugs - say:
the mosquitoes sing and the ticks dance, I watch their play.

Friday 10 February 2017

A woman is alone - Aída Cartagena Portalatín

A woman is alone.
Alone with her stature. With her open eyes. With her open arms. With her heart open like a wide silence.

Thursday 9 February 2017

To Withstand Evil - Mila Haugová

Alfa lives on. She sleeps less.
She hardly dreams. She loves much more.
She blooms in the wastefulness of autumn.
Her sight weakens.

Wednesday 8 February 2017

Date Palm Trinity - Khaled Mattawa

Today the date palms were pruned,
the branches taken before the fruit ripened,
before sweetness littered the sidewalks.

Tuesday 7 February 2017

The Central African Republic - Aimée Yangbadji

Here in CAR, we speak french and the national language which is Sango

Monday 6 February 2017

Taw Khuarj ceremony - a royal poet of the Lane Xang Dynasty

The highest Then prince Laan Kaap Kham Vaa
Presented himself and spoke before his father,
Then Luang, who afterwards gave orders
To bedeck the mightiest elephants with trappings of gold.

Sunday 5 February 2017

The nature of Man - Alain de L'Isle

In this world each mortal creature
      Shows our life in form and feature,
      From the very dawn of birth;
Even as in a mirror showeth
      How the man appeareth, groweth,
      And his sad return to earth.

Saturday 4 February 2017

Only Mothers will Embrace Sorrows - U Sam Oeur

I wade through solitude
to the cottage where we used to
gather to drink rice wine,
enjoying false peace.
I sit under the same palm-leaf roof,
gaze at your chairs
but see no one,
hear only your laughs.

Thursday 2 February 2017

Kawthar: Princess of Mali - Aïda Touré

O Fountain of Immanence,
a gem from the Throne itself,
laid on the two hemispheres
of the Seen and the Unseen,
mystery dancing upon the Waters
of Wisdom from ancient Arabia to Mali,

Wednesday 1 February 2017

Nirat Phu Khao Thong - Sunthorn Phu

Near to, I could smell the King's scent,
Sweetly rend'ring the air at hand:
The King died, tasteless became the land
He died, and scentless my own fate.

Tuesday 31 January 2017

Love - Czesław Miłosz

Love means to learn to look at yourself
The way one looks at distant things
For you are only one thing among many.

Monday 30 January 2017

How beautiful is Yak Legpai Lhadar’s face! - Ap Chuni Dorji

How beautiful is Yak Legpai Lhadar’s face!
Yak Legpai Lhadar- the god-sent calf!

Sunday 29 January 2017

When the apricot tree blossoms - Hamid Olimjon

Flowers have decorated the branches
Calling the name of life at dawn,
And naughty wind on the first morning
Stole away the aroma of the blossoms.

Friday 27 January 2017

The boat of words casts anchor - Mohamed Al-Harthy

Remarkable, the three of them together:
the mouse,
the keyboard
and the word processor

Thursday 26 January 2017

Message from a Martyr - Mbarka Mint al-Barra’

Fire your bullets -- our hearts are already ablaze
       In this land, grief wells up from my distress

Wednesday 25 January 2017

Because Of You - Amir Hamzah

'Flowers burst into bloom,
Loving life because of You;
Love spreading like flowers in my heart
Filled it with the fragrance of blossoms, and their dust.

Monday 23 January 2017

We don’t sing anymore - Jeffrey Mane Febi

Here! Comfort and solace we seek. Where we love and beloved.
Once a promise I smell; of together hearkening to sounds of poetry;
Of to the beat of alliterations together dancing;
Of together in fields of metaphor, cuddling and be cheery;
Of through the bars of many a rhyme kissing.

Sunday 22 January 2017

Sand - Rolf Jacobsen

There is a precise total for all the grains of sand on earth,
as well as for the starry worlds above our heads

Saturday 21 January 2017

Don’t stay far away from me for long - Juan Rodolfo Wilcock

Don’t stay far away from me for long
unless you want memory to devour all

Friday 20 January 2017

Pop Melody - Sigfús Daðason

The dream is as moonlight
the moonlight as a dream
as moonlight
the dream I finally had last night

Thursday 19 January 2017

1886 - Abay Kunanbayev

Oh, my luckless Kazakh, my unfortunate kin,
An unkempt moustache hides your mouth  and chin.
Blood on your right cheek, fat on your left —
When will the dawn of your reason begin?

Wednesday 18 January 2017

To the Bío Bío - Andres Bello

Blest were he, O Bío Bío!
Who could dwell forevermore
In a deep grove, cool and shady,
Upon thine enchanted shore!

Tuesday 17 January 2017

Read - Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

Make no sound, do not speak:
off to explore a forest, eyes, heart,
mind, dreams . . .

Monday 16 January 2017

Chernobyl - Volha Ipatava

House. Hundred-year oak. A well-spring flowing
And storks winging from a distant strand.
'Human, grant that we may make our home here,
Very sweet to us appears this land.'

Sunday 15 January 2017

Decora Lux Aeternitatis - Elpis

Eternal glory, with the streaming ray
Of holy fire, has filled the golden day,
Crowning with light the apostolic chiefs,
And opening through the stars their luminous way.

Friday 13 January 2017

a sudden fear of coming home - Naja Marie Aidt

a sudden fear of coming home
like meeting up with a sect one has left
and what if one can’t hold out against them

Thursday 12 January 2017

Year of Tango - Varand

Sunset, you sombre sunset,
Ardent music, boundless sorrow.
New stairs, new terrace, a new abode,
Golden age of dreams, of senses…

Wednesday 11 January 2017

Homo sapiens - Ludwig Steinherr

The man down on his knees who's fated
to scrub the cobblestones
with a toothbrush —

Tuesday 10 January 2017

I miss you - Bongiwe Dlamini

your hands, your eyes
I miss exploring your mouth, your mind

Monday 9 January 2017

Minchmoor - William Hamilton

Sweet smells the birk: green grows, green grows the grass,
    Yellow on Yarrow's banks the gowan,
Fair hangs the apple fraie the rock,
    Sweet the wave of Yarrow flowan.

Sunday 8 January 2017

Shepherd of tender youth - St. Clement of Alexandria

Shepherd of tender youth
Guiding in love and truth
  Through devious ways;
Christ our triumphant king,
We come Thy name to sing;
Hither our children bring
  Tributes of praise.

Saturday 7 January 2017

Has My Heart Gone To Sleep? - Antonio Machado

Has my heart gone to sleep?
Have the beehives of my dreams
stopped working, the waterwheel
of the mind run dry,

Friday 6 January 2017

The Return - Claribel Alegría

How will the return be?
My parents won’t be there
I won’t climb the volcano
with them
to gather orchids.

Thursday 5 January 2017

At Euroma - Henry Kendall

They built his mound of the rough red ground,
  By the dip of a desert dell,
Where all things sweet are killed by the heat,
  And scattered o’er flat and fell.
In a burning zone they left him alone,
  Past the uttermost western plain;
And the nightfall dim heard his funeral hymn
  In the voices of wind and rain.

Wednesday 4 January 2017

The Horror of the Rain - Jean Delville

Implacably, dismally, prophetically,
It is raining, interminable tears of rain, it rains
Death upon the dismal city, long bereaved of sun.
It rains annihilation, immensely, upon my sleep
and my tormented dreams and, in the night, it rains

Tuesday 3 January 2017

The Cloud Rains - Amir Khosrow

Cloud raining, and I from my friend am separated:
          how can, on such a day, the hearts be so separated?

Monday 2 January 2017

What do animals dream? - Yahia Lababidi

Do they dream of past lives and unlived dreams
unspeakably human or unimaginably bestial?

Sunday 1 January 2017