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.