Would I The Lofty Spirit Melt - Wolfram von Eschenbach

Would I the lofty spirit melt
Of that proud dame who dwells so high,
Kind heaven must aid me, or unfelt
By her will be its agony.
Joy in my soul no place can find:
As well might I a suitor be
To thunderbolts, as hope her mind
Will turn in softer mood to me.

Now That Stern Winter Each Blossom Is Blighting - Wenceslaus II

Now that stern winter each blossom is blighting,
And birds in the woodlands no longer we hear,
I will repair to a scene more inviting,
Nor will he repent who shall follow me there.
Instead of the flowers the plain so adorning,
Beautiful fair ones shall bloom like the morning;
O what a vivid and glorious dawning;
Sweet smiles, sprightly converse, the drooping heart cheer.

Sleeps the lake - Pencho Slavejkov

Sleeps the lake; white-branched beeches
bend twisted limbs above
interweaving mirrored shadows
in its quiet dark depths.

On The Journey - Ludwig Bechstein

As numerous as the stars
That night brings to the firmament,
That is how often on my journey
I thought of you!

Apricot Tree - Magda Isanos

This morning I woke
to an impatient scratching on the window,
the finger branches
of the apricot that bloomed in the night

Ave, Generosa - Hildegard von Bingen

Hail, nobly born, hail, honoured and inviolate,
you Maiden are the piercing gaze of chastity,
you the material of holiness—
the one who pleasèd God.

Greenland Song - Jules Verne

Dark Is the sky,
The sun sinks wearily;
My trembling heart, with sorrow filled,
Aches drearily!
My sweet child at my song is smiling still,
While at his tender heart the icicles lie chill.

Invitation To Return - Jean Froissart

Return, my love; too long thy stay;
    Sorrow for thee my soul has stung;
My spirit calls the ev'ry day,—
    Return my love, thou stay'st too long.

Winter Silence - Jacqueline Elisabeth van der Waals

White is the ground, white is the mist,
The clouds, still full of snow,
Are white, turning gently to gray.
Icy white are the delicate branches
of trees covered with rime.

Don't Come Near Me! - Dora Gabe

Don’t come near me!
Be an effigy

Ballad XI - Christine de Pizan

Command of me, my Lady and my queen,
All thy good pleasure, as I were thy slave,
Which I shall do with glad and humble mien
That whatsoe'er thou wiliest, thou may'st have.

In Goethe's Garden - Bettina Von Arnim

I from this hillock all my world survey!
  Yon vale, bedecked by nature's fairy fingers,
  Where the still by-road picturesquely lingers,
The cottage white whose quaint charms grace the way—
These are the scenes that o'er my heart hold sway.

A list of praises - Anne Porter

Give praise with psalms that tell the trees to sing,
Give praise with Gospel choirs in storefront churches,
Mad with the joy of the Sabbath,
Give praise with the babble of infants, who wake with the sun,
Give praise with children chanting their skip-rope rhymes,
A poetry not in books, a vagrant mischievous poetry
Living wild on the Streets through generations of children.

That ancient tree, don’t let it fall - Hans Christian Andersen

That ancient tree, don’t let it fall
Until old age is knelling;
So many things it can recall,
What tales it could be telling.

Sonnet XVII: I flee from town, and temple, and the rest - Louise Labé

I flee from town, and temple, and the rest,

where, pleased at hearing you complain,

you could, compel me, at some pain,

to grant you of what I treasure best.

Scopolamine - Catherine Pozzi

This wine that flows within my vein
Has drowned my heart and will again
In the sky—with neither captain nor money—
My heart sails into a scene
Where Oblivion melts like honey

The Voice - Henri de Regnier

I do not wish anyone to be near my sadness—
Not even your dear step and your loved face,
Nor your indolent hand which caresses with a finger
The lazy ribbon and the closed book.

Cycle - Albert Verwey

I am a spark without goal, without direction,
Thrown into the universe as my journey began,
Before long another sun bound itself to me
And turning I lived for an unmeasured while,

Night - Wole Soyinka

Your hand is heavy, Night, upon my brow.
I bear no heart mercuric like the clouds,
to dare.

Let nothing trouble you - St Teresa of Ávila

Let nothing trouble you.
Let nothing scare you.

The beautiful spring delights me well - Bertran de Born

The beautiful spring delights me well,
When flowers and leaves are growing
And it pleases my heart to hear the swell
Of the birds' sweet chorus flowing
In the echoing wood;
And I love to see, all scattered around,
Pavilions, tents, on the martial ground;
And my spirit finds it good
To see, on the level plains beyond,
Gay knights and steeds caparisoned.

An Iranian professor I know asked me - Mimi Khalvati

An Iranian professor I know asked me
   the first time we met, as he’d asked so many
students: Saheb-del – how would you say in English
   Saheb-del, can you translate it? And each time
he pronounced the words his fingers tolled the air
   like a bell, a benediction. Years have passed.

Seeking but Not Finding the Recluse - Jia Dao

Under pines
I ask the boy;
he says: "My master's gone
to gather herbs.

Longing for Spring - Walter von der Vogelweide

Alas, the winter has hurt us everywhere.
The forest and the heath are both so bare,
Where many a sweet voice resounded through the air.

Patchwork - Eavan Boland

I have been thinking at random
on the universe
or rather, how nothing in the universe
is random —

Consolation Grook - Piet Hein

Losing one glove
is certainly painful,

You do not need many things - Taigu Ryokan

My house is buried in the deepest recess of the forest
Every year, ivy vines grow longer than the year before.

A psychological moment - Piet Hein

Whenever you’re called to make up your mind,
and you’re hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you’ll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.

Snow - Janet Frame

A crime so frequent, so huge
of fraud and camouflage

Young poets - Nicanor Parra

Write as you will
In whatever style you like

The New Year - Rabindranath Tagore

Like fruit, shaken free by an impatient wind
from the veils of its mother flower,
thou comest, New Year, whirling in a frantic dance