Natural Woman - Mariska Taylor-Darko

When was the last time you felt the warm scalp of a woman
Run your fingers through her hair
Twisted her natural locks through your fingers
Or walked your fingers through the rows of braids
Just like walking through fields of corn

Risk - Anais Nin

And then the day came,

Shall we go, sister - Fernando Esquio

Shall we go, sister, shall we sleep,
at the lake edges where I saw
hunt the birds, my beloved.

God is beautiful - Robert Buchanan

O Thou art beautiful! and Thou dost bestow
     Thy beauty on this stillness—still as sheep
     The Hills lie under Thee; the Waters deep

Dream for the Winter - Arthur Rimbaud

To Her

In the winter we shall go in a small pink coach
With blue cushions
We will be well. A nest of insane kisses rests
In each soft corner.

Eternal Glory of the sky - Ambrose of Milan (Augusta Treverorum)

Eternal Glory of the sky,
Blest Hope of frail humanity,
The Father’s sole begotten One,
Yet born a spotless virgin’s Son!

Cradle Hymn - Martin Luther

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay—
the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

After Dorothy Sayers - Timur Kibirov

In the night, the dumb ox lowed to the donkey:
"Can you hear, brother, the sounds from the valley,
            the neighs and the horseshoes' clang?
From magical lands, from the edge of the world,
wise magi hasten and kings gallop toward us
            to bow to the King of Kings!
But before all the rest of them, I—a silly,
            dawdling ox—bowed to Our Child!"

It is not Love it is Madness - Mirza Ghalib

(You say) "It is not love, it is madness."
My madness may be the cause of your fame;
Sever not my relationship with you,
If nothing then be my enemy.

Cancion of the Pirate - José de Espronceda

The breeze fair aft, all sails on high,
Ten guns on each side mounted seen,
She does not cut the sea, but fly,
A swiftly sailing brigantine;

Supplication To Saint Blaise - Mihaly Babits

I’m asking very nicely now. Please help, Saint Blaise.
I can remember childhood days,
white candles held in front and crossed on my frail neck,
how from behind them I would look,

Why? - Carl Emil Otto

Once in the springtime we loved each other,
   It was long ago,
Brief was the dream and it passed as swiftly
   As the wind and snow.
But once we sat in a dreamland golden,
   On the mountain crest,
Once only, under those beeches olden
   Thy lips I prest.

Dreams - Pierre Kemp

Certain nights I follow a yellow light
Until one blue door where it can be read: Dream.

Guardian Angel - Rolf Jacobsen

I am the bird that knocks at your window in the morning
and your companion, whom you cannot know,
the blossoms that light up for the blind.

Sunset - Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff

We have passed through sorrow and joy,

walking hand in hand.

Now we need not seek the way:

we have settled in a peaceful land.

Christ's Birth - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger

Each year when vapours melt and wane,
Child Jesus Christ is born again;
The Angel in air, in grove, in sea,
It is the Saviour, it is He.
Wherefore all Nature, with serene
Rejoicing, buds in hopeful green.

The Shining Hours (III) - Emile Verhaeren

This barbaric capital, whereon monsters writhe,
soldered together by the might of claw and tooth,
in a mad whirl of blood, of fiery cries, of wounds,
and of jaws that bite and bite again,

Dead still - Andrei Voznesensky

Now, with your palms on the blades of my shoulders,
Let us embrace:
Let there be only your lips’ breath on my face,
Only, behind our backs, the plunge of the rollers.

Cast flowers, more flowers - Lesia Ukrainka

“Cast flowers, more flowers, and still more flowers
And the white gauze on the face
Of what is called illusion…” My God!
So often these words sound in my ears
In the dead of night, “Flowers, more flowers,
I loved the beauty so much!...”

Farewell to Xin Jian at Hibiscus Pavilion - Wang Wei

A cold rain mingled with the river
            at evening, when I entered Wu;

I don't know, I can't explain - Innokenty Annensky

I don't know, I can't explain...
Do I love or do I die?
Is it a dream or is it Verlaine?

The Moon Flower - Lala Fisher

I know a valley — through its solitude
A brown road winds towards a mountain crest;

The Seekers - John Masefield

Friends and loves we have none, nor wealth nor blessed abode,
But the hope of the City of God at the other end of the road.

Modern day injustice - Andres Garcia

Blacks and Hispanics on the road to justice, but we are stuck in traffic.
We want our peace in the community but we are stuck in panic.

No, Love Is Not Dead - Robert Desnos

No, love is not dead in this heart these eyes and this mouth
that announced the start of its own funeral.
Listen, I’ve had enough of the picturesque, the colourful
and the charming.

The Old Black Billy an' Me - Louis Esson

The sheep are yarded, an’ I sit
Beside the fire an’ poke at it.

Shame, Shame - Dulduityn Danzanravjaa

Alas and, the elders who have lived without charity, shame
Alas and, the stylish youth who have not cared for the soul, shame

Generation Found - Wayne Visser

Once I was a boy soldier  –
Now I’m shooting hoops
I’m not the generation lost
I’m bright and landing scoops

Drowsy birds - Mihai Eminescu

Drowsy birds at even gliding,
Round about their nests alight,
In among the branches hiding . . .
                             Dear, good night!

Clear night - Luis G. Urbina

Whiteness of dream, whiteness of polar days,
Glistening white that blanches out the tide;

Desire - Abdourahman Waberi

I am the rustling of the world
the swaying between here and elsewhere

Oh let me leave this world - Else Lasker-Schuler

Then you will cry for me.
Copper beeches pour fire
On my warlike dreams.

Wisdom - Magda Isanos

To breathe, and breathe on lightly, that is wisdom.
To find the strength to smile when teardrops flow.
To love a rose's fading, dying petals,
as quietly, so quietly, they go.

I do believe in happiness! - Sergei Esenin

I do believe in happiness!
The sun has not yet faded. Rays
Of sunrise like a book of  prayers
Predict the happy news. Oh yes!
I do believe in happiness!

Down Where The Lonely Poplars Grow - Mihai Eminescu

Down where the lonely poplars grow
          How often have I erred;
My steps that all the neighbours know
          You only have not heard.

Of the deceitful brevity of life - Luis de Góngora y Argote

The arrow goes less quickly to its target,
that it bites sharply; the straining chariot
does not race more silently
over the mute sand to the finish line,

[When Pontius Pilate, from the vantage] - Timur Kibirov

When Pontius Pilate, from the vantage
of progressive culture and cutting-edge knowledge,
asked the arrested Jew,
"What is Truth?"—

The Broken Bell - Toru Dutt

'Tis bitter-sweet on winter nights to note,
Beside the palpitating fire reclined,
The chimes, across the fogs, upon the wind.

Now it is autumn - Edith Södergran

when all the golden birds
fly home across the blue deep water;

A Letter To God - Lesego Setou

Dear God
How do you answer prayers?
How do you decide on the urgency of a prayer from another?
How do you decide when a prayer requires patience for its deliverance?
Teach me how to understand and serve you
Teach me how to focus on the greater good
Guide me to appreciate blessings disguised as disappointments
Enlighten me to the divinity of challenges
Allow me to seek, find and radiate my purpose
Guide me in ambassadoring you

Fireworks aff the Castle - Matthew Fitt

Fireworks aff the Castle
Goin WHEECH, WHEECH, WHEECH
Bairns in the library
Gettin WHEESHT, WHEESHT, WHEESHT

Above, Upon The Mountains - Cyprien Desponrrius

Above, upon the mountains,
A shepherd, full of thought,
Beneath a beech sat musing
On changes time had wrought:
He told to every echo
The story of his care,
And made the rocks acquainted
With love and its despair.

The Javanese - Marie Krysinska

                   The animated
                            Little idols
                            Oh, but
So slightly, this dance evokes the mad
Vision: from a bas-relief to living symbols
                   Hieratic and mute.

Women's Rights - Annie Louisa Walker

You cannot rob us of the rights we cherish,
  Nor turn our thoughts away
From the bright picture of a "Woman's Mission"
  Our hearts portray.

Her face is like the moon - Bhoja

Her face is like the moon.
(Just so)

November 3 - Kenji Miyazawa

Neither yielding to rain
nor yielding to wind
yielding neither to
snow nor to summer heat

Boaz asleep - Victor Hugo

Overcome with weariness, he kept
To the same rough quarters as before:
All day had seen him on the threshing floor
And now, by sacks of wheat, tired Boaz slept.
He possessed, this good old man, large fields of wheat,
And barley too: was just, and passing rich.
His mill ran cleanly, fairly; he didn't switch
A neighbour's castings from the furnace heat.
His beard was silvered as an April stream;
His sheaves lay broad and open as the day.
Leave this or that to gleaners he would say.
Thoughtful this old man was: a kind regime.

Venus - María do Cebreiro

The book is sexless. The book is a tree.

She was like morning frost.
He wore a ring on his little finger.

Sur la Mort de Marie - Pierre de Ronsard

Just as one sees, upon a branch, the rose in May,
to whose first flowered loveliness rich looks are lent,
with brighter organdies the very skies resent,
while dawn with tears will sprinkle it at break of day,

Immutable - Delmira Agustini

   O you who sleep so deep you cannot wake!
Every night in mourning I come upon your pupils,
Miraculous in life, miraculous in death,

Welcome Inside - Euphrase Kezilahabi

I

The traditional poets are playing now at sleeping
in the weak radiance of a setting sun
as their rhythms twist and turn on a sea of story,
having failed to plumb the depths of rationality.

Rebekah - Anne Ranasinghe

Dusk, and a gnawing wind from the desert.
Flat the land, yellow and ochre and brown;
Halfway point: Europe behind us in sunlight and mist,
We fly to the East, towards darkness.

Andy's Gone With Cattle - Henry Lawson

Our Andy's gone to battle now
'Gainst Drought, the red marauder;
Our Andy's gone with cattle now
Across the Queensland border.

Night Lamp - Agi Mishol

It takes time for the body
to grasp what the mind has decided

My Shadow - Robert Louis Stevenson

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

There is a charming land - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger

There is a charming land

Where grow the wide-armed beeches

By the salt eastern Strand.

Old Denmark, so we call

These rolling hills and valleys,

And this is Freia's Hall.

Dame Martha’s Fountain - Bernhard Severin Ingemann

Dame Martha dwelt at Karisegaard,
 So many kind deeds she wrought:
If the winter were sharp, and the rich man hard,
 Her gate the indigent sought.

Little Little Man - Alfonsina Storni

Little little man, little little man,
set free your canary that wants to fly.
I am that canary, little little man,
leave me to fly.

One word song - Vinay Benjamin

"Papa?" she sang over the lines,
Tremulous with expectation,
A word summoned all tenderness,
Time, the knave, bowed in salutation.

Against Unworthy Praise - William Butler Yeats

O heart, be at peace, because
Nor knave nor dolt can break
What s not for their applause,
Being for a woman s sake.

The Poet VIII - Khahlil Gibran

He is a link between this and the coming world.
He is
A pure spring from which all thirsty souls may drink.

In Due Season - John McCrae

If night should come and find me at my toil,
When all Life's day I had, tho' faintly, wrought,
And shallow furrows, cleft in stony soil
Were all my labour: Shall I count it naught

In praise of Shiva - Manikkavachakar

I wear a cassia garland
and cling to Shiva's round shoulders,

Alice Sick - Jean de La Fontaine

Sick, has Alice grown, and fearing dire event,
Some friend advised a servant should be sent
Her confessor to bring and ease her mind;—
Yes, she replied, to see him I'm inclined;
Let father Andrew instantly be sought:—
By him salvation usually I'm taught.

In the Mediterranean - Georges Moustaki

In this basin where
children with black eyes play
there are three continents
and centuries of history,
prophets of the gods,
the Messiah in person.
There is a fair summer there
that fears no autumn,
in the Mediterranean.

On Miss Wilhelmina Alexander - Robert Burns

’Twas even—the dewy fields were green,
 On every blade the pearls hang;
The zephyr wanton’d round the bean,
 And bore its fragrant sweets alang:
 In ev’ry glen the mavis sang,
All nature list’ning seem’d the while,
 Except where greenwood echoes rang,
Amang the braes o’ Ballochmyle.

There Is No Age - Eva Gore-Booth

There is no age, this darkness and decay
Is by a radiant spirit cast aside,
Young with the ageless youth that yesterday
Bent to the yoke of flesh immortal pride.

We plough the fields and scatter - Matthias Claudius

We plough the fields and scatter
the good seed on the land,
but it is fed and watered
by God's almighty hand;
he sends the snow in winter,
the warmth to swell the grain,
the breezes and the sunshine,
and soft refreshing rain.

Blue Earth - Judita Vaičiūnaitė

To dig each day in the blue earth—
               to mine amber

The Mu'allaqat - Baha ad-Din Zuhayr

"Does the blackened ruin, situated in the stony ground
between Durraj and Mutathallam, which did not speak to me,
when addressed, belong to the abode of Ummi Awfa?

The Shining Hours (II) - Emile Verhaeren

Although we saw this bright garden, wherein we
pass silently, flower before our eyes, it is
rather in us that grows the pleasantest and
fairest garden in the world.

The man on the bus - Jill Jones

He lets out a cat moan
in tune with something
in his head, or closer to his blood.

In A New Night - Paul Éluard

Woman I’ve lived with
Woman I live with
Woman I’ll live with

Man forgets - Sri Chinmoy

Man forgets. God forgives.
Man forgets God's Truth. God forgives man's ignorance.

from: The Nymph of the Luo River - Cao Zhi

All at once she straightens herself
Skipping this way and that.

Of Work and Wealth - Masolino da Todi

A man should hold in very dear esteem
    The first possession that his labours gain'd;
    For, though great riches be at length attain'd,
From that first mite they were increased to him.

No one can please forever - Zhang Hua

No one can please forever; affection cannot be for one alone;
if it be so, it will one day end in disgust.

Blessings - Katharine Tynan

God bless the little orchard brown
Where the sap stirs these quickening days.
Soon in a white and rosy gown
The trees will give great praise.

A Farmhouse on the Wei River - Wang Wei

In the slant of the sun on the country-side,
Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane;

How can someone separate you from me - Bihari Lal

How can someone separate you from me: your soul from mine?

The Shining Hours (XXI) - Emile Verhaeren

In hours like these, when through our dream of bliss
So far from all things not ourselves we move,
What lustral blood, what baptism is this
That bathes our hearts, straining toward perfect love?

Le Cimetière Marin - Paul Valéry

The sail of doves this tranquil roof assumes
palpitates through pines trees and the tombs.
Imperturbable midday, of fire
and sea, the sea beginning each occasion
to bring such riches in from contemplation:
great settlements of calm the gods inspire.

Thee will I love, my strength, my tower - Johann Scheffler

Thee will I love, my strength, my tower;
Thee will I love, my hope, my joy;
Thee will I love with all my power,
With ardour time will ne’er destroy.
Thee will I love, O light divine,
So long as life is mine.

I am the tree... - Dennis Vincent Brutus

I am the tree
creaking in the wind
outside in the night
twisted and stubborn:

The Factory Girl - John Arthur Phillips

She wasn't the least bit pretty,
And only the least bit gay;
And she walked with a firm elastic tread,
In a business-like kind of way.
Her dress was of coarse, brown woollen,
Plainly but neatly made,
Trimmed with some common ribbon
Or cheaper kind of braid;
And a hat with a broken feather,
And shawl of a modest plaid.

Hearken to the reed-flute, how it complains - Jalal al-Din Rumi

Hearken to the reed-flute, how it complains,
Lamenting its banishment from its home:—

Taste - Caasha Lul Mohamud Yusuf

If this poem isn't free of flaws or clunkiness,
if it contains disharmony or defects,
if it doesn't illuminate what's hidden
and isn't used to staunch old injuries,
its verses won't nourish, are a withered breast.
Let me recite this with spirit. It's night; it's time.

The Poem’s Gift - Stéphane Mallarmé

I bring you the child of an Idumean night!
Black, with pale naked bleeding wings, Light
Through the glass, burnished with gold and spice,

Sheep - W.H. Davies

When I was once in Baltimore
A man came up to me and cried,
"Come, I have eighteen hundred sheep,
And we will sail on Tuesday's tide.

Vondel's Lucifer (Act I, lines 1-26) - Joost van den Vondel

Belzebub:
My Belial hence hath sped on aery wings
To see where lingers our Apollion,

The Prayer of the Giraffe - Carmen Bernos de Gasztold

Lord,
I who see the world from above
find it hard to get used to its pettiness.

Wullie Waggletail - William Soutar

Wee wullie waggletail, what is a’ your stishie?
Tak a sowp o’ water and coorie on a stane:

Paris Latin Quarter - Femi Osofisan

Sweet Marie-Anne, she thought
Being French, intellectual and brunette

Entitled her, in any Parisian cafe
To prompt service—and she was

Namibia - Dorian Haarhoff

wild west land
holster in the hip of Africa
strung on the studded belt of Capricorn.

To be read in the morning and at night - Bertold Brecht

My love
Has told me
That he needs me.

I Have Forsworn You - Anne Ranasinghe

I have forsworn you, closed all memory;
I work and eat, listen to music, sleep,
Walk in the garden, watch the changing moon
Pretending that I have no need of you.

Lament in ebony - Jessica Horn

arms are meant for embracing
minds to cultivate dreams of flight

VAD - Mrs Bignold

'Valueless, A Duffer!' says the Sister's face.
When I try to do her orders with my bestest grace.
‘Vain And Disappointing!’ says Staff Nurse's eye,
If l dare to put my cap straight while she's walking by.

catching your flying kiss - RIC S. Bastasa

what i catch today is a
flying kiss
like a white butterfly
departing from your
rose lips
now hovering to mine

Morning - Nikolai Nekrasov

You're unhappy, sick at heart:
Oh, I know it — here such sickness isn't rare.
Nature can but mirror
The surrounding poverty.

I have Lived Me - Tendai R Mwanaka

What can I possibly see?
In the tracks of my feet.
My body knows it,
What my head denies.
That my spirit dwells inside me
Awakened in my womb
To presence of overwhelming numbers-
answerable to my personal summons.

To God and Ireland True - Ellen O’Leary

I sit beside my darling’s grave,
  Who in the prison died,
And tho’ my tears fall thick and fast
  I think of him with pride:
Ay, softly fall my tears like dew,
For one to God and Ireland true.

Autumn Song - Sarojini Naidu

Like a joy on the heart of a sorrow,
The sunset hangs on a cloud;

The Promised Land - Carl Leggo

like ancient Caleb son of Jephunneh

                           I too

have explored
                           the promised land

A window and a wall - Palas Kumar Ray

I saw the window but I saw no wall.
The open window greeted me to look through.
I saw promises and hopes waiting for me there.

Nightingale - Federica Galetto

I am

I am like a stone under your tongue

Musings - Ian Jazzi

It's sometimes confusing the spin of the earth.
The ways of the world, the happenings in this world.
Today she's nice, tomorrow she's not.
Today it's hot and tomorrow... Rain!
Today stability, tomorrow earthquakes.
Tsunamis. Pain.
Up & down like elevators we all travel the floors of life.
Stopping when there's a power cut or when we have an agenda.
Agenda.

Sonnet - Giovanni Quirino

He commends the work of Dante's life, then drawing to 
its close; and deplores his own deficiencies.

For Noha Al Hegelan - Venus Khoury-Ghata

At that time the earth was so high up
women hung out clouds and laundry on the same line
angels gripped their skirts to keep them from following stray souls

Channelled - Jo Bell

A two-kingfisher day, with sparrowhawks thrown in
and we were bickering at Kingswood Junction.
Water won’t be told, she said, you never learn.
We settled to the first of nineteen locks.

Catania - Vincenzo da Filicaja

Thou buried city, o'er thy site I muse! —
What! does no monumental stone remain
To say, "Here yawned the earthquake-riven plain,
Here stood Catania, and here Syracuse"?

Waking - Kālidāsa

Even the man who is happy
glimpses something
or a hair of sound touches him

The Settled Bards - Ernest O'Ferrall

These be the grim suburban days,
And, tho' in verse we frolic,
All soberly we go our ways
Writing our sweet commercial lays
And any sort of stuff that pays
(Our Johnnie's got the colic).

Candles - Surjit Paatar

Light these candles.
Rise, light these candles.
There will remain,
These quarrelsome winds,
But you should light these candles.

Heaven and hell - Spervogel

He is full of power and might
Who was born on Christmas night,
The holy Christ is He;
Praised of all things that be,
Save the devil, whose lothely pride
Brooked not once to bow the knee,
So must he in hell abide.

She that would gain a faithful lover - Anon

She that would gain a faithful lover
Must at a distance keep the slave;
Not by a look her heart discover,
Men should but guess the thoughts we have.
Whilst they're in doubt their flame increases,
And all attendance they will pay;
When once confess'd their ardour ceases,
And vows like smoke soon fly away.

sparrow parents too - Kobayashi Issa

sparrow parents too

A Coat - William Butler Yeats

I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;

The Miner - Henrik Johan Ibsen

Beetling rock, with roar and smoke
Break before my hammer-stroke!
Deeper I must thrust and lower
Till I hear the ring of ore.

The Elixir of Exile - Abdourahman Waberi

is going to Carthage to help understand
Djibouti

To Silvia - Giacomo Leopardi

Silvia, do you remember
the moments, in your mortal life,
when beauty still shone
in your sidelong, laughing eyes,
and you, light and thoughtful,
went beyond girlhood’s limits?

Who Am I? - Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a Squire from his country house.

Your Hands - Pablo Neruda

When your hands leap
towards mine, love,
what do they bring me in flight?

Island of Africa - Wayne Visser

Memories of Gondwana fade
The ancient world torn apart:
As rock plates and craters
Start shifting; slow-drifting –
And outcasts and misfits
Roll Darwin’s loaded dice

Growing Blind - Rainer Maria Rilke

She sat, like all the rest of us, at tea.
It seemed at first as if she raised her cup
Not quite as all the others held theirs up.
She smiled: her smile was pitiful to see.

Sailing - Henrik Nordbrandt

After having loved we lie close together
and at the same time with distance between us
like two sailing ships that enjoy so intensely
their own lines in the dark water they divide
that their hulls
are almost splitting from sheer delight

Wolf One-Eye on Odin's Street - Juris Kronbergs

On the pavement he found, not a heart,
but a potato
It wasn't even round,
but irregular and finished
like a sentence in a praised but plodding
literary effort

Sonnet - Jean de la Taille

If e'er ill luck did gentleman betide,
In tears and troubles steeped, that man am I.
I love to live in peace, yet war must ply;
I love glad cheer, yet must in sorrow bide.

In the glad hours of the morning - Homero Aridjis

In the glad hours of the morning
it is lovely to stroll out under the sun.
Its rays spill down around the arms
and the radiance of its rings reverberates
through the blue ocelli in the Wings.

You dying on the phone - Valérie Rouzeau

You dying on the phone my mum he will not last the night see dad.
The train a dark rush under rain not last not die my father please oh please give me the get there soon.
Not deadying oh not desperish father everlast get up run fast –
Hand watch the time we’ve got to Vierzon outside it’s tipping hail.
We miss each other I have no idea passing through Vierzon that in these train arrival times you’ve died.
Not die oh please but everlast until the nurses’ corridor of white.
Until your bed as fast the engine into Lyon la Part-Dieu.
Until your forehead over now and all together in the little room and not forget.

Psalm at the end of the night - Hatif Janabi

Hopes are lost because too many are devout
in their supplication.
Shapes howl under the weight of sinners.
And I sit alone chanting the last song
the dreamers sang
and an outcast hummed to the wilderness.
I rinse the dust of old proverbs
with autumn tears
with the whistling of the stars that stare vacantly
at the theatre of words.

Bedouins - Fadhil Al Azzawi

Three Bedouins in a desert,
Carrying sacks strapped to their shoulders,

The hurricane - Haji Gora Haji

A hurricane once arrived         in the town of Siyu
Not only for this person nor for that        it was chaos
It uprooted the baobabs         but left the palm trees
The hearts were troubled.

Mimesis - Giampiero Neri

From the shapes and lines
one notes on butterfly wings

Hibiscus - Jacinta Ramayah

I spied a shrub by the bank of a stream,
there my short legs took me,

Mountain - Edvard Kocbek

Whenever I look at you, you are magnificent
and when I gaze at your peak from nearby
my lips start to tremble, whispering, oh sacred
mountain, oh solemn and mysterious mountain, oh
untamed  and maternal mountain, oil
the primal and bold flight toward the sky,

How unorthodox! - Mohammed Abu-Talib

Chaucerian breaths
My English breathes;

Bent over myself - Alfred Brendel

Bent over myself
I see
the blurred outline
of an unfamiliar face

Lady - Briceida Cuevas Cob

Lady,
your breasts are two little girls jostling each other in play when you wash.

A Single Nose - Fatima Naoot

A tea set
Of many cups
With its noise and clouds of steam
The clinking of spoons against rims after dissolving the sugar
Differs
From a silent, single
Cup
Wearily waiting on the edge of an antique writing desk
For a sad lady
To arrive in a moment.

Christ's Hospital of Faith - Dave Cocks

Have you been to Christ's hospital?
Thats where one goes to mend
their broken spirits of faith and hope.

Temagami - Archibald Lampman

Far in the grim Northwest beyond the lines
That turn the rivers eastward to the sea,
Set with a thousand islands, crowned with pines,
Lies the deep water, wild Temagami:

Of his Lady among other Ladies - Guido Cavalcanti

With other women I beheld my love;—
Not that the rest were women to mine eyes,
Who only as her shadows seemed to move.

In the Fog - Hermann Hesse

To wander in fog—how queer!
Lonely are bush and stone,
No tree sees the other near,
Each is alone.

What Kind Of God? - Kabir

What kind of God would He be
if He did not hear the
bangles ring on
an ant’s
wrist

To the Moon - Giacomo Leopardi

Oh gracious moon, now as the year turns,
I remember how, heavy with sorrow,
I climbed this hill to gaze on you,

Between going and staying the day wavers - Octavio Paz

Between going and staying the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.

The Half Door - Seumas O’Sullivan

Dark eyes, wonderful, strange and dear they shone
  A moment’s space;
And wandering under the white stars I had gone
  In a strange place.

Relativity - A. H. Reginald Buller

There was a young lady named Bright

The Audience - Eqrem Basha

The head of the protocol department asked
What are you involved in
We are tired I said

To a Creole Lady - Charles Baudelaire

In a country perfumed with the sun’s embrace,
I knew ‘neath a dais of purpled palms,
And branches where idleness weeps o’er one’s face,
A Creolean lady of unknown charms.

The nymphs (The Hunter and the Hero - Book VII) - Bhāravi

The beauteous nymphs then left the sky,
Attended by Gandharvas¹ skilled,
And joyous notes of drum and shell
And sound of cars the blue vault filled.

The Absence - Paul Éluard

I speak to you over cities
I speak to you over plains

The Garmont of Gud Ladeis - Robert Henryson

Wald my gud lady lufe me best
And wirk eftir my will,
I suld ane garmond gudliest
Gar mak hir body till.

Quand vous serez bien vieille - Pierre de Ronsard

When you are old, in evening's candle-light
and skeining wool before the fireside blaze,
you'll read my verses, marvel, speak of days
‘when I was beautiful in Ronsard's sight.’

I Bear No Anger - Heinrich Heine

I bear no anger, though my heart must break,
Love lost forever! No, not for thy sake.
Resplendent though thou be with diamonds bright,
No beam can fall into thy bosom’s night.

Truce - Abdourahman Waberi

I scatter my voice all over of the town
There water outlines time

Where I become You - Antjie Krog

Where I become You
Star-stung blind and dying in gravitation
You come
Hard stained and upwards

A Good Play - Robert Louis Stevenson

We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of soft pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.

She wears a round skirt - Amir Khosrow

She wears a round skirt, stands on one leg,
That lady has eight legs,

The Shining Hours (I) - Emile Verhaeren

Oh, splendour of our joy and our delight,
Woven of gold amid the silken air!
See the dear house among its gables light,
And the green garden, and the orchard there!

Tears - Wang Seng-ju

High o’er the hill the moon barque steers.
      The lantern lights depart.

Akure - Feyisayo Anjorin

Words are beautiful,
Some things are more than words;
Words could bind like cords,
Words could capture and keep in bounds.

Bertrand Russell 1872 - 1970 - Jaan Kaplinski

THIS OLD HAMMER IT SHINES LIKE SILVER
IT HAS NO MORE WEIGHT - THE OLD SILVER HAMMER
FLEW AWAY FROM THE HANDS OF THE BLACKSMITH
AND IS CLICKING ON THE NAILHEADS HIGH IN THE WINTER SKY

To Sayf al-Dawla - Al-Mutanabbi

Resolutions are measured against those who make them;
generosity in accordance with the giver.

The pawn - C.F. Cavafy

As I often watch people playing chess
my eye follows one Pawn
that little by little finds his way
and manages to reach the last line in time.

Fire - Hagiwara Sakutarō

I saw fire burning red
like a beast
you keep silent and do not say.

An Essay on Birthing - Akiko Yosano

1.
As I climb into
The car, I know I am not
Coming back alive.
The hospital gate looks much
Like an execution ground.

A Heavenly Woman's Imprisoned in the Palace (Buddhist Dancers) - Li Yu

A heavenly woman's imprisoned in the palace at Penglai Hill,
All are silent as she sleeps by day in the painted hall.

Creator of the Earth and Sky - Ambrose of Milan (Augusta Treverorum)

Creator of the earth and sky,
Ruling the firmament on high,
Clothing the day with robes of light,
Blessing with gracious sleep the night.

Out Back - P.P. Quinn

We dumped our swags by the river—side when the sun was getting low;
To reach the boys on the other side we had four good miles to go;
But the winding stream that before us stretched ran sluggishly and wide—
'T was a hundred yards from where we sat to the sand on the other side.
The tailings washed from the claims above had sullied the waters clear,
And thicker and thicker they slowly ran as year succeeded year;
My mate and myself wished heartily we had reached the further shore—
The trip was the first he had made on the track, but I had been there before

A Tired Day - Sergei Esenin

When a tired day bowed down to the night
The waves fell still, the birds wouldn’t fly,
The sun set down over the hills (what a sight!)
And musingly the moon floated in the sky.

A night-mooring near Maple Bridge - Zhang Ji

While I watch the moon go down, a crow caws through the frost;

River-Mates - Padraic Colum

I’ll be an otter, and I’ll let you swim
A mate beside me; we will venture down
A deep, dark river, when the sky above
Is shut of the sun; spoilers are we,

At the Edge of Time - Pierre Reverdy

The stems of the sun bent over the eye
             The sleeping man
The whole of the earth

Autumn fields (The Hunter and the Hero - Book IV) - Bhāravi,

Now Arjun came to peopled lands,
All fresh and blooming as a bride;
The tuneful birds flew in the sky,
The crops were rich in golden pride!

On a Blind Girl - Baha ad-Din Zuhayr

They call my love a poor blind maid:
I love her more for that, I said;

The Return Home - Joseph the Hymnographer

Safe home, safe home in port!
—Rent cordage, shattered deck,
Torn sails, provisions short,
And only not a wreck:
But oh! the joy upon the shore
To tell our voyage-perils o’er!

Love’s madness (Book I.1:1-38) - Sextus Propertius

Cynthia was the first, to my cost, to trap me with her eyes:
I was untouched by love before then.
Amor it was who lowered my gaze of endless disdain,
and, feet planted, bowed my head,
till he taught me, recklessly,
to scorn pure girls and live without sense,
and this madness has not left me for one whole year now,
though I do attract divine hostility.

Who Can Count The Sand In Oceans? - Akaki Tsereteli

Who can count the sand in oceans,
Or the stars in skies at night?

Raisins And Almonds - Abraham Goldfaden

Under baby's cradle in the night
Stands a goat so soft and snowy white

An Old Man’s Song - Alexey Koltzov

I shall saddle a horse,
A swift courser, he,

Jesus – The Shepherd - Vikram G. Aarella

Oh, my shepherd lord
What are your followers doing?
They are playing the money card
Luring men into their fold and converting.

Sleepy birds - Mihai Eminescu

All those sleepy birds
Now tired from flight
Hide among the leaves
Good-night!

The Harper - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Ah, he who seeketh solitude
Is all too soon alone;
Men live and love, but he must brood
Upon his pain and moan.
Leave agony with me!
When I at last shall be
Quite lonely grown—
I shall not be alone.

Shell - Indrė Valantinaitė

Since the time I moved away from you,
I slide along the ground like a snail
on whose slimy body fragments
of my shell still stick.

The Way You Are - Paul Adolphus

When you look in the mirror
what do you see?
Is the person who's looking back
The person you want to be?

Christ's Manhood - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger

I know not where thou art.
Where hast thou gone, dear child,
Thou who from earth's young heart
Hast looked to Heaven and smiled?
Ah, in the scorched field
I search for thee in vain,
But in the woods concealed
I find thee once again.

Pine Tree - Kim Ki-Taek

Even pine needles are broad, in their earliest stages.
Their present form, now sharpened and firmed,
Traces of the passing chill, creating openings between the leaves, thin slicing forks.
Traces of cold blood passing through reptiles' veins.

A Song of an Autumn Night - Wang Wei

Under the crescent moon a light autumn dew
Has chilled the robe she will not change—

The old quays - Georges Rodenbach

That exquisite hour at evening’s approach,
when the heavens fill with processions tinged rose
which advance, shedding souls and flowers,
casting into the air the fragrance of censers.
Then, more lucid beneath the declining light
of sunset, whose crimson glow gradually dies,
the charm of old walls where ancient streets end.

Sonnet XX: I Always Knew - Louise Labé

It was prophesied that, some fine day,

I would love deeply one whose figure

was described; and with never a picture,

I knew him, finding him, on my way.

Little Zebras - Ana Ristovic

The more I read
the more books
resemble little zebras
their spines bend under the thumb
anticipating the riders
they won't buck off.

Blessed Be the Hour - Walter von der Vogelweide

Blessed be the hour when first I knew her,
Her who with heart and soul did rout me;
When all my senses were aroused to woo her,
I felt her goodness hover all about me.
And now I cannot part from her again,
Because her beauty and kindness delight me,
And her red, red mouth that laughs so brightly.

An Evening Reflection Upon God's Grandeur Prompted by the Great Northern Lights - Mikhail Lomonosov

The day conceals its brilliant face,
And dark night covers up the fields,
Black shadows creep upon the hills,
Light's rays recede from us.
Before us gapes a well of stars -
Stars infinite, well fathomless.

A young soul - Al-Mutanabbi

A young soul in my ageing body plays,
Though time’s sharp blades my weary visage raze.

Hard biter in a toothless mouth is she,
The will may wane, but she a winner stays.

The insolvent debtor - George Cosbuc

Home walked she from the mill
Her sack was down and she
Could not lift it again.
"May I help?" "What?" "For pay!"
And in the narrow lane
Good girls shouldn't wave away
Such offers and say "nay".
That she agreed was plain.

The True Dragon - Brian Patten

St George was out walking
He met a dragon on a hill,
It was wise and wonderful
Too glorious to kill

Capystranus (introduction) - John of Capistrano

O myghty fader in heuen on hye
One god and persones thre

Seven Stanzas at Easter - John Updike

Make no mistake
If he rose at all it was as his body;
If the cells' dissolution did not reknit,
The amino acids rekindle,
The church will fall.

The day of resurrection! - John of Da­mas­cus (John Mansur)

The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God.
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory.

No, it was not the Jews who crucified - Jacobus Revius

No, it was not the Jews who crucified,
Nor who betrayed You in judgment place,

Good Friday - Maria Melendez Kelson

Jesus, I want my sins back.
My prattle, pride, and private prices?—?
climbing, clinching, clocking?—?

Ode - Amir ibn Kolthum

Ha girl! Up with the bowl! Give us our dawn draught
And do not spare the wines of al-Andarina,

Vondel's Lucifer (Act I, lines 173-191) - Joost van den Vondel

Belzebub:
Now picture me the bride, described from life.

Apollion:
That Nature's pencil needs, nor lesser hues
Than sunbeams. Perfect are both man and wife;

The Garden in Samothrace - Nonnus of Panopolis

Such was that shady garden. Near flowed forth
A fountain with two springs, whence all might draw
Perennial waters cool; in many a rill
Thence had the skilful gardener trained along
From plant to plant the winding wandering stream.

Bringing in the Wine - Li Bai

See how the Yellow River's water moves out of heaven.
Entering the ocean, never to return.
See how lovely locks in bright mirrors in high chambers,
Though silken-black at morning, have changed by night to snow...

Coming to the City Nearest You - Carol Penner

Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you.
Jesus comes to the gate, to the synagogue,
to houses prepared for wedding parties,
to the pools where people wait to be healed,
to the temple where lambs are sold,
to gardens, beautiful in the moonlight.
He comes to the governor’s palace.

Last Dream - Giovanni Pascoli

Read the translator's notes
Out of a motionless infernal
shudder and clang of steel on steel
as wagons moved toward the eternal,
a sudden silence: I was healed.

Cam's Love - Hoàng Cầm

If I were young as in the days of old,
I'd take you in forever to live with me.
On each golden sundown that gently rolled,
You'd sing to my lute as in younger days.

The Naming of a Child - Togara Muzanenhamo

It began with a leisured cycle of turning strokes,
every breath drawing on syllables, her name dug
from each jab stirring the brown muddy water.

Silentium - Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev

Speak not, lie hidden, and conceal
the way you dream, the things you feel.

Worldly senses are the ladder of earth - Jalal al-Din Rumi

Worldly senses are the ladder of earth,
Spiritual senses are the ladder of heaven.
The health of the former is sought of the leech,
The health of the latter from " The Friend."

Persian fopperies (Odes, I, 38) - Horace

Boy, I hate their empty shows,
Persian garlands I detest,
Bring not me the late-bloom rose
Lingering after all the rest:

The Good Shepherd - Lope Félix de Vega Carpio

Shepherd! who with thine amorous, sylvan song
Hast broken the slumber that encompassed me,
Who mad'st Thy crook from the accursed tree
On which Thy powerful arms were stretched so long!

I Have Dreamed of You so Much - Robert Desnos

I have dreamed of you so much that you are no longer real.
Is there still time for me to reach your breathing body, to kiss your mouth and make
your dear voice come alive again?

It's Spring - Eduard Mörike

Spring unfurls its blue ribbon
To flutter in the air again;

From Dewy Dreams - James Joyce

From dewy dreams, my soul, arise,
From love's deep slumber and from death,
For lo! the trees are full of sighs
Whose leaves the morn admonisheth.

The sun setting - Miodrag Pavlovic

The sun setting
children shouting beneath the window
games in cold weather

The Railway Station - Archibald Lampman

The darkness brings no quiet here, the light
    No waking: ever on my blinded brain
    The flare of lights, the rush, and cry, and strain,

Liber V.LIX (In sending you no silver plate) - Marcus Valerius Martialis

In sending you no silver plate, no gold plate,
I act in your interest, eloquent Stella.

Ah, When He Is Mine - Novalis

Ah, when He is mine,
When I hold Him fast,
When His loyalty divine
Fills my heart unto the last—
I feel no distress,
Only worship, love and happiness.

Silence is always here - Jaan Kaplinski

Silence is always here and everywhere;
sometimes we simply hear it more clearly:

Understand Old One - Oodgeroo Noonuccal

What if you came back now
To our new world, the city roaring

The Indian Corn Planter - E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)

He needs must leave the trapping and the chase,
  For mating game his arrows ne'er despoil,
And from the hunter's heaven turn his face,
  To wring some promise from the dormant soil.

The Blind and the Lame - Christian Fürchtegott Gellert

It happens that a man quite blind
A lame man on the street doth find.
With hope the blind man’s heart is gay:
There’s one to lead him on his way!

Idyl - Pedro Requena Legarreta

The opal-breasted morning of the spring
Scarce o'er the meads her luminous urn can swing.

To The Night - Ugo Foscolo

Maybe because you always have appeared
The image of that fatal rest to me,
O night! You come towards me so dear!
Escorted by the summer clouds with glee
And by the gentle breezes full of cheer,

My Lady - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

My lady, I must implore
forgiveness for keeping still,
if what I meant as tribute
ran contrary to your will.

A Drover - Padraic Colum

To Meath of the pastures,
From wet hills by the sea,
Through Leitrim and Longford
Go my cattle and me.

Brothers, let us glorify freedom’s twilight - Osip Emilevich Mandelstam

Brothers, let us glorify freedom’s twilight –
the great, darkening year.
Into the seething waters of the night
heavy forests of nets disappear.
O Sun, judge, people, your light
is rising over sombre years

A Mountain Song - Kazi Nazrul Islam

We are wild as the storm
We are restless as the spring
We are fearless like god and generous like nature.

A Year of Grace - Monique Mbeka

I’m getting a year of grace
from my year of pain and rage,
my year of famine —
a year to study film
production in Kinshasa
and finally come of age.

Munster - Sliabh Cuilinn

Ye who rather
Seek to gather
Biding thought than fleeting pleasure,
In the South what wonders saw ye?
From the South what lesson draw ye?
Wonders, passing thought or measure, —
Lessons, through a life to treasure.

Ísland - Jónas Hallgrímsson

Iceland, fortunate isle! Our beautiful, bountiful mother!
Where are your fortune and fame, freedom and virtue of old?

Chanson D’Automne - Paul Verlaine

Leaf-strewing gales
Utter low wails
     Like violins,—
Till on my soul
Their creeping dole
     Stealthily wins….

Oh, Summer! - Brishti Bandyopadhyay

Summer can be killing
but it can also be fun
the trick is to stay cool
despite the hot, hot sun.

Rising at Morning from My Graveside - Maxim Amelin

Rising at morning from my graveside,
I rub these eyelids till they're lucid,
and then, squinting windward,
I set off—unsure where I'm directed—

Castel-Cuille - Jacques Jasmin

At the foot of the mountain height
Where is perched Castel-Cuille,
When the apple, the plum, and the almond tree
In the plain below were growing white.
This is the song one might perceive
On a Wednesday morn of Saint Joseph's Eve:

Would I were As Free As My Dreams - August Graf von Platen

Would I were free as are my dreams,
  Sequestered from the garish crowd
To glide by banks of quiet streams
  Cooled by the shadow-drifting cloud!

Things as Beautiful - Lao Tzu

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

In An Album - Cyprian Kamil Norwid

If instead of windows so amply
Frozen to precious stones we had
A few statues against azure skies,
Or a columned peristyle for reveries…
If only Sorrento sunlight
Would slither through laurel leaves…
Ah well! ... here all is veiled in mists...

The Peaceful Land - Frederik Hoegh-Guldberg

The waves have ceased their tossing,
The storms are laid to rest,
And scarce a breath is blowing
O'er ocean's heaving breast!

Cosmopolitan poetry - Janos Arany

I have no shame, no regret
That born Hungarian, I write
As one, that I can never let
My words beyond this soil take flight.
No ‘Wonder of two worlds,’ my song
If charm it has, is due to them,
My people; I am theirs, belong
To one land wholly, root and stem.

He Said, Don't Sleep - Rabbi Adonim Halevi

He said, "Don't sleep. Drink old wine
with myrrh and lilies, henna and aloes,
in an orchard of pomegranates, palm, and vines
full of pleasant plants and tamarisks, to the hum of fountains
and the throb of lutes,
to the sound of singers, flutes, and lyres.

At The Café - Jens August Schade

A good song,
a crazy small miracle
comes from the gramophone
while I stay silent.
And to everyone’s amazement
I push back my chair
and stay sitting in the air.

Sonnet I: Never was Ulysses - Louise Labé

Never was Ulysses, or any other,

more struck by so divine an aspect,

so full of grace, honour and respect,

apart from which I endlessly suffer.

Yes, Love, your eyes, in all their beauty,

have so pierced my innocent heart,

warmed and nourished by your art,

that, without you, there’s no remedy.

O, harsh fate that renders me as one

stung by the Scorpion, and seeking

an antidote to that creature’s venom,

I ask, merely, that you ease each breath,

not quench what’s dear to me, this longing,

the lack of which would see my death.

---

Louise Charlin Perrin Labé [La Belle Cordière] ( c. 1524 – 1566) France

Translated by A. S. Kline

Source: Poetry in Translation

Now I Pass - Paul La Cour

Now I pass into the stone,
soon I am mountain and cold,
if I cannot open my depths,
I must become a lock.

Simile - Charlotte Dacre

The little Moth round candle turning,
Stops not till its wings are burning:

Ah! Beauteous Maid - Raoul Comte de Soissons

Ah! beauteous maid,
Of form so fair!
Pearl of the world,
Beloved and dear!

The Light Is Round - Pierre Kemp

The light is round and rolls on all its sides,
down the mountains, through the dales,

Jacob And Esau - Else Lasker-Schuler

Rebecca's maid: a girl come from afar,
an angel, lovely, in a shift of roses
and on her face she seemed to wear a star.

Valentine haiku - Bruce Levitan

my small heart only;

John Maynard - Theodor Fontane

John Maynard!
" Who is John Maynard?"
" John Maynard was our helmsman,
he held out, until we reached the shore;
he saved us, his is the crown,
he died for us, our love be his reward.
John Maynard!" —

Room for All - Óndra Łysohorsky

I am a river.

From my source the gathering waters have been flowing

since time began

towards the ocean.

I accept brooks

that once were clear

and now disgusting city-sewers.

There is room for all.

Contra Spem Spero! - Lesia Ukrainka

Away, dark thoughts, you autumn clouds!
A golden spring is here!
Shall it be thus in sorrow and in lamentation
That my youthful years pass away?

The sun that in the East does rise - Bernhard Severin Ingemann

The sun that in the East does rise
Drapes clouds with golden gown,
O’er seas and peaks it sails the skies,
O’er countryside and town.

The Red Squadrons - Hristo Smirnenski

Heralds of a happier day rousing wonder and dismay -
Powerful squadrons rush in close array.
In the morning sad and gray, like flocks of birds of prey
Shrapnels fall in their midst or fall astray.

Sakuntala - Holger Drachmann

I could not sleep for longing,
a flower-wind
wafted towards me,
streaming in through my window
like a fragrance-breathing river;
I heard the tall palm trees
gently murmuring
with music sweet;
it whispered where I placed my feet:
Sakuntala, Sakuntala.

Smoke Is The Food Of Lovers - Jakob Cats

When Cupid open'd shop, the trade he chose
Was just the very one you might suppose.

The Tiny Kingdom - Faustas Kirsa

With bugs, with butterflies,
With bees, ants, dragonflies, –
My youth withdrew into the fields
And waves with wings of mist.

Can you see me - Else Lasker-Schuler

Between heaven and earth?
No one has ever crossed my path.

The Wanderer - Bernhard Severin Ingemann

All the sky was dull and drear,
But what cared I!
For my sky shone bright and clear
In Eliza's eye.

Morning - Am­brose of Mi­lan (Augusta Treverorum)

Now that the daystar glimmers bright
We suppliantly pray
That He, the uncreated Light,
May guide us on our way.

By The Lake - A W Schack von Staffeldt

And while all the waves are borne off apace,
I feel as if I there too had my place,
And staring into the image-filled lake,
In some strange longing my parting would take.

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