Venice masks

Thursday 31 December 2020

End of a Year - Julian Symons

And in this year now
Remember all the harm.
The watcher on the hill
Weeps the heroic end
And under look of eyes
Or the bold clasp of hands
The lovers know their wrong.

Wednesday 30 December 2020

Ring Of Peace - Paul Éluard

I have passed the doors of coldness
The doors of my bitterness
To come and kiss your lips

Tuesday 29 December 2020

I.R.ME (I Represent Me) - Ben Caesar

verse.1
its a complicated/
subject that i touch/
sensitive/
like injured love/

Monday 28 December 2020

Melody - Wazani Adamu Ijarafu

There is a melody
In the song of a mad man who lost his lover
To the romance of broken bottles

Sunday 27 December 2020

Liber VIII.LXXI (To Postumianus) - Marcus Valerius Martialis

Four pounds of silver plate in winter's season 
you sent me, Postumianus, ten years ago. 
While I hoped for a greater weight 
for gifts should stand fixed or grow 
there arrived two pounds more or less. 

Saturday 26 December 2020

Together and yet apart - Ketty Dan-Napwatt and Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen

Together and yet apart
Separated by a need greater than ourselves
Until the dawn when the roosters crow, together we shall be

Friday 25 December 2020

Nativity - John Donne

Immensity, cloister’d in thy dear womb,
Now leaves His well-beloved imprisonment.

Thursday 24 December 2020

Christmas - Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff

The market and streets stand still and ghostly,
Each house in all the silence glows,
Along the lanes my thoughts come with me,
As the festive spirit ever grows.

Wednesday 23 December 2020

The Tay Moses - Kathleen Jamie

What can I fashion for you
but a woven creel of river-
rashes, a golden
oriole’s nest my gift
wrought from the Firth –

Tuesday 22 December 2020

A Night-mooring at Wuchang - Lu Lun

Far off in the clouds stand the walls of Hanyang,
Another day's journey for my lone sail...

Monday 21 December 2020

The Tercets - Llywarch Hen

Set is the snare, the ash clusters glow, 
Ducks plash in the pools; breakers whiten below; 
More strong than a hundred is the heart's hidden woe. 

Sunday 20 December 2020

Saturday 19 December 2020

Hail! - Catherine Pozzi

Ardent love, if I were to die
Without having known where I possessed you,
In which sun was your abode,
In which past your time, in which hour
I have loved you!

Friday 18 December 2020

Night - Vicente Huidobro

You hear the night glide across the snow

The song fell down from the trees

Thursday 17 December 2020

The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer - Eugenio Montejo

The earth turned to bring us closer,
it spun on itself and within us,

Wednesday 16 December 2020

Crossing Reality - Floarea Ţuţuianu

It’s Monday,
and from the kiosk on the corner
a croissant and a new poet under my arm
I start my Dublinesque odyssey

Tuesday 15 December 2020

This Poem - Homero Pumarol

Every now and then I read this poem again.
I like it: it’s short and easy to forget.

Monday 14 December 2020

Crazy Day - Gustav Krklec

Rooster this morning said to me:
Dear friend, good evening!

Sunday 13 December 2020

Love Has Seven Names - Hadewijch

Love has seven names.
Do you know what they are?
Rope, Light, Fire, Coal
make up its domain.

Saturday 12 December 2020

I could’t want another life - Tao Yuanming

I could’t want another life. This is my
true calling, working fields and mulberries

Friday 11 December 2020

Islands - Guy Tirolien

This is the low house
in which my race has grown.
Twisting and lifting, the road
takes off beyond.

Wednesday 9 December 2020

Tuesday 8 December 2020

On the departure of his daughters - Muhammad al Fagīr

Umm Madās, the heifer of Kalaka,
her mother’s house is a gathering place for guests, never deserted.

Monday 7 December 2020

St. Olaf’s Fountain - Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

Like a ball of blood-red fire
Sinks the sun o’er forests sleeping,
Wondrously in splendor steeping
Glaciers far with cloud-capt spire.

Sunday 6 December 2020

Alyosha Karamazov - Gunnar Björling

The kiss of Christ is set above the world. And you realise:

Saturday 5 December 2020

a little something - Renata Frolova

Lost in now, lost in work 
struggling through piles of paperwork,
I am growing old faster than dreams are forgotten.

Friday 4 December 2020

The Pine Trees on the Sea-rock - Arvid Mörne

The pine trees on the sea-rock are my lyres,
And the storm is playing on them.
Skerry and islet boom. Lost fishing boats
Steer by the pine trees and head for home.

Thursday 3 December 2020

Leaving Atocha Station - Johannes Beilharz

On a spark I am situating myself 
there, in that busy, old-fashioned 
painted iron and glass structure 
in approximately 1975.

Tuesday 1 December 2020

Metamorphosis - Luis G. Urbina

It was an imprisoned kiss in love
with a hand of snow that had
the appearance of a listless iris
and the heartbeat of a bird in agony.

Monday 30 November 2020

Ilka Blade o’ Grass Keps its ain Drap o’ Dew - James Ballantine

Confide ye aye in Providence, for Providence is kind,
And hear ye a’ life’s changes wi’ a calm and tranquil mind.
Tho’ press’d and hemm’d on every side, hae fath an ye’ll win through,
For ilka blade o’ grass keps its ain drap o’ dew.

Sunday 29 November 2020

When I hunger to praise Thee - Abraham ibn Ezra

When I hunger to praise Thee, I’m sated;
When to worship I thirst, I am drunk.

Friday 27 November 2020

Almost without Noticing - Eira Stenberg

Almost without noticing,
without thinking, it seems,
you've arrived where you see far.

Thursday 26 November 2020

Tuesday 24 November 2020

Monday 23 November 2020

Post Scriptum - Toeti Heraty

I want to write
an erotic poem
in which raw words, unadorned,
become beautiful

Sunday 22 November 2020

The Om - Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming

My Tanty used to sing/pray
evening ragas to the Earth Goddess
morning oblations to the Sun God

Saturday 21 November 2020

Saguia - Zahra el Hasnaui

They say
the night takes possession
of your indigo,
violet and cobalt hues.
That, in your lap,
all the kisses of salt
dry up.

Friday 20 November 2020

Halley's Comet - Jaroslav Seifert

I saw nothing at that moment,
             nothing but strangers' backs,
heads under their hats craning.
The street was crowded.

Thursday 19 November 2020

Do not boast of your speed - Hwang Jini

Do not boast of your speed,
O blue-green stream running by the hills:
Once you have reached the wide ocean,
You can return no more.

Wednesday 18 November 2020

Whoever wants me to love him - Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska

Whoever wants me to love him must never look gloomy, understand,
and he must be able to lift me up high in the palm of his hand.

Monday 16 November 2020

Sunday 15 November 2020

My divine Lysis - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

My divine Lysis:
do forgive my daring,
if so I address you,
unworthy though I am to be known as yours.

Saturday 14 November 2020

I'm Calling You - Ahmed Kaabour

I'm calling you1
I shake your hands
I kiss the ground beneath your feet2
And say, "I will redeem you"3

Friday 13 November 2020

India 1 - Juri Andruchowytsch

India begins with dreams about setting out
on an eastbound journey. These dreams have plots, they are
like a film through which one wanders like a gallant hero.

Thursday 12 November 2020

Rain and the Robin - Duncan Campbell Scott

A robin in the morning,
In the morning early,
Sang a song of warning,
"There'll be rain, there'll be rain."

Wednesday 11 November 2020

Exodus - Marina Boroditskaya

So I was wondering how they crossed that seabed
When the whole watery firmament was combed, wave to floor
And the squelch, squelch, squelch, and the walls on either side
Going up and up like a great aquatic corridor

Tuesday 10 November 2020

Aséna - Tahir Hamut Izgil

A piece of my flesh
torn away.
A piece of my bone
broken off.
A piece of my soul
remade.
A piece of my thought
set free.

Monday 9 November 2020

I long to hold some lady - Leonard Cohen

I long to hold some lady
For my love is far away,
And will not come tomorrow
And was not here today.

Sunday 8 November 2020

The strain upraise of joy and praise - Notker Balbulus

The strain upraise of joy and praise, 
Alleluia. 

To the glory of their King 
Shall the ransom'd people sing 
Alleluia. 

Saturday 7 November 2020

In their own language - Ken Arkind

the butterfly farts
the fart changes the butterfly's flight pattern
the cat on the window sill sees the butterfly
the cat jumps at the butterfly
the cat misses the butterfly
the cat falls in the fountain

Friday 6 November 2020

I Scarce Believed - Marjory Nicholls

I wondered once, when life, so it did seem,
Was holding to me hands where gifts were laid,

Thursday 5 November 2020

Laughing Blue - Adil Latefi

Maybe these words make no sense
Maybe they mean everything

Wednesday 4 November 2020

Your voice - Stevan Tontic

Always after three, the most seven days
Your voice for a minute
On Belgrade’s nightly telephone.

Tuesday 3 November 2020

Total - Enes Halilović

The wall.
The wall unbuilt.
The wall built.
The wall added.
The wall ruined.

Sunday 1 November 2020

For a Time of Pestilence - Ephrem the Syrian

The Church is desolate and sits mournfully
For no one enters or departs; 
Thy decree hath destroyed them! 
And the priests groan in the holy place, 
With loud sighs for their companions 
Who have departed from them for ever! 

Saturday 31 October 2020

A Few Things Worth Considering - Kunle Okesipe

The number of its fragments when a life is broken,
The partition of heart for the system file of wishes,
The decor of the recycle bin for the remains of dreams,

Friday 30 October 2020

easter sunday, travesties - José F. A. Oliver

[april four-liner]
in the hermitage jacket chocolate
from the Cross drips marzipan
& snowblend.
Outside the window

Thursday 29 October 2020

The ferryman - Emile Verhaeren

The ferryman, a green reed 'twixt his teeth,
With hand on oar, against the current strong
Had rowed and rowed so long.

Wednesday 28 October 2020

Break and Bricks - Huguette Bertrand

Take all the walls down
and let dreams come out
from darkness
letting them expand
in the wilderness
of all memories
behind closed doors

Tuesday 27 October 2020

The Modest Little Wish - Carl Spitteler

In the days when I was little
   had they asked me what I wanted,
What I'd wish for first if wishes
   ever could be really granted,

Monday 26 October 2020

We Have Everything We Need - Selina Nwulu

We have each become a small world,
spinning from one collision to another.
We scrub cities off our skins
and watch its roads leave tracks in the bath.

Sunday 25 October 2020

Christ The Word! - Bishop Nektarios of Aegina

Christ The Word! Thine Incarnation
Links my nature to Thine own;
By Thy sore Humiliation,
I am lifted to Thy throne;
By Thy suffering Thou hast fired me
With a zeal to sacrifice,
And to noble life inspired me,—
Hence my grateful songs arise.

Saturday 24 October 2020

Ghost - Reza Shirmarz

I don’t like the words
“good bye”
between your lips.

Friday 23 October 2020

How silent are you? - Tabitha M'bawa

You come to take parents and relatives
Leaving the children
Crying
In endless sorrow.

Thursday 22 October 2020

Fitzy and the Revolution - Ishion Hutchinson

The rumour broke first in Duckensfield.
Fitzy dropped the shutters of his rum shop.
By time it got to Dalvey there were three suicides.
The mechanic in Cheswick heard and gave his woman
a fine trashing; but, to her credit, she nearly scratched his heart
out his chest during the howl and leather smithing.

Wednesday 21 October 2020

My World - Anonymous

Say goodbye to our courtyard.
Tomorrow we’re setting out on the road,
leaving our little courtyard to be demolished.

Tuesday 20 October 2020

Only the dog walkers will survive - Oral Arukenova

zhanna’s gonna crash
kurban’s gonna snap
anel’s got a bruise
that fits right under her mask

Monday 19 October 2020

The Fish Market in Athens - Ivan Theofilov

In the cheerful narrow backstreets
with shops of advertisingly confessive mood
along the motley swarming crowds
where oriental customs reign,
here they are – a commercial cathedral

Sunday 18 October 2020

Sonnet X - Carlo Maggi

Soul, by thy deep demerit sore distressed, 
Dear to thy Lord — ah! why by woe subdued? 
He asks thy love: — but thou wouldst love exclude 
For love must fail, if hope forsake the breast! 

Saturday 17 October 2020

Datur Hora Quieti - Sir Walter Scott

The sun upon the lake is low,
The wild birds hush their song,
The hills have evening’s deepest glow,
Yet Leonard tarries long.

Friday 16 October 2020

To Italy - Luigi Alamanni

Thanks be to God, my feet are now addressed,
Proud Italy, at least to visit thee,
After six weary years, since destiny
Forbids me in thy dear-loved lap to rest.

Thursday 15 October 2020

Letter to my Unborn Child - Batsirai E. Chigama

Child
When I get the courage
When I am ready and brave
To bring you in a world
With too many clenched fists
Too many open palms
Too many potholes
And Z.E.S.Aless nights
Too many frolicking leaders
I want to make sure
You are strong and ready

Wednesday 14 October 2020

The Sea has its Transformations ... Make Way - Qassim Haddad

Whoever saw a sea so narrow
narrow narrow
like the pupil of an eye
I mean - who
I have seen
and it's narrowing still
hardly space enough for the sputter of a strange gull
small fish can find no space in which to make a turn

Tuesday 13 October 2020

Good Sense - Xasan Sheekh Muumin

The ostrich places
Her young in the open
Where the hawk kills
But the small bird marries
And beds her young
In a nest that's safe

Monday 12 October 2020

Sunset - Amin Kassam

warm scent
lingers
to mark his passage
through
leaves and flowers

Sunday 11 October 2020

Shaken but not shattered - Sirbestian Nzula

The devil is a liar
He will attack your soul
Your soul will be on fire
Let Christ take control

Saturday 10 October 2020

Now Do not Tell Me of Men! - Müesser Yeniay

My soul hurts so much that
I awaken the stones under the earth
 

Friday 9 October 2020

Thursday 8 October 2020

Poison - Kinga Fabó

I don’t know what it is but very ill-
intended. Surely a woman must belong to it.
And something like a laughter.

Wednesday 7 October 2020

To the Lost - Dvora Amir

They came at the close of autumn, Moslem refugees from Bosnia
given shelter in this country, in the house next door, by a Yugoslav woman in Baka.

Tuesday 6 October 2020

A Zipper - Nikolina Andova Šopova

Like when you are zipping
a broken zipper
You slide it, and it persistently opens

Monday 5 October 2020

Autumn Afternoon - Željana Vukanac

The light of the last sun
elongates the faces of labour in the tin wheels

Sunday 4 October 2020

King of the hosts - Pope Urban VIII

King of the hosts of heavenly birth, 
Thou Son, Redeemer of the earth, 
And Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, 
Bring to our souls thy solace sweet. 

Saturday 3 October 2020

Who Deserves Respect? - Jean-Baptiste Nau

He whose hands are ever engaged,
And who seeks what's true and right,
Who lives from his own work's wage,
Not from other people's plight.

Friday 2 October 2020

Laughing Drums - David Amadu

History’s white hand wrote my country’s course
In a language that will come back and hunt her
In the twenty first century;

Thursday 1 October 2020

Wednesday 30 September 2020

Dances of Yesterday - Antoine Abel

I still hear the staccatos
The extension of the sounds of the drums
The drums from the old days

Tuesday 29 September 2020

My son - Matthew Fakaia

 you my son
        you whiteman now
bring me no more ia
        no more here

Monday 28 September 2020

Total independence (National Anthem) - Alda Neves da Graça do Espírito Santo

Total independence,
Glorious song of the people,
Total independence,
Sacred hymn of combat.

Sunday 27 September 2020

Deus ex Machina - José Mármol

Throw the dice, Lord, your turn has come and it is winter. The trident is cornered, the mountains covered with a skin of ash.

Saturday 26 September 2020

Must Never Be In Vain - Dillon Ollivierre

When your voice 
And your choice 
Is being undermined 
By men with no spine 
Then you know, it’s time to rise up
No longer can you be laid back, no longer can you simply look on
The sacrifices our ancestors made 
The blood, the sweat and tears 
Must never be in vain

Friday 25 September 2020

Rain - Makerita Va’ai

Rain, symbolic of a loss
of friend or foe
an ally or enemy

Thursday 24 September 2020

Where did you come from - Ana Istarú

Where did you come from,
sleeping man.
What cloud dropped you,
what caravel.

Wednesday 23 September 2020

Oh My Beloved Land - Telstar Jimmy

Beyond the wide horizon
Lies my home, my country
Of precious rainforests and peaceful woods;
Of portrait landscapes and productive gardens,
Oh My Beloved Land.

Tuesday 22 September 2020

The sky - Filippo Ye

The sky offers hospitality to the clouds.
It is there where thunderstorms
and rainbows come.

Monday 21 September 2020

It’s Not Love - Ryna.S.

If you love someone because he/ she is gorgeous…
that’s not love...
It’s Infatuation.

Sunday 20 September 2020

Moroni my princess - Soeuf Elbadawi

Moroni, my princess
with poor feet,
catches a cold and gets drunk on
bad weather days

Saturday 19 September 2020

General! - Dadolin Murak

General!
We didn’t know
The dark affair of 30 September 1965
When you came
We were indoctrinated by your false history:
Cutting genitals
Slashing with razors, gouging out eyes
Joined the communist cavorting at Lubang Buaya9

Friday 18 September 2020

Dawn of my manhood - Ueantabo Fakaofo

The years of Childhood have ended, 
The constellation Rimwimata’1 is up in the skies 
Twinkling on the whole island at rest 
Laying in bed tossing and wakeful I waited for dawn 

Thursday 17 September 2020

Untitled - Manal Al-Adawi

We must wake up,
We must burn hatred and turn the page,
Let us hold our hands together and walk towards the awakening.

Wednesday 16 September 2020

News Of My Mother - Jean Baptiste Tati-Loutard

I am now very high upon the tree of the seasons;
Far below I see the firm earth of the past.

Tuesday 15 September 2020

Pre-Naivasha Days - Emmanuel Monychol

We used to fight flies and heat
In the bullet ridden grass thatched huts,
We lived in the hope of milk and honey.

Monday 14 September 2020

A Woman - Yeng Chheangly

I saw her 
In a dirty face,
She carried,
Many bricks on her shoulder,

Sunday 13 September 2020

Sonnet XXXIV: Recognition of the world's vanity - Francisco de Aldana

At last, at last, with so much time spent dying,
and with so many turns of life and fate,
so many times to every folly flying
with hopes to grasp it all, always too late,

Saturday 12 September 2020

Jakïp dreams about Manas - Anonymous

"Until Manas reaches the age of twelve,
Until he grows into manhood,
Achieves the stature of a brave man,
And takes a spear in his hand

Friday 11 September 2020

Wednesday 9 September 2020

The Vision - Armando Rojas Guardia

Unobstructed, the building
suspends itself in the still
timid light of dawn.

Tuesday 8 September 2020

I, environment - Djeri Wapondi

I, environment I moan, I agonize
By compassion, the ozone layer reddens, roars and shatters.
To save me and to save you,
listen and write down this ordinance and recommendation
for such evil is its remedy and action.

Monday 7 September 2020

Sunday 6 September 2020

Ode (from Job) - Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov

O man! whose weakness dares rebel 
Against the Almighty's strength, draw nigh 
And listen, for my tongue shall tell 
His message from the clouded sky. 
Midst rain, and storm, and hail, he spoke,
Around the piercing thunder broke; 
At his proud word the clouds disperse, 
And thus he shakes the universe:
 

Saturday 5 September 2020

The Blues - Léon Damas

Give back my black dolls
that they can dispel
the image of wan whores
selling love and promenading
on the boulevard of my ennui

Friday 4 September 2020

Jobs - Mubarak Ouassat

The platanus tree
That grows suddenly in the middle of the room
Bend on me
Like a beloved
I will care for it in my turn
Because I was once
A gardener...
I remember now my past because astonishment
Grows in front of my patient eyes
Because tonight's mysteries lock my eyelids

Thursday 3 September 2020

Thamyris to her Roses - Götz

'Twas the promise of my lover 

Ere you blossomed to appear. 

Wednesday 2 September 2020

Grounded - Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner

Anchor yourself outside her room. A jaki
to sleep on, a cooler for drinks. Hands flexed
and prepared to ground her in this life.

Tuesday 1 September 2020

A Leader’s Vision - Fawziya al Maskiry

From under the shade of a tree
He said we can learn
Old and young
Our Country’s future is his concern.

Monday 31 August 2020

Freedom has Hands - Oktay Rifat

Proudly they were running, our horses
Toward the calm sea

Sunday 30 August 2020

Wake, wake, I pray thee, shrill-toned lyre - Synesius

Wake, wake, I pray thee, shrill-toned lyre!
No more to fan the Teïan fire,
No more the Lesbian strain to raise,
Wake, wake to hymn of nobler praise!

Saturday 29 August 2020

The Bird of Hope - Luis Enrique Belmonte

They marked the door with knife stabs,
belched out our names,
      spit on the mailboxes,
threw sulfur in the garden.

Friday 28 August 2020

Agar - Liyou Libsekal

I remember a yellow scarf fashioned every which way and beautiful bones that peaked at the cheeks.
Mounted proud “young mother” in  eyes mourning a daughter left behind

Thursday 27 August 2020

Laconic - Sohini Basak

Not everyone will respond to whistling; take the collared dove
I tried to talk to this morning while checking if my socks
were still wet on the clothesline. I said hello to which
the dove paid no notice, her speckled plumes shining

Wednesday 26 August 2020

It's beautiful when - Dan Sociu

How sad and beautiful man is when he’s wrong
about the world (and maybe he’ll never
know), like the cat driven mad
by the shining of a knife on the wall.

Tuesday 25 August 2020

Day - Olga Khvostova

Why do you, arriving at the sea, sit by the river
of time, washing your feet in it, crushing your brains,
turning your hooked nose up to the sky?

Monday 24 August 2020

Mountains/3 - José Manuel Arango

1
With a glass in my hand, looking at the mountains,
I caress the back of my dog.

Sunday 23 August 2020

I lift my hands, and with my heart - Anonymous

I lift my hands, and with my heart,
My prayer ascends to Thee;
In mercy take a sinner’s part,
Lord, send Thy help to me.

Saturday 22 August 2020

The Korathy's Lullaby - T. Ramakrishna

Stay, darling, stay—'tis only for an hour,
And you will be the fairest of the fair.
Your lotus eyes can soothe the savage beast,
Your lips are like the newly blossomed rose,
Your teeth—they shine like pearls; but what are they
Before the beauties of my handiwork?

Friday 21 August 2020

From the Forest - Avrom Sutzkever

Of grass and flowers, the substance dissolves
Into drops of dew.
And he who wants can see
The subtle play
Of black and fire, silver and blue.

Thursday 20 August 2020

The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God - J. Milton Hayes

There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
There’s a little marble cross below the town;
There’s a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.

Wednesday 19 August 2020

Genesis Book III - Cædmon

The day departed,
hasting over the dwellings of earth.
And after the gleaming light the Lord, our maker,
thrust on the first of evenings.

Thursday 13 August 2020

Fogland - Ingeborg Bachmann

In winter my lover thrives
among the forest creatures.
The laughing fox knows I must return
before morning.
How the clouds tremble! And a layer
of broken ice falls on me
from the snow craters.

Tuesday 11 August 2020

Returning to the Fields - Tao Yuanming

When I was young, I was out of tune with the herd:
My only love was for the hills and mountains.
Unwitting I fell into the Web of the World’s dust
And was not free until my thirtieth year.

Sunday 9 August 2020

Happy Solitude—Unhappy Men - Madame Guyon

My heart is easy, and my burden light;
I smile, though sad, when thou art in my sight:

Saturday 8 August 2020

Mango Trees - Christian Benitez

Sunset mangoes
hang perpetually, the naked
boughs arching
like a mother’s hand.

Friday 7 August 2020

The bus song - Ziad Rahbani

By the roar of the bus we travelled
from the village of Himlaya to the village of Tannurin
and I remembered you, Alia
and remembered your eyes
and God forgive you, Alia
what beautiful eyes you have.

Thursday 6 August 2020

A Banquet Song - Alcæus of Mytilene

The rain of Zeus descends, and from high heaven
          A storm is driven:

Wednesday 5 August 2020

A True Story of Daily Life - Hans Manz

My next-door neighbour,
a Chinese guy from Hong Kong,
sweeps, whenever he reaches for his broom,

Tuesday 4 August 2020

A Parrot in a Cage (Pinjarako Suga) - Lekhnath Paudyal

A pitiful, twice-born* child called parrot,
I have been trapped in a cage,
Even in my dreams, Lord Shiva,
I find not a grain of peace or rest.

Monday 3 August 2020

Sunday 2 August 2020

Saturday 1 August 2020

Inaugurating The Garden - Forugh Farrokhzad

The crow that soared
above our heads and plunged
into a vagrant cloud’s restless thoughts,
its voice a short spear travelling horizon’s length,
will carry the news of us to town.

Friday 31 July 2020

Mother's Touch - Mariska Taylor-Darko

In the village compound
which was cleanly swept and tidy
a compound not easily accessible by road
a group of old women sat huddled together.
Sticks and pipes jutted out of their mouths
which occasionally moved in unison.
A sigh here and a look to the sky up here.
Some sat with their chins in their palms
a look of sadness about them
They spoke.

Thursday 30 July 2020

Flower snake - So Chong-Ju

A back road pungent with musk and mint.
So beautiful, that snake. . .
What huge griefs brought you to birth?
Such a repulsive body!

Wednesday 29 July 2020

Light - Rutger Kopland

This evening I would like to say a few things
while actually there are no things to express them

Tuesday 28 July 2020

A City with the Charm A Thousand Beloved - Bouchra Yassine

I am from there
Where quince blossom and chaos presides
Lasting peace ...

Monday 27 July 2020

Come back home, Africa! - Awadifo Olga Kili

Come back home, Africa!
Mayibuye, grandma Africa!
Oh my Africa,I cherish the golden old days
Gifted with rays of glory and beauty of traditions
While decked with bronze, gold and ivory.

Sunday 26 July 2020

What vessel is that passing - Thomas Kingo

What vessel is that passing
Across the boundless deep,
On which the billows massing
In foaming fury sweep?
She seems in sore distress
As though she soon would founder
Upon the shoals around her
And sink without redress.

Saturday 25 July 2020

Friday 24 July 2020

Waiting - Necip Fazıl Kısakürek

The sick cannot not wait for morning
The grave cannot wait for the dead
The devil cannot wait for sin
Like I can wait for you.

Wednesday 22 July 2020

A wall and a classroom of black students - Adeniran Joseph

to this end heaven comes for us
with open arms and a principle of
parables. nothing eats your bones so hard
than a stranger reading
meaning to your name. we are end of things here.

Tuesday 21 July 2020

Teardrop - Samwiri Kisa Mukuru

                                 ●
                                 ●
                                 ●
                                 I
                               feel
                              like a
                            teardrop

Monday 20 July 2020

I would enfold your death and mine - Pedro Requena Legarreta

I would enfold your death and mine, as close
As our two lives have been together bound;

Sunday 19 July 2020

Because I was brought low - Anonymous

I
Because I was brought low,
And sin had triumphed quite,
Thou God, all good, didst bow,
And seek me in the night.

Saturday 18 July 2020

Friday 17 July 2020

When Rain Speaks of War - Virgil Suarez

it sounds like the hiss of a viper,
green-brown in underbrush
by the lichen-riddled rocks,

Thursday 16 July 2020

Not all sweet nightingales - Luis de Góngora y Argote

They are not all sweet nightingales
That fill with songs the flowery vales;
But they are little silver bells,
Touched by the winds in the smiling dells;
Magic bells of gold in the grove,
Forming a chorus for her I love.

Wednesday 15 July 2020

Belovèd - Francisca Stoecklin

Let yourself again and again
Be embraced by my words.
Let them lie around you
Like the coat
That you drape about me

Tuesday 14 July 2020

Thou and I - Raffi

Would I were the lake, so blue and calm,
And thou, fair maiden, with reluctant pride,
Wouldst see thy picture, delicate and faint,
Thy sacred image, in my depths abide.

Monday 13 July 2020

I Wish You Well - Juan Andrés Bruno

The rooster crowed the wake-up call,
a distant dog barked in response
and as the arrabal began to stir
to greet the new day,
far off, a car went on its way…
And like a sentinel’s end-of-watch signal,
the flickering light of a streetlamp
winked out, like a lamentation.

Sunday 12 July 2020

Undismayed by any fortune - Ambrosius Stub

Undismayed by any fortune
Life may have in store for me,
This, whatever be my portion,
I will always try to be.
If I but in grace abide,
Undismayed whate’er betide.

Saturday 11 July 2020

End and Repeat - Alexandru Vakulovski

the road stretches ahead
like a piece of paper
burnt at one end

Friday 10 July 2020

me and my old woman - Neerav Patel

1.
Since fifty-sixty years, they shout and screech
But there is no stuff in their work
It’s hardly five years and lo they come
Asking for more votes!

Thursday 9 July 2020

Hopeless (Gypsy Song) - Elena Văcărescu

Into the mist I gazed, and fear came on me.
Then said the mist: “I weep for the lost sun.”

We sat beneath our tent;
Then he that hath no hope drew near us there,
And sat him down by us.

Wednesday 8 July 2020

The Whale - Anonymous

i.
Now I wish to wordfully reveal a song
about a certain kind of fish,
yet with the craft of verse,
through the heart’s thoughts
and concerning the great whale.

Tuesday 7 July 2020

Laughing Mary - John O'Brien

With cheeks that paled the rosy morn
    She bounded o’er the heather,
And romped with us among the corn
    When we were kids together.

Monday 6 July 2020

What I Should Like to Do - Cecco Angolieri

If I were fire, I’d burn the world away;
    If I were wind, I’d turn my storms thereon;
    If I were water, I’d soon let it drown;

Sunday 5 July 2020

The Hearing Ear - Gerhard Tersteegen

O Holy and mighty and marvellous Word
That speakest ever to me;
As of old in the silence of Eden heard
In the shade of the sacred Tree—

Saturday 4 July 2020

Women Improve With the Years - Celeste Augé

I am worn out with diets—
those rain-worn, concrete goddesses
among the skinny streets.

Friday 3 July 2020

This cardboard prison - Jeannie Leane

This cardboard prison they call an archive
is cold, airless and silent as death.

Thursday 2 July 2020

I've Lost You - Hussein Al-Jassmi

I've lost you my dearest
I lost the love and the beauty
Who do I have in this world like you if the absence continues
You've left and who remains with me to feel my laugh and my crying
And even the wounds in your absence invade me
Who do I have in this world like you if the absence continues

Tuesday 30 June 2020

Love and Lapo - Guido Cavalcanti

If you, my Dante (this I pray
  You much), see Love with Lapo near,
  Take heed, and then if Love you hear

Monday 29 June 2020

Virgil - Giosuè Carducci

As when above parched fields the compassionate
Moon suspended, floods the summer dew with light,
Murmurs the flowing stream, the ripples scintillate,
Reflecting as they run the radiance white.

Sunday 28 June 2020

The Joys of Heaven - Thomas à Kempis

What gladsome voices rise
Through the country of the skies,
Where the Christ, with joyful face,
Smiles with Mary full of grace.

Thursday 25 June 2020

Refugees - Brian Bilston

They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me

Tuesday 23 June 2020

Munich, Winter 1973 (for Y.S.) - James Baldwin

In a strange house,
a strange bed
in a strange town,
a very strange me
is waiting for you.

Monday 22 June 2020

In Search of Five Weapons - Ajt-Man

Who hasn’t been tormented by dreams?
Listen, Steppe, listen, Woods.
I’ve lost my whip made of the skin
of a camel’s neck.

Sunday 21 June 2020

Adorable Things - Sei Shōnagon

The face of a child drawn on a melon.

A baby of two or so is crawling, rapidly along the ground. With his sharp eyes he catches sight of a tiny object and, picking it up with his pretty little fingers, takes it to show to a grown-up person.

Friday 19 June 2020

I Want No Weeping at My Grave - Stanisław Wyspiański

1st
I want no weeping at my grave,
except my wife’s lamenting brief;
I need no tears of yours and save,
oh save yourselves the bogus grief.

Thursday 18 June 2020

To Live in the Borderlands - Gloria Anzaldúa

To live in the borderlands means you
are neither hispana india negra espanola
ni gabacha, eres mestiza, mulata, half-breed
caught in the crossfire between camps
while carrying all five races on your back
not knowing which side to turn to, run from;

Wednesday 17 June 2020

Tuesday 16 June 2020

Plain Song - Pietro Aretino

I am a glutton for the thing called love,
A bigger glutton than the ones who sit
All day at table, as the full hours flit,
And hold they’re happier than the gods above.

Monday 15 June 2020

A Sea Spell - Orla Fay

On the journey to the coast we cut through
the hillsides, tunnels locked us in darkness
while the crescent of the bay grew and grew
as the train escaped its urban harness.

Sunday 14 June 2020

Spread, o spread, thou mighty word - J. F. Bahnmaier

Spread, o spread, thou mighty word.
Spread the kingdom of the Lord;
Wheresoe'er His breath h.as given
Life to beings meant for heaven.

Saturday 13 June 2020

Thursday 11 June 2020

My Heart's Song - Aleksis Kivi

Absalon, my son, that I could have died for you, my son.
Life holds no pleasure, let me descent to hell, weeping

Wednesday 10 June 2020

Tenancingo Shawl - Juan José Acevedo Vázquez

Take a shawl, good lady,
tie the fringes neat.
or, if you prefer it,
take a shawl complete.

Tuesday 9 June 2020

Postcards from God 1 - Imtiaz Dharker

Yes, I do feel like a visitor,
a tourist in this world
that I once made.

Monday 8 June 2020

Consolation: Roses - Gennady Aygi

in your presence even the toes
are as if they remembered!

Sunday 7 June 2020

Trinity Sunday - Malcolm Guite

In the Beginning, not in time or space,
But in the quick before both space and time,

Saturday 6 June 2020

If it Wasn't for the Footprints - Zelda Quakawoot

If it wasn't for the footprints
we wouldn't know about 'before'
Australia's history we have today
would not make sense anymore.

Friday 5 June 2020

Thursday 4 June 2020

View from Afar - Shakila Azizzada

I’m left again with no one standing behind me,
ground pulled from under my feet.
Even the sun’s shoulders are beyond my reach.

Wednesday 3 June 2020

Song of a Dweller in a High-Rise Block - Gülten Akın

They piled the houses high,
in front long balconies.
Far below was water
far below were trees

Tuesday 2 June 2020

On Climbing Mount Song Near the Southern Capital - Xuanzang

A lonely peak
Tapers its way
To a summit
Cut off in the clouds
Thousands of feet above

Monday 1 June 2020

Island on the earth - Sara de Ibáñez

In the north the cold and its broken jasmine.
In the east a nightingale full of thorns.
In the south the rose in its airy mines,
and in the west a road deep in thought.

Sunday 31 May 2020

Of Flash Mobs and a Foreshadowing - L.M. Kazmierczak

Originally 120 men
Put together the first singing stint.
No divisions among them,
Singing out to their hearts' content.

Friday 29 May 2020

From The Top Of The Stairs - Zbigniew Herbert

Of course
those who are standing at the top of the stairs
know
they know everything

Thursday 28 May 2020

You frogs! - Sakutarō Hagiwara

Inside the tangle of blue pampas grass and reeds
frogs seem to be bulging out whitely.

Wednesday 27 May 2020

Round the Clock - Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

pool used to be free at chong fan’s:
we knocked back tequila shots in personalised mugs
slow-cooked soup too, then sweet, creamy coffee
from sulawesi, the longhouse ceiling in teak

Tuesday 26 May 2020

Her Story - Andrei Voznesensky

I started up the engine and I lingered.
Where should I go? The night was fine, I figured.
The bonnet trembled like a nervous hound.
I shivered. Night lit up the houses around.
The Balzac age, I felt its burning pain,
Chilled to the bone, I couldn't hold my own.
The age of balsam wine mixed with champagne!..

Monday 25 May 2020

Sleep blues - Rethabile Masilo

Sleep blues
As I was sitting here
the roof fell in, a cat
jumped out of me

Sunday 24 May 2020

The Arabian Desert's dust - Imam Ahmad Raza

The Arabian Desert's dust radiates more than the dawn light;
The Arabian lamp's smoke shines more than the Moon at night.

Saturday 23 May 2020

From Baltic Meditations - Mariya Avvakumova

Minuscule bouquets in minuscule earthenware vases –
they tell you so much about the Latvian soul.

Friday 22 May 2020

The Weaver's Song - Carmen Sylva

Fly, shuttle, fly,
At the war my boy must die,
My daughter's betrayed and cast aside,
My wife is gone, of shame she died,
Fly, shuttle, fly.

Thursday 21 May 2020

Without love Joy's royal palms lament - Lope Félix de Vega Carpio

Without love Joy's royal palms lament
too well, and cast away their branches to the sea;
without love Daphne mourns her lonely tree
of laurel without fruit: and, over discontent,

Wednesday 20 May 2020

The Barrier - Claude McKay

I must not gaze at them although
Your eyes are dawning day;
I must not watch you as you go
Your sun-illumined way;

Tuesday 19 May 2020

Black Rhythms of Peru - Nicomedes Santa Cruz

Rhythms of slavery
Against bitterness and sorrows.
Keeping time to the beat of the chains
– Black rhythms of Peru.

Monday 18 May 2020

To recover - Francisco Luis Bernárdez

If to recover what was recovered
I had to first lose what was lost,
If to obtain the obtainable
I had to bear what was borne,

Sunday 17 May 2020

Ascension - Adam of St. Victor

Satan and the realms infernal
Having spoiled, to joys supernal
Christ returneth back once more:
As His upward way He wendeth,
As before, when He descendeth,
Angels set them to adore.

Saturday 16 May 2020

I'm Not Saying Anything Against Alexander - Bertold Brecht

Timur, I hear, took the trouble to conquer the earth.
I don't understand him.
With a bit of hard liquor you can forget the earth.

Friday 15 May 2020

How I hold myself together — after the blaring onslaughts from loudspeakers - Ayokunle Samuel Betiku

Lately, I have learnt to write as I sense.
It is one thing to dissect the body, but it’s a more difficult
thing to dissect the heart.

Thursday 14 May 2020

Blue Illusion - Arquímedes Arci

Haughty and conceited, like a pagan goddess
you passed by me, showing your spite,
and since that day I know that I have lost
the ineffable glory of a dream of love.

Wednesday 13 May 2020

That Same Night - Elone N. Ainebyoona

That same night,
He picked me along the way.
He charmed me with his bundles.
He assured me of pleasure each day.
He took me around his castles.
He asked me to stay.

Tuesday 12 May 2020

Monday 11 May 2020

A laboratory - Viktar Licvinau

In a small lab
resembling a box
the planets, meteorites,
sun and stars,
nitrogen and cosmic ice
revolve in their orbits.

Sunday 10 May 2020

How Virtue Drives Out Vice - Francis of Assisi

Where there is charity and wisdom
     there is neither fear nor ignorance.

Saturday 9 May 2020

Rainbow at Night - Antonio Machado

   The train moves through the Guadarrama
one night on the way to Madrid.
The moon and the fog create
high up a rainbow.

Friday 8 May 2020

Poems: I - Publius Annius Florus

I've no mind to be a Caesar,
Strolling round among the Britons,

Thursday 7 May 2020

Voices in The Wilderness - Duma Ndloru

If you listen to the wind
you will hear voices in the wilderness
sounds of hunters going after the hunted
music of afrika’s creation
melodies and rhythms
whispering in the wilderness;

Wednesday 6 May 2020

Things That Arouse a Fond Memory of the Past - Sei Shōnagon

Dried hollyhock. To find a piece of deep violet or grape-coloured material that has been pressed between the pages of a notebook.

Monday 4 May 2020

Funere mersit acerbo - Giosuè Carducci

O thou who on yon flowery hill art lying,
And by thy side our father too is sleeping,
Dost thou not hear, through the tall grasses sighing
Upon thy grave, a little voice of weeping?

Sunday 3 May 2020

Hail Him the King of glory - Henry de Fluiter

Tell it to every kindred and nation,
Tell it far and near;
Earth’s darkest night will fade with the dawning,
Jesus will soon appear.

Saturday 2 May 2020

Texaco Oil Storage Tanks - Roger Robinson

You silver gods, with viscous black innards,
skin of iron plates and bones of steel rivets,

Friday 1 May 2020

Silence - Hermann von Gilm zu Rosenegg

When in heaven, bolts are ready
And the lightning clouds are gathered,
Walkers then are striding quickly
And to nests the birds are flying,
Comes the silence.

Thursday 30 April 2020

Wednesday 29 April 2020

The Broken Wing - Liam Ó Comain

A racing pigeon of distance ability,
His colour known as grizzle, that is
White feathers spotted with other spots
Of colour. A likeable and interesting bird
And when he was less than a year old I
Sent him for a training flight
In preparation for racing.

Tuesday 28 April 2020

Dawn of Darkness - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

I know, I know,
It threatens the common gestures of human bonding
The handshake,
The hug
The shoulders we give each other to cry on

Monday 27 April 2020

Sunday 26 April 2020

Thou art of all created things - Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Thou art the essence of all created things,
O Lord, the essence and the cause.
The source and centre of all bliss;
What are those veils of woven light
Where sun and moon and stars unite.

Saturday 25 April 2020

Escape from - Jovica Ivanovski

Escape from yourself, that’s what poetry is.
In the meantime you search for yourself –
that’s poetry, too.

Friday 24 April 2020

Grammar, Music, Rhetoric - Lucilius

Pluto turns away the dead rhetorician Marcus, saying,
"Let the dog Cerberus suffice us here;

Thursday 23 April 2020

There is Some Hour - Marina Tsvetaeva

There is some hour – like a cast off load –
When our proud had been fully tamed.
The learning hour – on each life-long  road –
Is predestined and great.

Wednesday 22 April 2020

Hair Comfort - Antun Gustav Matoš

I watched you last night. In a dream. Sad. Dead.
In a fatal hall, in idyll of flowers,
On a high stand, in agony of candles,
Ready to give you my life as an offer.

Tuesday 21 April 2020

Gwalchmai's delight - Gwalchmai ap Meilyr

Swift rising dawn of joyful gliding June,
Melodious song of birds, calm, lustrous noon!
A gold-torqued Chief am I that know not fear,
A fierce, host-facing lion, rout in my rear!
At night I guard with bound-protecting sword
The babbling flow of Dygen Freiddin's ford.

Monday 20 April 2020

The Stranger - Aleksandr Blok

In the evenings, above the restaurants,
The air is hot and thick and wild,
And with drunken cries
A putrid springtime spirit rules.

Sunday 19 April 2020

Dawn - Moses ibn Ezra

I rose at dawn to praise Thy name,
My sins o’erwhelmed my soul with shame,
But comfort after penance came,
For all my hopes are set in Thee.

Saturday 18 April 2020

Paradise. Storefront. Monte Street - Reina María Rodríguez

The ventilator
blades are tired       of lifting dust over
      these lifeless objects
objects in disuse.exhaling.restlessness.

Friday 17 April 2020

O caterpillar, daughter of the butterfly - Svetlana Ivanova

O caterpillar, daughter of the butterfly
You too one day will soar past tower and roof,

Thursday 16 April 2020

For He was Scotch and So was She - Jean Blewett

They were a couple well-content
With what they earned and what they spent,
Cared not a whit for style's decree,
For he was Scotch, and so was she.

Wednesday 15 April 2020

Can I dream? - Ali Znaidi

Can a veiled woman sit next to a woman in a miniskirt?
Can they sit harmoniously beside each other telling tales?
Can they tell each other stories? Can they converse
without fearing that understanding between them fails?

Tuesday 14 April 2020

The rape of Helen (Lines 1-40) - Colluthus

Ye Nymphs of Troy, children of the river Xanthus,1
who oft-times leave on your father’s sands
the snoods that bind your tresses and the sacred toys of your hands,
and array you for the dance on Ida,2

Monday 13 April 2020

The Verses that Saved Sakya from Sickness: A Prayer for Pacifying the Fear of Disease - Thangtong Gyalpo

May all the diseases that disturb the minds of sentient beings,
And which result from karma and temporary conditions,
Such as the harms of spirits, illness, and the elements,
Never occur throughout the realms of this world.

Sunday 12 April 2020

The Vision: (Katia: Easter Sunday, 1916) - Katharine Tynan

She had a vision in the dark
Ere the first lark from nest took flight;
She saw her own son from fierce strife
Win to new Life and new Delight.

Saturday 11 April 2020

if you let me go with you - Olvido García Valdés

if you let me go with you into the night,
in the dark hour of the metro, before
dawn, if I could take in,

Friday 10 April 2020

Do we place you in a tomb? - Andrew King

Do we place you in a tomb, Loving One?
Do we wrap God’s saving love in funeral spices?
Having seen justice pierced, truth undone,
corruption’s blade red-edged by power’s devices

Wednesday 8 April 2020

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Golden volumes - Heinrich Rantzau

Golden volumes! richest treasures!
Objects of delicious pleasures!

Monday 6 April 2020

Project Report - Christian Morgenstern

To get this research undertook
I bought a needle and the BOOK,

Sunday 5 April 2020

Sonnet IX - Carlo Maggi

Ah  Holy Lord, will e'er that daybreak shine,
Which of thy grace shall quite my soul assure?
These fearful doubtings which I yet endure
Toward my best Father, — tempt me to repine.

Saturday 4 April 2020

Tissue - Imtiaz Dharker

Paper that lets the light
shine through, this
is what could alter things.
Paper thinned by age or touching,

Friday 3 April 2020

Those Who I Love - Chung Ho-seung

I do not love those who do not have their shades.
I do not love those who do not love their shades.

Thursday 2 April 2020

Guinea Woman - Lorna Goodison

Great grandmother
was a guinea woman
wide eyes turning
the corners of her face
could see behind her
her cheeks dusted with
a fine rash of jet-bead wars
that itched when the rain set up.

Wednesday 1 April 2020

Song of noble grief - Migjeni

Oh, noble grief of the suffering soul
That bursts out in the free verses...
Did you hope the world to console
And prettify life's reverses?

Tuesday 31 March 2020

Monday 30 March 2020

After a long hard decade, Miranda asks for a poem about feijoas - Emma Neale

Small hard green breasts budding on a young tree
that doesn’t want them, can’t think how to dance
if it has to put up with these;

Sunday 29 March 2020

Aures Ad Nostras Deitatis Preces - Anon

God, of thy pity, unto us thy children
Bend down thine ear in thine own lovingkindness,
And all thy people's prayers and vows ascending
Hear, we beseech thee.

Saturday 28 March 2020

Ghazel - Nesimi

Yea, every dulcet speech o’ thine is e’en a pearl of lustrous ray;
Both sun and moon are moths that round thy Face’s taper flit and play.

Friday 27 March 2020

Evening - Jeppe Aakjær

        Still, my heart, now sets the sun,
While the moor is resting,
        Herds now homeward are begun,
And the stork is nesting.
        Still, my heart, now sets the sun.

Thursday 26 March 2020

Wednesday 25 March 2020

Woman - Kazi Nazrul Islam

I sing the song
of equality;
In my view gender difference
is essentially a triviality.
Everything that is great in the world,
all the works, beneficial and good,
half must be credited to woman,
and to man half only we should.

Tuesday 24 March 2020

Autumn Evening - Viggo Stuckenberg

A tower stands by the edge of a wood, an old weathered tower with moss and creepers growing across the peepholes, with green moss in the cracks and corners, and withered woodbine hanging like stiff, dry hair down over the red stone. High up on the east side is the only window in the crumbling walls.

Monday 23 March 2020

Would I were free as are my dreams - August von Platen-Hallermünde

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!

Sunday 22 March 2020

Golden light, serene and bright - N. F. S. Grundtvig

Golden light, serene and bright,
The sky is now adorning;
As sleeping child in mother's arm,
My God has shielded me from harm;
I thank him for the morning.

Saturday 21 March 2020

Saving A Train - William Topaz McGonagall

'Twas in the year of 1869, and on the 19th of November,
Which the people in Southern Germany will long remember,
The great rain-storm which for twenty hours did pour down,
That the rivers were overflowed and petty streams all around.

Friday 20 March 2020

I am the City's Child - Anton Wildgans

I am the City's child. The others frown
and poke their nose at children from the town:
they say we have no home where we belong.
It's true, no forest whispered in our prattle
and all we heard was flagstones rattle -
and yet, beloved city, you're my song.

Thursday 19 March 2020

On Justice and Governing (III) - Saadi Shirazi

There lived a king, I’ve heard, for justice famed,
Who wore a dress of coarse material framed;
“Illustrious king! this robe (a courtier said)
Doth not beseem thee, wear a rich brocade”;

Wednesday 18 March 2020

Angst - Emil Aarestrup

Hold tighter round me
With your round arms;
Hold on, while your heart
Still has blood and warmth.

Tuesday 17 March 2020

The Sleep-walker - Maurice Rollinat

With his hat on his head and his cane in his hand,
A black morning-coat hugging his stiff bony frame,
He strode this way and that on the edge of the roof
Like an automaton, superhumanly spry.

Monday 16 March 2020

In Silence - Kamini Roy

Like a fortress sadness filled
Not even washed away by the tireless flow of tear drops
How much pain resides in the dense hard snow
That can never be melted by tears

Sunday 15 March 2020

The Life to come - Rāmprasād Sen

Think awhile, Brothers, of what will be after death.
This is the question that all debate

Saturday 14 March 2020

Father’s Dark Ship (after Hesiod) - Kris Hemensley

Dear brother
                    I can’t sing you a song
about the ways of the world just now

Friday 13 March 2020

Vanity - Daniel Naborowski

The world adheres to vanity,
And craves all earthly property.

Thursday 12 March 2020

Knowledge should mean a full grasp of knowledge - Yunus Emre

Knowledge should mean a full grasp of knowledge
Knowledge means to know yourself, heart and soul.
If you have failed to understand yourself,
Then all of your reading has missed its call.

Tuesday 10 March 2020

Colour - John Blight

What need to paint a world for this keen man?
Who, blind now, knows its oceans in such words
As “sounding,” “leagues and leagues” and "seagulls”;

Monday 9 March 2020

Beowulf (lines 1-52) - Anonymous

So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.

Sunday 8 March 2020

Vondel's Lucifer (Act II, lines 35-76) - Joost van den Vondel

Belzebub:
O! Stadtholder of God's superior Powers,
Alas! we hear too well, amid the praise
Of choristers, a discord that makes sad
The feast eterne. The charge of Gabriel
Is clear. It needs no tongue of Cherubim
To unfold its sense. Nor was there need to send
Apollion below, a nearer view
To gain of Adam's realm beneath the moon.

Saturday 7 March 2020

The Abode of Peace - Arif Khudairi

At dawn
walking alone
in the street
as Bandar
Seri Begawan
was asleep

Friday 6 March 2020

The vineyard - Dritëro Agolli

The rows of crates are lined up in the vineyard,
Crates where raki and exquisite wines lie sleeping,

Thursday 5 March 2020

Today I became a man - James Julius Catalyn

Today I became a man.
I experienced the realisation
Of a setting
Of mind, body and soul.

Wednesday 4 March 2020

Second raid on the Turkmān Hazāras - Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muhammad Bābur

They saw the blackness of the foe;
Stood idle-handed and amazed
I arriving, went swift that way,
Pressed on with shout, "Move on! move on!"
I wanted to hurry my men on,
To make them stand up to the foe.

Tuesday 3 March 2020

Norwegian love song - Peter Andreas Heiberg

The bright red sun in ocean slept;
Beneath a pine-tree Gunild wept,
And ey'd the hills with silver crown'd,
And listen'd to each little sound
That stirr'd on high.

Monday 2 March 2020

Infancy - Jens Baggesen

The»e was a time, and I recal it well,
When my whole frame was but an ell in height;
Oh! when I think of that, my warm tears swell,
And therefore in the memory I delight.

Sunday 1 March 2020

Show me the way - Nnorom Azuonye

Dazed and lost in the maze of a frightening life
I grope in its dark paths like a blind man thrown
into a crowded marketplace of searing strife
ablaze with discordant voices of sorrowing men.

Saturday 29 February 2020

Bearslayer: Canto I - The Revelation of Bearslayer (Scene 1) - Andrejs Pumpurs

Scene 1: The Council of the Baltic gods

The gods gather
In azure vaults of heaven soaring bright,
In lofty castles filled with endless joy,
The God of Thunder, Perkons, dwells in light,
And pleasure knows whose sweetness cannot cloy.

Friday 28 February 2020

Black of my eye - Abay Kunanbayev

Black of my eye
Frame of my mind
Drink never dry
Love of my Life

Thursday 27 February 2020

Love - Sir Walter Scott

And said I that my limbs were old,
And said I that my blood was cold,
And that my kindly fire was fled,
And my poor withered heart was dead,
  And that I might not sing of love?—

Wednesday 26 February 2020

Helsinki, 1940 - Anselm Hollo

exploding, shattering, burning

big lights in the sky

Tuesday 25 February 2020

Spring Outlook - Du Fu

Nations are smashed,
mountains and rivers remain.

Monday 24 February 2020

The Mirror - Floarea Ţuţuianu

This mirror no longer recognizes me
it laughs a laugh that’s not mine

Sunday 23 February 2020

The royal banner floats on high - Venantius Fortunatus

Vexilla Regis Produent

The royal banner floats on high,
The Cross is gleaming in the sky,
The Word, by whom all flesh was made,
Himself made flesh is there displayed.

Saturday 22 February 2020

To Him - Gómez de Avellaneda

No bonds withhold,—for all that held are broken;
So heaven ordained,—and blessèd be its name
The bitter chalice I have drained in token,
And now is peace with nothing more to claim.

Friday 21 February 2020

Song of the Fire - Elena Văcărescu

I consumed the deep, green forest,
      With all its songs;
And now the songs of the forest,
      All sing aloud in me.

Thursday 20 February 2020

The Earth - Kadyr Myrza Ali

Now I’ve found my yurt a place on the globe,
the earth’s ordeals are likewise mine.

Wednesday 19 February 2020

Tuesday 18 February 2020

My Testament - Juliusz Słowacki

I lived with you, I grieved, and many a tear I shed.
In truth, I never did a noble soul defy.
Now it is time for me to go and join the dead.
Seems like it’s joy I leave on earth – so sad am I.

Monday 17 February 2020

The Rise of the Zebra - Tomaž Šalamun

The rise of the zebra hurts the zebra.
As if she would breathe fire.
If  we put natural gold and the black blue into
the loaf of  bread it bursts.

Sunday 16 February 2020

The Light of Your Way - Symeon the New Theologian

Holy are you, O Lord, holy, blessed and One.
Holy are you, and generous

for you have flooded my heart
     with the light of your way,

Saturday 15 February 2020

The Shining Hours (IV) - Emile Verhaeren

The sky has unfolded into night,
and the moon seems to watch
over the sleeping silence.

Friday 14 February 2020

I Am Going to Sleep - Alfonsina Storni

Teeth of flowers, hairnet of dew,
Hands of herbs, you, perfect wet nurse,
Prepare the earthly sheets for me
And the down quilt of weeded moss.

Thursday 13 February 2020

A sincere man am I - José Martí

A sincere man am I
Born where the palm trees grow,
And I long before I die
My soul’s verses to bestow.

Wednesday 12 February 2020

Sonnet XXV - George Santayana

As in the midst of battle there is room
For thoughts of love, and in foul sin for mirth;

Tuesday 11 February 2020

14 • metaphor - Chen Yuhong

you try to piece together
a thousand machine-cut, polished
pieces of moon

Monday 10 February 2020

Mathematical Plane - Enes Halilović

From that side there is Nothing.
It intrigued me, Nothing pursued me,
that’s why I jumped over the Wall.

Sunday 9 February 2020

Mirror, My Mirror - Obed R. Souza

Mirror, my mirror!
My self- made image God!
It is you I adore!

Saturday 8 February 2020

Ecbátana - Sophus Niels Christen Claussen

I remember that spring, when my heart in its time
conceived the dream and searched for a rhyme,
whose glory should sink, I know not from where,
as when the sun set in Ecbátana.

Friday 7 February 2020

Summer - Abay Kunanbayev

When summer in the mountains gains its peak,
When gaily blooming flowers begin to fade,
When nomads from the sunshine refuge seek
Beside a rapid river, in a glade,
Then in the grassy meadows here and there
The salutatory neighing can be heard
Of varicouloured stallion and mare.

Thursday 6 February 2020

Pitchblende - Robert Schindel

And while the outside world rattles
with endless rubble, juddering until,
slamming doors and knocking chandeliers,
it crumples into the core of trembling heart,

Wednesday 5 February 2020

Infacto - Mtendere Alice Kishindo

Things that make me, others see
The things that don’t, embody me
In flimsy moments I lose my god
In righteous times he finds me
In constant prostration I lie
As age leers at me
Two, three more years
Come and get me before I die

Tuesday 4 February 2020

Abyss of silence - William Khalipwina Mpina

As the voiceless voice breaks the quietness
In my silent heart in the abyss of stillness
Likewise the October heat rupturing
The whirlwind in the corridors rolling

Monday 3 February 2020

Colloque Sentimentale - Paul Verlaine

In the old park, frozen and bare,
Two forms but now have wandered there.

Sunday 2 February 2020

Consecrated - St Catherine of Sienna

All has been consecrated.
The creatures in the forest know this,

Saturday 1 February 2020

The House Beautiful - Robert Louis Stevenson

A naked house, a naked moor,
A shivering pool before the door,
A garden bare of flowers and fruit,
And poplars at the garden foot;
Such is the place that I live in,
Bleak without and bare within.

Friday 31 January 2020

Feminine Arithmetic - Charles Graham Halpine

LAURA
ON me he shall ne’er put a ring,
  So, mamma, ’t is vain to take trouble—
For I was but eighteen in spring,
  While his age exactly is double.

Thursday 30 January 2020

Concerning the Degrees in the Ken of Unity - Sheykhi

Come, heart, if thou the loftiest aim desire,
Know, soul, if thou the Utmost Goal enquire,
That Ken of Unity the loftiest is,
The utmost limit of all saintship this.

Wednesday 29 January 2020

Confidence - Max Nordau

Said the State to the prelate your pay we will withhold.
Smiled the priest in reply, I scorn your pow’er and gold,

Tuesday 28 January 2020

when lights go out - Mongane Wally Serote

(for some who are in south african jails)

1
it is with the shadows of night
when the sun comes and goes
the moon comes and goes
that we ask, in weary voices, which fall into the depth of the gulf:
how does it feel to be you
watching and waiting
to feel the heavy weight of every minute come followed by another
and nothing
even everything written in blood
says nothing about how we could wake up tomorrow and build a day

Monday 27 January 2020

Living Space - Imtiaz Dharker

There are just not enough
straight lines. That
is the problem.

Sunday 26 January 2020

And after death the judgement - Rāmprasād Sen

O my Mind, what charge shall I bring against thee?
Thou knowest how to say śa and ba1,
but knowest not the names of Durgā and of Śiva.
Jilipīs, khājās, luchīs, mandās, sarbhājās2
all these hast thou eaten.

Saturday 25 January 2020

I am Different - Michele 'Mickey' Hetherington

Nothing fits me, and it’s not about my clothes.
Nothing fits me, and no one even knows.

Friday 24 January 2020

Yellow Sorry - Yuka Tsukagoshi

Blight blight borderline
I've been given a yellow apology.

Wednesday 22 January 2020

To Leuconoe - Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim

Pluck the roses while they bloom,
Autumn is not spring!
Snatch each hour as it flies,
Time is on the wing!

Tuesday 21 January 2020

Popularity - Sung Yü

The eagle is king of the birds; among fishes
Leviathan holds the first place.

Monday 20 January 2020

20 - Cees Nooteboom

Of all rhythms he found day and night
the most beautiful. One, two, and thank God
no three. That only came later, when
everything was over, a dark number

Sunday 19 January 2020

Dayspring of eternity - Christian Knorr von Rosenroth

Dayspring of eternity,
Light of Light, from God proceeding,
On this morn we turn to Thee,
For Thy radiant brightness pleading.
Let Thy beams dispel with might
Sin's dark night.

Saturday 18 January 2020

Shadows, Nothing More - José María Contursi

I want to slowly open my veins,
to shed every drop of my blood at your feet…
so I can prove to you
that I could not love you more
and then…so I can die.

Friday 17 January 2020

Letter to Time - Claribel Alegría

Dear Sir:
I am writing this letter on my birthday.
I received your present. I don’t like it.

Thursday 16 January 2020

Vincent and the Orient - Lorna Goodison

The blackbird in the bougainvillea bush
brushes against the powder blue sky.
The carnelian froth of the flowering tree,
and the way that this picture
framed itself inside my window,

Wednesday 15 January 2020

Tuesday 14 January 2020

Basic Overhaul - Nijole Miliauskaite

in a frenzy I turn the whole house upside down
from basement to attic, amazing myself, I can't stop wondering
what imp has possessed me, it's really
so ludicrous

Monday 13 January 2020

We Are Never Too Old for Loving - Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkovitz

We are never too old for loving.
Happy is he, who does not deny it
And strides through fate as if it were nothing,
For, by love, will he always be guided.

Sunday 12 January 2020

Letter on Torment - ‎Rastko Nemanjić

I blended into witless mob
and levelled with them,
being destitute of good deeds
and rich in desire,

Saturday 11 January 2020

The springtime of our lives is brief - Petar II Petrović-Njegoš

The springtime of our lives is brief,
A scorching summer follows behind,
A turbulent autumn and a freezing winter;

Friday 10 January 2020

Bird Shadow - Tanaka Ikuko

Winter morning a little bird on the road
Perhaps shot
through the hole by its eye
Turning it over, I touch yellow breast down

Thursday 9 January 2020

21 - Dejido Bejide

It was formless, weightless, and faceless
Like a vile scene that plagues the head of an infant,

Wednesday 8 January 2020

Incursion of the Crimean Tartars - Anonymous

Not a mighty cloud has covered the sky,
Nor mighty thunders have thundered:
Whither travels the dog, Crimea's tsar? —
To the mighty tsarate of Muscovy.

Tuesday 7 January 2020

Discussion of Venus - Robert Schindel

Summery calm the ocean in the creek
I am nothing, but underclouds
Are swallowing the evening star. The morning
Light derails in the eyelash wreaths
Of so many dream digesters
Friends around me

Monday 6 January 2020

Verses addressed to a kindred tribe - Alfadhel ibn Alabas

Why thus to passion give the rein?
Why seek your kindred tribe to wrong?
Why strive to drag to light again
The fatal feud entomb 'd so long?

Sunday 5 January 2020

O Christ, protect me! - Aonghus of the Divinity

O Christ, protect me!
How can I know your power?
Your peace I need now
Branch of fairest flower!

Saturday 4 January 2020

Like An Angel - Ehsan Sehgal

You are like an angel;
You have lovely heart, decent thoughts

Friday 3 January 2020

Ghazal - Hasan Sijzi of Dehli

The universe has no one to be one with;
Out of hundreds of watchers,
not one can see.

Thursday 2 January 2020

Wildflowers and Hothouse-plants - Henrik Johan Ibsen

"Good Heavens, man, what a freak of taste!
What blindness to form and feature!
The girl's no beauty, and might be placed
As a hoydenish kind of creature."

Wednesday 1 January 2020

It's about time - Bruce Levitan

So we enter a new decade
but what does it mean:
January 1st 2020?