Venice masks

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.