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.

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.

Almost without Noticing - Eira Stenberg

Almost without noticing,

without thinking, it seems,

you've arrived where you see far.

trees and the silence around us - Japhia Beckford

Trees are big

Trees are small

But no country has them all

I Hear Your Voice - Francisco García Jiménez

Afraid of dying,

longing to be alive—

dreams or reality?

Post Scriptum - Toeti Heraty

I want to write

an erotic poem

in which raw words, unadorned,

become beautiful

The Om - Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming

My Tanty used to sing/pray

evening ragas to the Earth Goddess

morning oblations to the Sun God

Voices - Zahra el Hasnaui

To all the Sahrawi voices locked in graves and jails;

those voices that, nevertheless, bring down more than walls.

Perhaps you think your voice does not reach me,

that the evil sirocco carries it off

before it fills my senses.

Perhaps you dream that the echo is mute

the mirror blind and your lines

cowardice.

Your clones pile up,

and in a riot they fight

in black and white

to leave my throat.

Sometimes I spit,

almost always I gobble

down wrath and blood,

and peace and dirt.

I would like to chain

your hands to mine

and swing open the roof

top up to the stars.

I would like to wash

the anger from your eyes.

Thirty voices

thirty times

repeat the history,

because no one or thing

ever could or can tame

the voices that brush

against the soul.

---

Zahra el Hasnaui (born 1964) Western Sahara

Translated by Joseph Mulligan

Source: Poems for the Millennium, Vol 4, edited by Pierre Joris and Habib Tengour, University of California Press, 2012

Halley's Comet - Jaroslav Seifert

I saw nothing at that moment,

             nothing but strangers' backs,

heads under their hats craning.

The street was crowded.

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.

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.

A bird clock - Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir

i walk slower

today

than yesterday

The Language Issue - Núala Ní Dhomhnaill

I place my hope on the water

in this little boat

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.

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

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.

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."

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

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.

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.

In the midst of life, behold - Notker Balbulus

In the midst of life, behold

Death has girt us round.

Whom for help then shall we pray,

Where shall grace be found?

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

I Scarce Believed - Marjory Nicholls

I wondered once, when life, so it did seem,

Was holding to me hands where gifts were laid,

Laughing Blue - Adil Latefi

Maybe these words make no sense

Maybe they mean everything

Your voice - Stevan Tontic

Always after three, the most seven days

Your voice for a minute

On Belgrade’s nightly telephone.

Total - Enes Halilović

The wall.

The wall unbuilt.

The wall built.

The wall added.

The wall ruined.

a chair - Reinaldo Perez Só

this is a chair

just a chair

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!