All-Pervading Poetry (Kavitako Vyapti) - Balkrishna Sama

Picking up a huge basket, a holy man

ventured out to the forest to gather poetry.

Through hills and streams, pastures and fields,

he searched every waterfall, fruit and bush,

but nowhere could he find it,

so he decided such things were out of season,

at a loss he had set off home

when he came upon an aesthete.

Book of Arda Viraf, Part II, Chapter 3 - Anonymous

And the soul of Viraf went, from the body, to the Chinwad bridge of Chakat-i-Daitik, 

and came back the seventh day, and went into the body. 

Viraf rose up, as if he arose from a pleasant sleep, thinking of Vohuman and joyful.

Magic Suitcase - Shahnaz A'lami

I took with me a suitcase,

light, very light,

Two or three sets of baby clothes,

A white georgette dress,

An indistinct photograph of my mother,

wearing a headdress,

Alone? - Mary Electa Adams

The sunlight through the open door

Comes in, and streams along the floor,

The slant rays of a falling August sun

Well-nigh throughout its sultry circuit run;

And hushed is every sound of breeze or leaf or bird,

Save the low trill of insects, past the lattice heard,

        In the dry grass

        As the hours pass.

Kathmandu - Pushpa Ratna Tuladhar

Every morning in my bathroom, 

I submerge myself in meditation, 

cleanse my bowels

and attain fresh and anew.

I flush out all the dirt and dust

through the drainage

to the distant flowing river.

My darling, we sat together - Heinrich Heine

My darling, we sat together,

We two, in our frail boat;

The night was calm o'er the wide sea

Whereon we were afloat.

 

those who stitch - Tikum Azonga

I've done stitching all my life

I've stitched maths and even Einstein

Africa - Albert Chitsanzo

Dangling the follies of crossfire

Casting the mystery of presidential elections

An Address to the River of Creation - Anonymous

O thou River, who didst create all things, 

When the great gods dug thee out, 

They set prosperity upon thy banks, 

The Quest for Joy in a Modern World - Taiwo Hassan

these days, i’m a china on the tip of a cupboard,

one push away from breaking, peace in pieces.

i see the shattered shards already, a vessel after vertigo,

that split second of silence, i perceive the flames in me.

Offspring - Vizma Belševica

In this dream, I’m the bad mother sent for,

my words: unruly bairns,

hanked to my skirts, mouths blared shut

except for the babby,

my favourite, his trembling lips stammer

submission while his milk teeth cut a rage

that gnaws his tongue to a silence

that moves me to speak:

How the granite is covered in ice - Boris Ryzhy

How the granite is covered in ice,

and a frost lies on the ground –

This town, frosted with memories,

I want to leave it for ever.

The wind returns - Li Yu

The wind returns; my little courtyard is green and overgrown,

The willows seem to have grown again this spring.

Quiet - Petar Tchouhov

Our mothers are missing –

went out to buy

something delicious

and haven’t come back

Peasant Love Songs - George Cosbuc

I.

  He

In the garden of my sweetheart

Sing two birds beautifully,

And the sun proudly shines,

And my darling sits and dreams.

One Alone - Amir Hamzah

Formed in your heart, this was your will:

Rain in cataracts, hurricanes unleashed,

All foundering, engulfed—

Your luxuriant garden now a mere ruin.

The Water Mirror - Vicente Huidobro

My mirror, a current in the nights,

Becomes a brook and leaves my room.

Rain Rain Go Away - Farhan Ejat

Rain rain go away

Come again another day

Come in June or come in May

But please don’t come, not today

I Write with Words That Have Shadow but Don’t Shelter - Guillermo Sucre

I write with words that have shadow but don’t shelter

no sooner do I start this page insomnia burns it

Cannibal - Léon Laleau

This savage wish on certain days

To mingle blows and blood

With love's motions,

A Riddle - Tedi López Mills

Now they kill them:

see the corpse

bloated in the ditch.

Now they banish them from the city:

see them running towards the tollbooth

On the shore - Sándor Kányádi

The band's drum out-thumps the sea,

neon outshines all the stars;

Hail Thou the World's Salvation - Bernard of Clairvaux

Hail thou, the world's salvation, 

Hail Jesus kind and sweet, 

Before thy Rood in gratitude 

I bow and clasp thy feet. 

To the Princess Leonora When Forbidden by Her Physicians to Sing - Torquato Tasso

Oh! ’tis a merciless decree,

  That to the envied world denies

The sound of that sweet voice which we

  So much admire, so dearly prize!

Do you know - Helen Adamson

To you, who has fulfilled all my beautiful wishes,

I breathe slowly, because it doesn't feel real

this air around us, warmly touching your lips.

What am I feeling, what am I thinking, there is someone in my heart?

 

Chopstick Diplomacy - Mbuh Tennu Mbuh

Such dragon embraces 

of a postcolonial scam that insult

the memory of a people under twenty-first century noon, 

Book of the Beds of the Spices, Garden Bed IV:6 - Joseph ben Tanchum ha-Yerushalmi

Make no oath to torture me, my love,

for how I will turn you away.

Grammar and Medicine - Agathias Scholasticus

A thriving doctor sent his son to school 

To gain some knowledge, should he prove no fool; 

Your country - Antoine Abel

Your country

Is studded with mountains,

Life (Vita Nostra Plena Bellis) - Alain de L'Isle

A battle-field is life, 

Where sorrow comes and strife 

Our strength to try; 

Each morning dawns with fear, 

Each evening brings the tear, 

And death is nigh. 

The Blind Boy - Sagara Palansuriya

They say, flowers are gorgeous and are of lovely shades

The things they speak of as they can see

I don’t understand, mother, so here I am to learn

Please explain to me, I don’t know these