Venice masks

Friday, 22 November 2024

Mentem Mortalia Tangunt - Manmohan Ghose

Now lonely is the wood:
No flower now lingers, none!
The virgin sisterhood
Of roses, all are gone;
Now Autumn sheds her latest leaf;
And in my heart is grief.

Thursday, 21 November 2024

The Stragglers - Carl Spitteler

"Have all the bell-notes come back to me?"
"All but the notes that stray farthest - three."
"And which are those that return so late?"
"The full-toned, the searching, the delicate."

Wednesday, 20 November 2024

You Had Given Your Word - Candan Erçetin

You had given your word to me
To stay here always by my me
We swore all this this didn't we?
That whatever happened, we would be together

Tuesday, 19 November 2024

Last Song of the Exile - Miguel Teurbe Tolón

I.
Hard my path on earth is closed;
Light is dead within my heart.
Star of Hope! thou art gone down;
Clay and spirit now must part!

Monday, 18 November 2024

The Deep Song - Georg Trakl

From deep night I was released.
My soul is astonished in immortality,
My soul listens over space and time
To the melody of eternity!

Sunday, 17 November 2024

Divine creator of the light - Gregory the Great

Divine creator of the light, 
Who, bringing forth the golden ray, 
Didst join the morning with the night 
And call the blessed union day;

Saturday, 16 November 2024

Poem V - Pablo Neruda

For you to hear,
my words
sometimes grow thin
as seagull tracks on the beach.

Thursday, 14 November 2024

I have seen Yiddish words - Moyshe Kulbak

I have seen Yiddish words like small flames, like small flames,
like sparks, risen from dark ore.

Wednesday, 13 November 2024

When poetry opens her doors - Mario Benedetti

When poetry opens her doors
One feels like time embraces us
A gratuitous and novel truth

Tuesday, 12 November 2024

Breakfast - Dan Slobin

Making my breakfast
I look out through the kitchen window:
two deer
peacefully munching at my garden.

Monday, 11 November 2024

A list of questions to measure love - Katrina Dybzynska

I
I know you wash the clothes not by the color
but by the type of fabric. 

Sunday, 10 November 2024

A celebration of peace (for Adam Curle) - Konai Helu Thaman

 today we come together
 to read and sing of peace
 lay aside our differences
 rise and greet the breeze

Saturday, 9 November 2024

Longing Soothed - Friedrich Rückert

Bathed in the golden evening glow,
How solemn the forests stand!
Into the gentle voices of little birds
Breathes the wafted evening breeze.

Friday, 8 November 2024

A Masnavī Satirizing a Barber - Ghanī Kashmīrī

1. My every hair’s a tongue standing to order.
In verse I now describe a certain barber.

Thursday, 7 November 2024

Litany for Dictatorships - Stephen Vincent Benét

For all those beaten, for the broken heads,
The fosterless, the simple, the oppressed,
The ghosts in the burning city of our time ...

Wednesday, 6 November 2024

Balige - Sitor Situmorang

I feel like nothing's changed 
in this small city 
though it's half a century since 
I first entered school here

Tuesday, 5 November 2024

There is slavery in Mauritania - Alexander K. Opicho

There are black slaves in Mauritania
Indentured Patel Slaves in India
Black Slaves in Mali
Black Slaves in Nigeria
Black Slaves in Niger
White Slaves in Russia
Muslim slaves in Senegal
There are black slaves in Mauritania.

Monday, 4 November 2024

Sunday, 3 November 2024

Holy Spirit, come with light - N. F. S. Grundtvig

Holy Spirit, come with light,
Break the dark and gloomy night
With Thy day unending.
Help us with a joyful lay
Greet the Lord’s triumphant day
Now with might ascending.

Saturday, 2 November 2024

The Master Brewer - Ladé Wosornu

There is a distillery in our brains
Its cane and malt, its hops and grains
Are the stuff our lives are made of.

Friday, 1 November 2024

Where I am from - Ammar AlShukry

I am from where kids smile sweet
And Niles meet, ⁣
Where the sun always shines
And grandfathers tell tales of golden times, ⁣