Venice masks

Sunday, 9 March 2025

Beauty Will Save the World - Tihomir Jančovski

The day was nothing special, an ordinary rainy day.
I didn’t know that I would be afraid to fall asleep in the evening.
For sometimes, I’m dying at night.
I have died in the dreams of others and in those of my own.
So, it would not be the first time.

Saturday, 8 March 2025

Lakansyèl - Émile Roumer

In the darkest of nights,
A rainbow emerges,
Arching across the sky,
A symbol of hope.

Thursday, 6 March 2025

Cowichan Bay - Charles Van Gorkom

At Cowichan Bay,
On a hot day,
Thankfully,              
I sit in the shade on an old wharf.

Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Yola so far - Eduar Ramos

This letter is for you,
grandma Yola.
I love you so much grandmother
and from that day where you took
me to live with you.
I couldn’t live with my step dad Tono.
Because my mom Yolany
went to the United States
so that I and my brothers
Would have a better life.

Tuesday, 4 March 2025

untitled - Henry Parland

I have drunk mineral water at Kämp
and applied Eau de Cologne at Gamla Passagen
and called
to say I’ll be back at 1:10.

Monday, 3 March 2025

In an Oppressed Country - Gerhard Fritsch

They turn stiff as scarecrows,
angry, bent, in the middle of the field,
if someone drives past along the road.
One of them, the
people in motion.

Sunday, 2 March 2025

The Hymn of Glory - Judah He-Hasid

Sweet hymns shall be my chant and woven songs,
For Thou art all for which my spirit longs—
To be within the shadow of Thy hand
And all Thy mystery to understand.

Saturday, 1 March 2025

Sisters, you sold your jewellery - Hawa Jibril

Sisters, you sold your jewellery
 
Depriving yourselves,
Enriching the struggle.

Friday, 28 February 2025

Journey's End - Jónas Hallgrímsson

The star of love
over Steeple Rock
is cloaked in clouds of night.
It laughed, once, from heaven
on the lad grieving
deep in the dark valley.

Thursday, 27 February 2025

No Life - Aminath Neena

Where there is no respect
for the might
of the pen,
there is no life

Wednesday, 26 February 2025

Being a Palauan - Hermana Ramarui

Palauan, not a thing,
But a state of being,
Is capability
And is freedom.

Tuesday, 25 February 2025

The Lake of Van (1) - Raffi

Speak, O lake! why are thy waters silent?
Wilt thou not lament with luckless me?
Move, ye zephyrs, move the rippling wavelets
With this lake my tears shall mingled be.

Monday, 24 February 2025

O My Libya - Laila Neihoum

We’ll go with you wherever you may go.
Our palm trees blossom from your secret springs.
Your face redeems us.

Sunday, 23 February 2025

Miracle - Seamus Heaney

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in —

Saturday, 22 February 2025

Hour of sadness - Israel Emiot

Hour of sadness
rain all the time
everything close
and full of goodbyes;

Friday, 21 February 2025

Colour Me Blue - Nicole Grandaho

If melodies be your magic,
conjure a tune to which this heart could leap
maybe then would she dance her pains away.
Cast upon trees soulful lyrics
make them bend with the weight of their essence
maybe then would you write this torment right.

Thursday, 20 February 2025

Egg Of Light - Frankétienne

Every day I employ the dialect of mad cyclones.
I speak the lunacy of contrary winds.
Every evening I use the patois of furious rains.
I say the fury of water is spilling over.
Every night I talk the language of hysterical tempests
to the Caribbean islands. I speak the hysteria of the sea in rut.

Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Fountain - Astrid Cabral

Fountain:
Somersault of rain
In a mortar of stone.

Monday, 17 February 2025

Kwibuka - Delalorm Sesi Semabia

You were my brother
When the rains fell fast,
Racing down for their share of the scavenge
Which the river had reddened itself with.

Sunday, 16 February 2025

Vondel's Lucifer (Act II, lines 414-492) - Joost van den Vondel

Belial:
God's Stadtholder doth serve himself with us
On high.

Apollion:
               We fly together from his bow
Like speeding arrows.

Saturday, 15 February 2025

After the Flood - Dora Wilcox

Here, in this bend of the creek, in the rushes and long lush grasses,
Wild white violets nestle, and musk in the water- weeds;
Here there is stillness, and shelter — for the wandering wind as it passes
Is caught by the tall green flax, and dies in the raupo and reeds.

Friday, 14 February 2025

Elfarvísur - Einarr Skúlason

Many a man fell from the bloody prow of the sea-steed into the deep; 
abundant nourishment was given to the Glaumr of the troll-woman; 
carrion drifted before the current. 

Thursday, 13 February 2025

The Gallery - Elena Alexieva

I am whispering in your ear:
we are passing, thunderously,
through the tunnel where
this girl was...

Wednesday, 12 February 2025

Talk to me - Fattú Djakité

You're mad at me, I don't even know why
Talk to me so we can make peace
You're mad at me, I don't even know why
Talk to me so we can make peace
 

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

A Visit to Grass Town - Efua Sutherland

We’ve never seen a caterpillar just like this. 
It seems to have a horn on its hairy head.

Monday, 10 February 2025

Way - Tristan Tzara

What is this road that separates us,
Across which I extend the hand of thought?

Sunday, 9 February 2025

Munajat - ‛Arif

O Lord, to thee is never a beginning, neither end; 
Thy mercy's ocean, limitless, doth over all extend. 

Saturday, 8 February 2025

Just a moment - Debebe Seifu

Is it in the power of angels
         or mankind
too grant me just a moment
         out of time?

Friday, 7 February 2025

Actions - Divya Rainjana Suraindiran

These socks won’t warm you,
and neither will that sweater;
Your sorrow won’t calm you,
and you won’t feel any better.

Thursday, 6 February 2025

In writing - Conceição Evaristo

In writing hunger
With empty-palmed hands
when the hole-stomach
expels famished desires
there is, in this demented movement
the dream-hoping
for any leftovers.

Wednesday, 5 February 2025

My eyes melt - Louise Vella

My eyes melt
with the incongruence of flowers
stringing in pairs
and threes
washed by the night rain
glad to be singing lofty notes
in cloud-clad skies.

Tuesday, 4 February 2025

Poets - Antun Branko Šimić

Poets are eternal wonder in the world.
They walk the Earth and their eyes
large and mute grow near the things.

Monday, 3 February 2025

Tuna - Kumalau Tawali

Tuna you are the mirror of the blue
Tuna you are the pain in my veins
Tuna you are lord.

Sunday, 2 February 2025

Olive tree - Mersedeh Mehrtash

Ever since I was a baby
Ever since I can remember
My mother always told me
Dear child, God is not for you to see

Saturday, 1 February 2025

Ossuary VIII - Dionne Brand

Havana, Yasmine arrived one early evening,
the stem of an orange dress,
a duffle bag, limp, with no possessions

Friday, 31 January 2025

As the Days Pass - Kamini Roy

As the days pass, darkness overwhelms me
I see not the divine light; hear not that oracle
Childhood fancies, dreams I think countless
All those yearn to believe as truth…

Thursday, 30 January 2025

Poem to a Poet - Siza Nkosi

I can only bring words to the altar of your soul
Yet sometimes I have no words to offer
But when my pen sinks in the sea of my blank mind
Sounds of your poetry carry me to my highest self

Wednesday, 29 January 2025

Night Rain on the Hsiao Hsiang River - Lê Thánh Tông

Dripping, dripping in the Hsiang forest
All through the windy night
The rain falls heavy and light,

Tuesday, 28 January 2025

Monday, 27 January 2025

The radio, with its breath like a trapped bee - Kuek Taitai

We, the red and white oxen, wash our hands,
shaking our heads angrily as we walk.
At dawn we will set fire to all the camps.

Sunday, 26 January 2025

Again we hail the opening morn - Synesius

Again we hail the opening morn,
Again breaks forth the day new-born,
Which, rising in victorious might,
Chases away black-wandering night!

Saturday, 25 January 2025

Hymn to Boudiaf - Lounès Matoub

For so many years far from your country!
You revolted, you turned against tyranny
We were waiting for the new clearness from you
about what the criminals had devoured
but behind you, death rose up
guided by unforeseeable traitors
Miserable ones, may he remind you of it--  
you are the ones who lit the furnace.

Friday, 24 January 2025

Realities of Island Life - Farah Didi

narrow
wind kissed roads,
unpaved with
coral stones,
must be
swept twice daily,

Thursday, 23 January 2025

To Russia (The Overseas Ostrich) - Vladimir Mayakovsky

Here I come,
in feathers of stanzas, meter and rhyme,
an overseas ostrich, in sum,
is what I’m.
Trying, do I, my poor noggin to hide,
to deep under jangling of plumage abide.

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

There is a cave in man - Eira Stenberg

There is a cave in man,
it is where he comes from.
He does not know that.

Tuesday, 21 January 2025

Till tomorrow - Pamelia Sarah Yule

Good night! good night! — the golden day
      Has veiled its sunset beam, 
And twilight's star its beauteous ray
      Has mirrored in the stream; — 
Low voices come from vale and height, 
And murmur soft, good night! good night!

Monday, 20 January 2025

Firefly - Miho Nonaka

Something not to be painted, but set
to music, Tanizaki wrote. Dusk,
when their light is the clearest,
My husband and I walk on the grass,
smelling of beer and garlic.

Sunday, 19 January 2025

Hymn from the Heavens - Yannai

From Heaven to the Heaven of Heavens;
from the Heaven of Heavens to the Dark Clouds;
from the Dark Clouds to the Abode;
from the Abode to the Dwelling-place;
from the Dwelling-place to the Skies;
from the Skies to the Plains;
from the Plains to the height of the Throne;
and from the height of the Throne to the Chariot --

Saturday, 18 January 2025

A Flyer - Norman Erikson Pasaribu

This software will assemble a series of steps that
will guarantee you’ll be happy for the rest of your life.

Friday, 17 January 2025

The wooden Christ - Faustas Kirsa

In his fathers' home, a farmer who's a hundred 
Carves a wooden model Lord that works some wonders.

Thursday, 16 January 2025

Dog - Boris Maruna

In the bare mountains between Marbella and Ronda
That pitilessly recall our native Velebit
That could be Velebit
But aren’t Velebit
Just as I could be God
But am not God

Wednesday, 15 January 2025

In the Ashtray - Vasko Popa

A tiny sun
With yellow tobacco hair
Is burning out in the ashtray

Tuesday, 14 January 2025

My Song - Almas Ildirim

I am a lover, if my body burns in icy hell,
These fearful mountains cannot stand my inexhaustible mourning
If the angels present paradise to me
I would tell them:
I don't want paradise,
Give me my Caucasus!

Monday, 13 January 2025

If my heart - Eunice Mtavangu

If my heart could grow
You could have seen its seed
Augmenting
Pushing through the light
Ready to produce fruits.

Sunday, 12 January 2025

The Greatest Song of All - Spike Milligan

There is a song in man
There is a song in woman
And that is the child’s song.

Saturday, 11 January 2025

When I’m gone - Phusathi Liyanaarachchi

Don’t cry me a river,
When I’m gone…
as you
stare at the patterns
that my presence
has left….

Friday, 10 January 2025

A Song of Winter - Alexander Bathgate

Bird on the leafless bough. 
Summer has fled;
Bird on the leafless bough, 
Flowers are dead.

Thursday, 9 January 2025

Copenhagen Watchman's Song - Thomas Kingo

Eight o'clock
When darkness blinds the Earth,
And the day declines,
That time then us reminds 
Of death’s dark grave;
Shine on us, Jesus sweet,
At every step To the grave place,
And grant a blissful death.

Wednesday, 8 January 2025

Shepherdesses' song - Gil Vicente

Turn away your eyes from mine,
O my life and consolation! 
Wherefore fill me with such passion?

Tuesday, 7 January 2025

Frithiof Saga, Canto VI: Frithiof at Chess - Esaias Tegnér

I.
BJÖRN and FRITHIOF, both contending, 
O'er their splendid board were bending; 
Now on silver squares thick gather, 
Now on gold, the struggling foes: 

Monday, 6 January 2025

Answer to a Reproach for Drunkenness - Caliph Yazid I

Must, then, my failings from the shaft
Of anger ne'er escape ? 
And dost thou storm because I've quaffed
The water of the grape?

Sunday, 5 January 2025

Dynamic Love - Evelyn Underhill

Not to me
The Unmoved Mover of philosophy
And absolute still sum of all that is,
The God whom I adore— not this!

Saturday, 4 January 2025

To Nelson Mandela - Djibril Zakaria Sall

All is dark around me 
My ideas are gagged 
And the world works backward 
God! I am alone on the balcony of Life 

Friday, 3 January 2025

They say that the night - Zahra el Hasnaui

They say that the night
repossesses
your indigo, violet,
and cobalt tones.

Thursday, 2 January 2025

Dedication - Hermann von Gilm zu Rosenegg

Yes, you know it, dearest soulmate,
Far from you, I have such anguish
Love has made my heart so faint,
Take my thanks.