Linschoten

Another short one by Eichendorff which I like:

Schweigt der Menschen laute Lust:
Rauscht die Erde wie in Träumen
Wunderbar mit allen Bäumen,
Was dem Herzen kaum bewusst,
Alte Zeiten, linde Trauer,
Und es schweifen leise Schauer
Wetterleuchtend durch die Brust.


English version (for singers; it at least gives an idea of what the poem is about):

When men's loud joys fall silent,
The earth rustles as if in dreams,
Wondrously, with all its trees,
What the heart has hardly known:
Times long past, gentle griefs;
And there sweep soft shudders
Like lightning through the breast.



Toast

Auf das Wohlsein der Poeten,
Die nicht schillern und nicht goethen,
Durch die Welt in Lust und Nöten
Segelnd frisch auf eigne Böten!

Anna James

Theognis again:

20. [lines 983-988]

Let us devote our hearts to merriment and feasting
While the enjoyment of delights still brings pleasure.
For quick as thought does radiant youth pass by;
Nor does the rush of horses prove to be swifter
When carrying their master to the labor of men's spears
With furious energy, taking joy in the plain that brings forth wheat.

Linschoten

Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

(Sir John Harington)

The Marriage Market

These panting damsels, dancing for their lives,
Are only maidens waltzing into wives.
Those smiling matrons are appraisers sly,
Who regulate the dance, the squeeze, the sigh,
And each base cheapening buyer having chid,
Knock down their daughters to the noblest bid!

(Anon.)

Chookie

The Dromedary


The Dromedary is a cheerful bird:
I cannot say the same about the Kurd.

(Hillaire Belloc)

Anna James

Theognis of Megara

[lines 219-220]
Do not distress yourself too much at the turbulence of your fellow citizens,
Kyrnos, but walk down the middle of the road, as I do.

Moschus, C2 BC

A song of woe, of woe, Sicilian Muses.

The nightingales and all the swallows,
which once he delighted, which one he taught to speak,
sat upon the branches and cried aloud in antiphons,
and they that answered said “Lament, ye mourners, and so will we.”

Anna James

This one is from "Thousand and One Night". I just bought this delicious editing in 3 volumes, all the stories it.....mmmmm. Now I ave to exchange the several different editions that I have with different stories in, since the new one is not abrided. I don't know how it where you guys are, but in this economy the exchange bookstores are not doing so well and are not taking many books...sadly.

Breath of the east wind, when you pass by my dear one's land,
Bring them my greetings in full measure,
Tell them that I'm pledged to love,
And that the passion of all lovers is surpassed by mine.
It may be that a breath of pity will blow from them,
And so revive, on one instant, my dried bones.

from Night 820.

Anna James

From "1001 Nights" - Night 793

Time has pitied me,
Regretting my long distress,
It had given my my desire,
Removing all my fears.
It's past sins are forgiven,
Including the white parting of my hair.

Linschoten

The Embankment

by T. E. Hulme

(The fantasia of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night.)

Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,
In the flash of gold heels on the hard pavement.
Now see I
That warmth’s the very stuff of poesy.
Oh, God, make small
The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,
That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.

Anna James

From 1001 Nights - Night 831:

Be patient, whether time is sweet or bitter,
And know that God fulfills His purposes.
There is many a night of cares, painful as a boil.
I have endured till a successful dawn.
Misfortunes pass us by and disappear,
And then we never think of them again.

Anna James

Can I put here a fragment form a drama? Sophocles, Antigone:

When people hatch their mischief in the dark
their minds often convict them in advance,
betraying their treachery. How I despise
a person caught committing evil acts
who then desires to glorify the crime.