Poet's Corner

[Ringo]

This is what the English language looked like at the time of the early 13th century.

Excerpt from the poem The Owl and the Nightingale

Ich habbe iherd, and soþ hit is,
þe mon mot beo wel storre-wis,
þat wite innoh of wucche þinge kume,
so þu seist þe is iwune.
Hwat canstu, wrecche þing, of storre,
bute þat þu bihauest hi feorre?

Can anyone read and understand this?

 

[expat500]

To be silent the whole day, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself. ~Henry Miller

 

[expat500]

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

JRR Tolkien.

 

[expat500]

 

[Ringo]

My translation from russian . A poem by Ion Degen, a soviet veteran tank driver of World War II.

In the middle of agony, my dear friend
You in vain don't call mother or God
Let me warm up my hands, you woul'd understand,
Over puddle of your steaming blood
Do not cry, do not groan, you are strong enough
You're not wounded, you are simply killed.
Let me take off your warm boots, we'll soon coming up
Through the snow to take over that hill.

 

[lg325]

My translation from russian . A poem by Ion Degen, a soviet veteran tank driver of World War II.

In the middle of agony, my dear friend
You in vain don't call mother or God
Let me warm up my hands, you woul'd understand,
Over puddle of your steaming blood
Do not cry, do not groan, you are strong enough
You're not wounded, you are simply killed.
Let me take off your warm boots, we'll soon coming up
Through the snow to take over that hill.

poetry straight from reality and deep inside his being.

 

[Ringo]

Another of my translations of a poem by Yulia Drunina, a woman who participated in the war.

I only once saw hand to hand fight
One time for real, in nightmares many more
The one who said, that never had the war fright
Know nothing absolutely about war.
1943

The non-rhyming translation looks like this:

I've only seen hand-to-hand once,
Once in real life. And a thousand times in my dreams.
Whoever says war is not scary,
He knows nothing about war.

 

[expat500]