Poets

Voices that distilled experience into verse.

33 entries

Anna Akhmatova

Russian · 1889–1966

“Сжала руки под тёмной вуалью... «Отчего ты сегодня бледна?» — «Оттого, что я терпкой печалью напоила его допьяна.»”

“I wrung my hands under my dark veil... "Why are you pale, what makes you reckless?" "Because I have made my loved one drunk with an astringent sadness."”

Bei Dao

Chinese · 1949–

“一切都是命运,一切都是烟云,一切都是没有结局的开始,一切都是稍纵即逝的追寻,一切欢乐都没有微笑,一切苦难都没有泪痕,一切语言都是重复,一切交往都是初逢。”

“All is fate, all is cloud, all is a beginning without an end, all is a fleeting search, all joy is without smiles, all suffering is without tears, all language is repetition, all encounters are first meetings.”

Charles Baudelaire

French · 1821–1867

“Le beau est toujours bizarre.”

“The beautiful is always bizarre.”

Constantine P. Cavafy

Greek-Egyptian · 1863–1933

“— Τι περιμένουμε συναθροισμένοι στην αγορά; — Είναι οι βάρβαροι να φθάσουν σήμερα.”

“What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today.”

Dante Alighieri

Italian · 1265–1321

“Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita / mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, / ché la diritta via era smarrita.”

“In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost.”

Du Fu

Chinese (Tang Dynasty) · 712–770

“朱门酒肉臭,路有冻死骨。”

“Behind the crimson gates, meat and wine go to waste; on the road, lie the bones of those frozen to death.”

Emily Dickinson

American · 1830–1886

“"Hope" is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul –”

Federico García Lorca

Spanish · 1898–1936

“Verde que te quiero verde. Verde viento. Verdes ramas.”

“Green, how I want you green. Green wind. Green branches.”

Fernando Pessoa

Portuguese · 1888–1935

“Não sou nada. Nunca serei nada. Não posso querer ser nada. À parte isso, tenho em mim todos os sonhos do mundo.”

“I'm nothing. I'll never be anything. I can't want to be anything. Aside from that, I have in me all the dreams of the world.”

Gu Cheng

Chinese · 1956–1993

“黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛,我却用它寻找光明。”

“The dark night gave me black eyes, yet I use them to seek the light.”

Hai Zi

Chinese · 1964–1989

“活在这珍贵的人间,太阳强烈,水波温柔。”

“Living in this precious human world, the sun is strong, the water waves gentle.”

Kahlil Gibran

Lebanese-American · 1883–1931

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.”

Li Bai

Chinese (Tang Dynasty) · 701–762

“明月出天山,苍茫云海间。”

“The bright moon rises over the Tian Shan Mountains, amid a vast sea of clouds.”

Marina Tsvetaeva

Russian · 1892–1941

“Моим стихам, написанным так рано, что и не знала, что я — поэт, сорвавшимся, как брызги из фонтана.”

“My verses, written so early that I did not know I was a poet, torn from me like droplets from a fountain.”

Mary Oliver

American · 1935–2019

“You do not have to be good. / You do not have to walk on your knees / for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. / You only have to let the soft animal of your body / love what it loves.”

Matsuo Bashō

Japanese · 1644–1694

“古池や蛙飛びこむ水の音”

“An old silent pond... A frog jumps into the pond – splash! Silence again.”

Octavio Paz

Mexican · 1914–1998

“La soledad es el hecho más profundo de la condición humana.”

“Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition.”

Osip Mandelstam

Russian · 1891–1938

“Я изучил науку расставанья в простоволосых жалобах ночных.”

“I have studied the science of goodbyes, the bare-headed laments of night.”

Pablo Neruda

Chilean · 1904–1973

“En un beso, sabrás todo lo que he callado.”

“In one kiss, you'll know all I haven't said.”

Paul Celan

Romanian-French · 1920–1970

“Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts.”

“Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening we drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Indian · 1861–1941

“যে গান গাইতে এসেছিলাম সে গান আজও গাওয়া হল না। আমি দিন কাটিয়েছি তার বাঁধতে আর খুলতে।”

“The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day. I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

Austrian · 1875–1926

“Vielleicht sind alle Drachen unseres Lebens Prinzessinnen, die nur darauf warten, uns einmal schön und mutig zu sehen.”

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.”

Rumi

Persian · 1207–1273

“خاموشی زبان خداست / باقی ترجمه ناقص است”

“Silence is the language of God; all else is poor translation.”

Shu Ting

Chinese · 1952–

“我如果爱你——绝不像攀援的凌霄花,借你的高枝炫耀自己。”

“If I love you, I would never be a climbing trumpet creeper, using your tall branches to show off my height.”

Su Shi

Chinese (Song Dynasty) · 1037–1101

“十年生死两茫茫,不思量,自难忘。”

“Ten years, living and dead, have drawn apart. I do not try to remember, but forgetting is hard.”

Sylvia Plath

American · 1932–1963

“I am, I am, I am.”

T. S. Eliot

American-British · 1888–1965

“Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”

Tomas Tranströmer

Swedish · 1931–2015

“Vi fick se skönhetens ansikte. Det var en del av förrädarens ansikte.”

“We got a look at beauty's face. It was part of the face of a traitor.”

W. B. Yeats

Irish · 1865–1939

“I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,”

W. H. Auden

British-American · 1907–1973

“You shall love your crooked neighbour / With your crooked heart.”

Walt Whitman

American · 1819–1892

“I am large, I contain multitudes.”

Wang Wei

Chinese (Tang Dynasty) · 701–761

“行到水穷处,坐看云起时。”

“I walk to the place where the water ends, / and sit watching the clouds as they rise.”

Wisława Szymborska

Polish · 1923–2012

“Wolę śmieszność pisania wierszy od śmieszności niepisania wierszy.”

“I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.”