Long Railway Poems

This is the second part of Rabindranath Tagore's Narrative poem - Phanki (Deception). The first part has been already posted. 




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I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

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Yet at this very moment the cathedral was crumbling
down upon the cries of foresaken refugees, 
the monastery's walls wobbling from war's wreckage, 
and as the black bursts billowed into sun drenched brutality
with the bodies of...

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The Pain of Love
by Michael R. Burch 
 
for T. M.
 
The pain of love is this:
the parting after the kiss;
 
the train steaming from the station
whistling abnegation;
 
each interstate’s bleak white bar
that vanishes under...

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Within the frame a sepia scene
a dusty porch   a rickety chair   
the fabric of your dusky face creased
with ceaseless sunbaked woes
your old pair of getaway feet gives 
a different walk of...

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Unquotable Quotes VIIIL : SEXUAL HARASSMENT* - the feminist kind

(*”aggressive pressure or intimidation”: Is it really “any different” in most cases in the act, judging by Hollywood standards?)

STOP: ARREST ALL GIRLS
 - standing with legs...

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It was Christmas Eve, a Thursday
On the Northern Express Christmas Train
We were on our way north through the wilds
And our  destination was to be old Hornepayne

One hundred and eighty two people
Three kittens, one goat...

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This is a translation from Rabindranath Tagore's (Nobel-laureate Poet From India in 1913) narrative poem - Phanki. We need to remember that this story is based on life at late nineteenth century Bengal, India. The...

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Hilda my partner turned in her bed as the early morning train hurtled by at breakneck speed sending tremors round our dwelling.
Those long flowing tresses embrace the shafts of first light so enthusiastically.
An otherworldly spot...

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For far too long the system failed 
    in the hearts of many Cree.
Where justice for their friends and family 
    would never set them free.
So at this time...

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Our country is full of hypocrites 
who stand up against nothing and bend over for everything 
the peoples amendments pushing European agendas upon us for change 
towards liberal law in our downfall
 
Unto our sovereignty...

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February came in keeping with its ancient character a month of coldness, wetness and of thawing,
With departing frost and melting snow, February could possibly be called the wet season,
Maybe it's a time for floods and...

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From north, south, east and west 
This is the town to beat the rest,
Where history and present blend
As through its many streets you wend. 

Where once a monastery so great
From every view would dominate,
Where Pilgrims...

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Communities are built on pioneer toil and generational links,
with building, road and railway, applied to how a council thinks.
There’s sporting ties and country hall, to form the social hub,
and of course a meeting place -...

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Communities are built on pioneer toil and generational links,
with building, road and railway, applied to how a council thinks.
There’s sporting ties and country hall, to form the social hub,
and of course a meeting place -...

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When Cupid fired an arrow in the air,
Where it might land?  He did not care!
His only intent?  To lighten his quiver,
When he shot his barbed Love dart thither!
So came the time, or so...

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Ohh I could have sat with my heart 
--elevated with dribbled echoes-- 
ahhhhhh until it yet exhaled the tarnished seams 
capturing only the quiet current lapping
and soaking dirty steel embankment	
along the river’s edge beneath the...

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I lay awake in that dark hour and was reflecting on my life
From all the travelling I had done to the breakup with my wife
I was an architectural painter and was very successful too
And after...

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Thirsty

I could tell right away he was up ta sum thin.
I could see it in doze beady eyes!
His wordz were smooth in a snake like sorta way,
my pappy says heze city smooth.
He don't look like...

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When at five-thirty
In the rubbed-eye haziness
Of ferreting lonesome night walks
The camera-eye refugee
Asleep in the half wakefulness
Of the hour
Peers out of his high turbanned sockets:
Hyde Park's through road links
London's diurnally estranged couple -
The Arch and Gate.

...

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IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY: LXXIX -  Bang! Bang! Who Shot Me Down like an Un-licensed Dog !

IF ever I had a country, a country certainly 
not subject to the whistle of a...

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I do not have to go far away
 but just look within canada     to see
there is starvation      poverty      and death

now, this...

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OCTOBER TALE
Go south and follow the sun’s traverse
As it heads t’ward Capricorn
When days and nights are in equipoise
And slight chills happily born

Go beyond the wide stream where Siegfried roved
Past the dark forest’s sylvan span
You then...

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molten times, volcanising immensity, vast plateau
  belly-belching landform
  oceans, shallow seas and lakes swell up and down
  land-bridging, submerging
  any one place moving astride, stutter-shifting
  continental drifting world
  climate...

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Time to choose? Time to change?

When I feel Love 
It feels like I am falling into a deep blue lake
Of a baby’s eyes.

When I hate,
Darkness consumes me like smoke,
Smothering light and extinguishing all hope.
Knots in...

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