Long Ni Poems

My most popular poems on the Internet (II)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

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Poems about Butterflies and Bees



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as butterfly wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Album
by Michael R. Burch

I caress them—trapped in brittle cellophane—
and I see how young they were,...

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These are translations of some of the oldest Japanese waka, which evolved into tanka, renga and haiku. 

While you decline to cry,
high on the mountainside
a single stalk of plumegrass wilts.
—O no Yasumaro (circa 711), translation...

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Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt
—Yamaguchi Seishi, translation by Michael R. Burch

Oh, fallen camellias,
if I were you,
I'd leap into the torrent!
—Takaha Shugyo, translation by Michael R. Burch

The first soft snow:
leaves of the awed jonquil
bow...

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The Untold story of a Sitar Part 3 Concluded

.
A soothing musical note
Was coming out and floating 
In the air 
In that White coated 
Old auditorium  
Of a different era
Which was so alive before...

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Translation of « On est les oubliés » (They/We are the neglected and forgotten lot)
by the songster-poet Gauvin SERS
(For the last two years, this young unassuming Frenchman, full of verve and disarming airs has been...

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The reading of Villon poems at West Berlin’s Free University, Winter Semester 1957-58
                      ...

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*LETTER TO  MAMA*

Iye omo to r'ewa 
Iya ni iya mi owon
I know you wonder if your  prayers don't ascend to heavens
You keep asking if the promises won't come true
You're beginning to doubt the...

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Mama – Translation of Kevin Gilbert’s « Mum » by T. Wignesan

Kevin Gilbert (July 10, 1933 – April 1, 1993) - father of Irish-English ancestry, mother an aboriginal from New South Wales - was orphaned...

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Si, perdí quien era y Caminé el camino equivocado 
El alcohol y las drogas, me estaba matando el cerebro Estaba en lo profundo de mi sangre y debilitó mi amor así los demás y amor...

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I hate Ni**as
When I’m looking and staring at this burden world  in my vision and I see the world collapsing especially in the poverty streets all I see is ignorance and stupidity. I see...

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 La Fête foraine de Scarborough (La Version complète)
 
      For the medieval English poet and Simon and Garfunkel 
-	In admiration -

Allez-vous à Scarborough fête foraine ?
(Sur la côte d'une...

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Doesn't matter what my name is. Certain types of men do certain types of things. Like join a terrorist group coz they believe they're right. I've been inside with them.     ...

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Judge Daniele Saggio

This year of our salvation, sixteen twelve.
Now.  Gentileschi? Don Orazio?
This suit is yours.  You’d press it?  Drop it?  Shelve

it?  Very good.  And you are Tazzio?
Beg pardon, Tassi....

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Mi nombre es Iván, no soy un amante
ni tampoco un novio
solo soy un joven soldado y un ser muy
solitario
Y me gustaria pensar que algun dia
tarde o temprano estare realmente enamorado

Solo quiero ver a esa mujer...

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Translation of " Those were the Days, My Friend " by T. Wignesan

Ces jours éloignés que nous avions partagés, Mon Ami

(A re-make of an earlier Russian song, produced by Paul McCartenay and sung by
 Mary...

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Tribute to the Wolf

I am of your nation (Cherokee)
I have travelled far to find my family
 (They are scattered across America)
Boundaries are now gone
I know you as you know me

My Mother taught me so
I know...

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CAUGHT ASTRAY WITH THE GODDESS. 

Not always do I have my lens on
Call it a strain, but just want to be free
Trying to bring to focus every fair and dark
I can't be more absorbed than...

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If ever I had to have a country victim of pedophily-LXXXV

(Note : Fresh disclosures from the Catholic Church on the subject
made public by protesting Mothers of infants victims of pedophily
at the hands of the Clergy...

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On that day, in Aug 45
Bomber over the city that's very much alive
Nervous crew, cloudy day
Pilots instructions, open bomb bay

The words above as the pilot has said
What happens next the World dreads
The catch releases as...

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SWAHILI VERSE>                           
      ...

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my love I love you beyond your soul

the aroma of your soul;
pageant of your screams;
What does this really mean;
The kiss of your breath;
Your blind caress;
Leaves me openly honest;
my love I love you beyond your soul;
I...

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Villanelle: Who's afraid of the Virgin Wolf's wisdom tooth

(As unlikely as it may sound, this happens to be the TRUTH: the foremost French journalist, André FONTAINE of Le Monde; an illustrious  Academician poet, Pierre...

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Fukuda Chiyo-ni Haiku

Fukuda Chiyo-ni was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period, also known as Kaga no Chiyo.

Having seen the moon
I can bid this planet
farewell.
—Chiyo-ni, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The moon settled
in...

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ZEN DEATH HAIKU III

Spring
stirs the clouds
in the sky's teabowl
—Kikusha-ni, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Tonight I saw
how the peony crumples
in the fire's embers
—Katoh Shuhson, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Both victor and vanquished are dewdrops:
flashes...

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