Poets' Corner

Birger Sjöberg (1885-1929) was a Swedish poet, novelist and songwriter. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Sjöberg, designed by Swedish artist Eva Jern after a photo by Swedish photographer A. W. Rahmn, engraved by Majvor Franzén-Matthews, and issued by Sweden on October 12, 1985 to commemorate the poet's birth centenary, Scott No. 1556, Facit No. 1370, plus an image of Rahmn's photograph, c. 1924-1926, and a Youtube link to a recording of Sjöberg's song Frida I vårstädningen ("Frida Spring Cleaning"), performed by Mikael Samuelson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ6Xcjtc-Ts

- nethryk

José Jacinto Milanés y Fuentes (1814-1863) was a renowned Cuban poet, playwright, linguist and writer. Here is an image of an engraved special delivery stamp featuring a portrait of Milanés, issued by Cuba on May 2, 1956, Scott No. E21, plus a portrait of the poet from one of his books which was probably the model for this stamp's design, and an English translation of the first two stanzas from Milanés's poem La Madrugada ("The Dawn"). Note: Three-fourths of the proceeds from the sale of this stamp were used to benefit the Communications Ministry Employees' Retirement Fund.

- nethryk



From The Dawn

I can but pity him, the one
Who lingers in dull Slumber's thralls,
While on his roof, unnoticed, fall
The effulgence of the rising sun.

Is there a purer, rarer treat
Than to leap off the wrinkled bed,
And, in the country, lightly tread
Of dewy grass the carpet neat?

- José Jacinto Milanés

Lesya Ukrainka was the literary pseudonym of Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka (1871-1913), one of Ukraine's best-known poets and writers. She also was a political, civil, and female activist. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Lesya Ukrainka, designed by Russian artist Valeri Pimenov (1920- ), printed by photogravure, and issued by Russia (USSR) on February 25, 1971 to commemorate the poet's birth centenary, plus a photographic portrait of Ukrainka, and an English translation of Ukrainka's beloved 1890 poem Contra spem spero ("Hope against hope.")

- nethryk



Contra spem spero

Away, dark thoughts, you autumn clouds!
A golden spring is here!
Shall it be thus in sorrow and in lamentation
That my youthful years pass away?

No, through all my tears I still shall laugh,
Sing songs despite my troubles;
Have hope despite all odds,
I want to live! Away, you sorrowful thoughts!

On this poor, indigent ground
I shall sow flowers of flowing colors;
I shall sow flowers even amidst the frost,
And water them with my bitter tears.

And from those burning tears will melt
The frozen crust, so hard and strong,
Perhaps the flowers will bloom and
Bring about for me a joyous spring.

Unto a winding, flinty mountain
Shall I bear my weighty stone,
Yet, even bearing such a crushing weight,
Will I sing a joyful song.

Throughout a lasting night of darkness
Ne'er shall I rest my own eyes,
Always searching for the guiding star,
The bright empress of the dark night skies.

I shall not allow my heart to fall sleep,
Though gloom and misery envelop me,
Despite my certain feelings
That death is beating at my breast.

Death will settle heavily on that breast,
The snow covered by a cruel haze,
But fierce shall beat my little heart,
And maybe, with its ferocity, overcome death.

Yes, I will laugh despite my tears,
I'll sing out songs amidst my misfortunes;
I'll have hope despite all odds,
I will live! Away, you sorrowful thoughts!

- Lesya Ukrainka

Nethryk
Your post about Rainer Maria Rilke brought back memories. I studied German for two years at university as part of my sience program (mandatory subject as many scientific papers in those days were written in German) (showing my age). As an mini-thesis subject, I chose to study Rilke and also translated some of his poetry. I don't remember much about him but his name keeps popping up in readings about German music, etc.

NBSTAMPER - How fortunate you are to be able to read German poetry in the original!

Antero Tarquínio de Quental (1842-1891) was a Portuguese poet, philosopher and writer, whose works became a milestone in the Portuguese language. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Quental, designed by Luiz Duran, printed by lithography, and issued by Portugal on August 2, 1991, Scott No. 1871, plus a photo of the poet c. 1887 which may have been the model for this stamp's design, and an English translation of Quental's poem "Redemption."

- nethryk



Redemption

I

Voices of trees, the wind, the sea!
When, in certain sorrowful dreams,
I'm lulled by your powerful melodies,
I sense that you're distraught, like me.

Twilight words and secret breath
Of speechless things, mysterious psalm,
Wispy grieving, are you not
The world's sighing and lament?

A spirit inhabits the immensity:
A cruel yearning to be free
Makes the fleeting forms rave.

I understand your strange tongues,
Voices of seas, mountains, jungles. . .
My soul's sisters – souls enslaved!


II

Don't cry, seas and trees and winds,
Ancient chorus of strident voices
Chanting ageless, mournful verses
Like a dirge of mortuary worms. . .

One day you will finally leave
The shade of twilight visions, emerging
Radiant from that dream and those yearnings
Born of all that makes you grieve.

Souls still in the limbo of existence,
One day you'll awake, in Consciousness,
Hovering already as pure thought.

You'll see Forms, daughters of Illusion,
Crumble like a dream's confusions. . .
And never again will you be distraught.

- Antero de Quental

Maria Konopnicka (1842-1910) was a Polish poet, novelist, writer for children and youth, a translator, journalist and critic, as well as an activist for women's rights and Polish independence. Here is an image of a semi-postal (charity) stamp featuring a portrait of Konopnicka, designed and engraved by Edward Konecki, and issued by Poland on May 10, 1952 to commemorate the 110th anniversary of her birth, Scott No. B71, plus a 19th century photo of the poet, and a translation of her 1908 patriotic poem Rota ("The Oath").

- nethryk




The Oath

We won't forsake the land we came from,
We won't let our speech be buried.
We are the Polish nation, the Polish people,
From the royal line of Piast.
We won't let the foe Germanize us.

So help us God!
So help us God!

To the last blood drop in our veins
We will defend our Spirit
Till into dust and ash shall fall,
The Teutonic Order's windstorm.
Every doorsill shall be a fortress.

So help us God!
So help us God!

The German won't spit in our face,
Nor Germanize our children,
Our host will arise in arms,
Holy Spirit will lead the way.
We'll set out when the golden horn calls.

So help us God!
So help us God!

We won't have Poland's name defamed,
We won't step alive into a grave.
In Poland's name, in its honor
We lift our foreheads proudly,
The grandson will regain his forefathers' land.

So help us God!
So help us God!

- Maria Konopnicka

Another take on Emily Dickinson from my all time favorite comic strip-- Bloom County...





Do run through gilded veld
with sunshine fluster.
Do lean to norther' wind
of autumn bluster.
Do dance 'pon emerald pond
of winter crusted.
Do waltz in morning's dawn
butterfly trusted.
Do taste moonbeams crossing
all starlight dusted.

Just don't sneeze while flossing
that upper cuspid.




*- Glad this topic was revived. It gives me a chance to state something that's been bugging me. About the asterisk...There is no actual book of this title, or poem by Emily Dickinson, named "Do". The poem was written by the author of the strip, Berke Breathed, to honor Emily Dickinson on her birthday. Her birthday was December 10, 1830. (Should have just waited a month and redone this then!).


-IBFS

Jaroslav Vrchlický (born Emil Bohuslav Frída,1853-1912) was one of the greatest Czech lyrical poets. He also wrote epic poetry, plays, prose and literary essays and translated widely from various languages. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Vrchlický, designed by Czech artist Karel Svolinský (1896-1986), engraved by Jindra Schmidt, and issued by Czechoslovakia on February 28, 1953 to commemorate the poet's birth centenary, plus a portrait of Jaroslav Vrchlický by Czech illustrator and painter Jan Vilímek (1860-1938), and a translation of Vrchlický's poem To Be a Poet.

- nethryk



To Be A Poet

Life taught me long ago
that music and poetry
are the most beautiful things on earth
that life can give us.
Except for love, of course.

In an old textbook
published by the Imperial Printing House
in the year of Vrchlicky's death
I looked up the section on poetics
and poetic ornament.

Then I placed a rose in a tumbler,
lit a candle
and started to write my first verses.

Flare up, flame of words,
and soar,
even if my fingers get burned!

A startling metaphor is worth more
than a ring on one's finger.
But not even Puchmajer's Rhyming Dictionary
was any use to me.

In vain I snatched for ideas
and fiercely closed my eyes
in order to hear that first magic line.
But in the dark, instead of words,
I saw a woman's smile and
wind-blown hair.

That has been my destiny.
And I've been staggering towards it breathlessly
all my life.

- Jaroslav Vrchlický

Happy Birthday to Hungarian poet Endre Ady (1877-1919). Many of Ady's poems use Symbolism; recurring themes include God, Hungary, and the fight for survival. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Ady, designed by Hungarian artist Sándor Légrády (1906-1987), printed by photogravure, and issued by Hungary on January 27, 1969, Scott No. 1949, plus an image of an undated photograph of Endre Ady which was the model for this stamp's design, and a translation of Ady's short poem "Because You Love Me."

- nethryk



Because You Love Me

Your eyes are mirrors
of blessed marvels,
for they have seen me;
you are the mistress,
the cunning woman
of the caress.
A thousand times blessed
are you as woman,
for you have seen me
and looked at me.
Because you love me
I also love you,
because you love me
you are the woman,
you are the fair.

- Endre Ady

France Preseren is the greatest Slovenian poet and author of Slovenian National Anthem: A Toast

God's blessing on all nations,
Who long and work for that bright day,
When o'er earth's habitations
No war, no strife shall hold its sway;
Who long to see
That all men free
No more shall foes, but neighbours be.

On stamp is his handwriting of that poem.

primoz - Nice one! Thanks for sharing.

Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (1898-1984) was a Spanish poet best known for his highly surrealistic free verse; in 1977 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Here is an image of an engraved stamp featuring a portrait of Aleixandre and his signature, and issued by Spain on July 24, 1985, Scott No. 2447, plus a photograph of the poet in 1955, and an English translation of Aleixandre's short poem Posthumous Kiss
.

- nethryk



Posthumous Kiss, from Poems of Consummation (1968):

Quiet like this, my lips on yours,
I breathe you. It's either a living dream or we're alive.
The life we can sense is in the kiss
that lives on, alone. Without us, it shines.
We are its shadow. Because it is our bodies when we're gone.

- Vicente Aleixandre

Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869) was an Urdu and Persian poet of the late Mughal Empire era and the British Raj. Some of Ghalib's best known works were ghazals, a classical poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter, and expressing both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. Ghalib remains popular to this day in India and Pakistan, and amongst diaspora communities around the world. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Ghalib, printed by photogravure, and issued by India on February 17, 1969 to commemorate the centenary of Ghalib's death, plus a photograph of the poet, and an English translation of Ghalib's poem Innocent heart.

- nethryk



Innocent heart

Innocent heart, what has happened to you?
Alas, what is the cure to this pain?

We are interested, and they are displeased,
Oh Lord, what is this affair?

I too possess a tongue-
just ask me what I want to say.

Though there is none present without you,
then oh God, what is this noise about?

I expected faith from those
who do not even know what faith is.

- Mirza Ghalib

Happy Birthday to American poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), a Quaker and an ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Whittier, designed by BEP artist William A. Roach, engraved by Charles A. Brooks and William O. Marks (vignette), and William B. Wells (lettering), and issued by the USA on February 16, 1940 as one of the stamps in the Famous Americans Series, Scott No. 865, plus a photograph of the poet as a somewhat younger man, and Whittier's poem A Legacy.

- nethryk



A Legacy

Friend of my many years!
When the great silence falls, at last, on me,
Let me not leave, to pain and sadden thee,
A memory of tears,
But pleasant thoughts alone.
Of one who was thy friendship's honored guest
And drank the wine of consolation pressed
From sorrows of thy own.
I leave with thee a sense
Of hands upheld and trials rendered less,
The unselfish joy which is to helpfulness
Its own great recompense.
The knowledge that from thine,
As from the garments of the Master, stole
Calmness and strength, the virtue which makes whole
And heals without a sign.
Yea more, the assurance strong
That love, which fails of perfect utterance here,
Lives on to fill the heavenly atmosphere
With its immortal song.

- John Greenleaf Whittier

Happy Birthday to Kosta Apostolov Solev, a Macedonian poet, author and revolutionary better known as Koco Racin (1908-1943). Racin's poem collection White Dawns (Zagreb, 1939) is considered a masterpiece of modern Macedonian literature. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Racin, designed by D. Cudov, combined engraved by Velibor Cvetkovic and lithography, and issued by Yugoslavia on December 22, 1983 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the poet's birth, plus a photograph of Koco Racin which may have been the model for this stamp's design, and an English translation of his poem Tutunoberachite ("The Tobacco gatherers").

- nethryk



The Tobacco gatherers

On cold scales with bronze they weigh it-
but can they gauge its weight-
our tobacco, our troubles,
our salty sweat!

From the dark dim dawns of summer mornings
up to the godless time of winter evenings
greedily it drinks of our sorrow,
our sweat, our blood and our strength.
The yellow-gold makes faces pale
and brings a yellow guest into our breast.

On dew-laden mornings in the first dawn
bowed low in the fields of the place where we were born
listlessly we gather it in.
Pick leaf by leaf
string leaf by leaf
turn leaf by leaf over and press down,
line leaf by leaf gently, sadly
on the long string of beads of sweat
hope with an oath and green fury
with hard stares from cloudy eyes
at the soft leaves all yellow gold
a bitter tale of a life accursed
string on so, soundlessly but clear.
Don't you know this?

The day is come for the weighing-up.
There is no gauge meet, it burrows in the breast
without ceasing, without finding its level
not grief but an oath, and in the clouded eyes
unsummoned rises the tempest.

The scales bear golden leaves
while in the breast rage furious waves
of golden grief, of golden tobacco
of the golden sweat of our hands.

- Koco Racin

In reference to Mr. Whittier...This is a city 6 miles from me. Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Los Angeles. The city had a population of 85,331 at the 2010 census, up from 83,680 as of the 2000 census, and encompasses 14.7 square miles (38.0 km2).
Like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities. Whittier was incorporated in February 1898, although it was first settled in 1887, and became a charter city in 1955.[2] The city is named for the poet John Greenleaf Whittier. There is also a main street named Greenleaf. From Wikipedia.