Poets' Corner

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814-1841) was a Russian Romantic poet, writer, painter and army officer, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus." Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Lermontov, designed by Russian artist Vasili Vasilievich Zavialov (1906-1972), engraved by Tatiana Mihailovna Nikitina, and issued by Russia (USSR) on October 14, 1964 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the poet's birth, Scott No. 2949, Zagorski No. 3026, plus an image of a oil portrait of Lermontov (1837) by Russian artist Pyotr Yefimovich Zabolotsky (1803-1866), and a translation of Lermontov's poem I Go Out On The Road Alone (1841). Note: At age 26 Lermontov was killed by a single pistol shot in a duel with a fellow officer who was offended by one of the poet's jokes.

- nethryk



I Go Out On The Road Alone

Alone I set out on the road;
The flinty path is sparkling in the mist;
The night is still. The desert harks to God,
And star with star converses.

The vault is overwhelmed with solemn wonder
The earth in cobalt aura sleeps. . .
Why do I feel so pained and troubled?
What do I harbor: hope, regrets?

I see no hope in years to come,
Have no regrets for things gone by.
All that I seek is peace and freedom!
To lose myself and sleep!

But not the frozen slumber of the grave...
I'd like eternal sleep to leave
My life force dozing in my breast
Gently with my breath to rise and fall;

By night and day, my hearing would be soothed
By voices sweet, singing to me of love.
And over me, forever green,
A dark oak tree would bend and rustle.

- Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov

Scott USA 1926
Poem from the Academy of American Poets.
Poets.org

Mehmedalija "Mak" Dizdar (1917-1971) was a Bosnian poet, writer and newspaper editor. His work has been described as the cornerstone of modern Bosnian literature. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Dizdar, designed by Bosnian artist Mirza F. Ibrahimpašic, printed by lithography (Bundesdruckerei), and issued by Bosnia and Herzegovina on December 10, 2002, Scott No. 428, plus a photo of the poet which may have been the model for this stamp's design, and a translated excerpt from Dizdar's long poem Kameni spavac ("Stone sleeper," 1966-1971).

- nethryk



Message from a country (from "Stone sleeper")

Provokingly somebody asks
Who, what, where is, excuse me
How is that Bosnia
Tell me

And promptly comes the answer
There was, forgive me, a land
Bosnia
Poor and arid
Cold and chilly
And moreover

Forgive me
Proud
And full of dreams.

- Mak Dizdar
Translated by Robert Stallaerts

Nethrik, thanks for the mention of Russian poets and writers. I want to show a full series in 1964: on the other stamps - manor of Lermontov and conversation with literary critic Belinsky.



And another addition: Lermontov came to the Caucasus and died there in a duel because of his poem "On the death of the poet." This poem had been written to the death of Alexander Pushkin in duel in 1837.

Alexey - You're welcome, and thanks for the additional information about Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. Fortunately for us, the USSR issued quite a few stamps honoring poets and writers; here is another example:

Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad Hafez Shirazi (c. 1319–1389), known by his pen name Hafez (or Hafiz), was a Persian poet whose work remains popular to this day in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a "portrait" of Hafez, designed by Russian artists Yuri Nikoláyevich Artsimenev (1937- ) and V. Ivanov, printed by lithography, and issued by Russia (USSR) on May 9, 1971 to commemorate the 650th anniversary of the poet's birth, Scott No. 3847, Zagorski No. 3925, plus a photo of Hafez's tomb in Shiraz, and a translation of his poem The Jewel of the Secret Treasury.

- nethryk



The Jewel of the Secret Treasury

The jewel of the secret treasury
Is still the same as once it was; the seal
Upon Love's treasure casket, and the key,
Are still what thieves can neither break nor steal;
Still among lovers loyalty is found,
And therefore faithful eyes still strew the ground
With the same pearls that mine once strewed for thee.

Question the wandering winds and thou shalt know
That from the dusk until the dawn doth break,
My consolation is that still they blow
The perfume of thy curls across my cheek,
A dart from thy bent brows has wounded me--
Ah, come! my heart still waiteth helplessly,
Has waited ever, till thou heal its pain.

If seekers after rubies there were none,
Still to the dark mines where the gems had lain
Would pierce, as he was wont, the radiant sun,
Setting the stones ablaze. Would'st hide the stain
Of my heart's blood? Blood-red the ruby glows
(And whence it came my wounded bosom knows)
Upon thy lips to show what thou hast done.

Let not thy curls waylay my pilgrim soul,
As robbers use, and plunder me no more!
Years join dead years, but thine extortionate rule
Is still the same, merciless as before.
Sing, Hafiz, sing again of eyes that weep!
For still the fountain of our tears is deep
As once it was, and still with tears is full.

- Hafez
Translated by Gertrude Lowthian Bell

José María Heredia y Heredia (1803-1839) was a Cuban Romantic poet. Here are images of the two engraved airmail stamps in a set issued by Cuba on December 30, 1940 to commemorate the centenary of the poet's death, Scott Nos. C34 & C35, plus a translation of an excerpt from Heredia's celebrated ode, Niágara (1832).

- nethryk

Heredia and Las Palmas Deliciosas (another of Heredia's poems)


Heredia and Niagara Falls



Niagara (First stanza)

Tremendous torrent! for an instant hush
The terrors of thy voice, and cast aside
Those wide-involving shadows, that my eyes
May see the fearful beauty of thy face!
I am not all unworthy of thy sight;
For from my very boyhood have I loved,
Shunning the meaner track of common minds,
To look on Nature in her loftier moods.
At the fierce rushing of the hurricane,
At the near bursting of the thunderbolt.
I have been touched with joy; and when the sea,
Lashed by the wind, hath rocked my bark, and showed
Its yawning caves beneath me, I have loved
Its dangers and the wrath of elements.
But never yet the madness of the sea
Hath moved me as thy grandeur moves me now.

- José María Heredia
Source: Myron T. Pritchard, comp. Poetry of Niagara. Boston:
Lothrop Publishing, 1901.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist who wrote in the German language and is noted for his highly lyrical verse and prose. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Rilke, designed by Adalbert Pilch, engraved by Rudolf Toth, and issued by Austria on December 29, 1976, Scott No. 1049, plus a photo of the poet in 1900 (age 24), and a translation of Rilke's poem The Child in Red.

- nethryk



The Child in Red

Sometimes she walks through the village in her
little red dress
all absorbed in restraining herself,
and yet, despite herself, she seems to move
according to the rhythm of her life to come.

She runs a bit, hesitates, stops,
half-turns around...
and, all while dreaming, shakes her head
for or against.

Then she dances a few steps
that she invents and forgets,
no doubt finding out that life
moves on too fast.

It's not so much that she steps out
of the small body enclosing her,
but that all she carries in herself
frolics and ferments.

It's this dress that she'll remember
later in a sweet surrender;
when her whole life is full of risks,
the little red dress will always seem right.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC – AD 17/18), known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known for his poetry collection Ars Amatoria, and for the Metamorphoses, a mythological hexameter poem. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a cameo portrait of Ovid, designed by Italian artist Bruno Brumanti (1897-1957), printed by photogravure, and issued by Italy on June 10, 1957 to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of Ovid's birth, Scott No. 721, plus another portrait of the influential poet, and a translation of the Invocation at the beginning of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

- nethryk



Invocation, from the Metamorphoses

My soul is wrought to sing of forms transformed
to bodies new and strange! Immortal Gods
inspire my heart, for ye have changed yourselves
and all things you have changed! Oh lead my song
in smooth and measured strains, from olden days
when earth began to this completed time!

- Ovid
Translated by Brookes More, 1922.

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (1814-1861) was a Ukrainian poet and artist. He is also known under the name Kobzar after his most famous literary work, a collection of poems entitled Kobzar. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Shevchenko and a depicition of his birthplace, designed by Russian artist Vasili Vasilievich Zavialov (1906-1972), printed by lithography, and issued by Russia (USSR) on March 10, 1961 to commemorated the centenary of Shevchenko's death, Scott No. 2450, Zagorski No. 2458, plus an image of a self-portrait of the poet (1840) which was the model for this stamp's design, and a translation of one of Taras Shevchenko's most popular poems, Zapovit ("Testament," 1845).

- nethryk



Testament

When I am dead, bury me
In my beloved Ukraine,
My tomb upon a grave mound high
Amid the spreading plain,
So that the fields, the boundless steppes,
The Dnieper's plunging shore
My eyes could see, my ears could hear
The mighty river roar.

When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes ... then will I leave
These hills and fertile fields --
I'll leave them all and fly away
To the abode of God,
And then I'll pray .... But until that day
I nothing know of God.

Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants' blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.

— Taras Shevchenko
Translated by John Weir, Toronto, 1961

Rubén Darío (1867-1916) was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo (modernism) that flourished at the end of the 19th century. Here is an image of a stamp depicting the tomb of Rubén Darío under a marble lion created by the sculptor Jorge Navas Cordonero (1874-1968), which is located in the Cathedral of León, combined engraved (frame) and photogravure (vignette) by Waterlow & Sons, Ltd., and issued by Nicaragua on August 29, 1947, Scott No. 707, plus photos of the tomb and of the poet, and a translation of Rubén Darío's poem Caracol ("A Shell").

- nethryk



A Shell

I found upon the shore a golden shell,
Massive, and with the daintiest pearls embossed;
Europa touched it with her hands divine
When on the heavenly bull the sea she crossed.
I lifted to my lips the sounding shell,
And woke the morning drum-beats of the sea;
I held it to mine ear, the azure mines
Of hidden treasure murmured low to me.
Thus comes to me the salt of those keen gales
The Argo felt within her swelling sails
When Jason's dream the stars of heaven loved well;
An unknown voice 'mid wave-sounds there I find,
A deep sea-swell and a mysterious wind.
(Shaped like a heart it is, that sounding shell).

- Rubén Darío

Silvije Strahimir Kranjcevic (1865-1908) was a Croatian poet whose reflexive poetry ushered modern themes into Croatian poetry. His three main themes were: Homeland, Man and Universe. Also, he often used Biblical and classical parables, as well as symbols from the history of Christianity and Judaism; their allegorical nature suited his poems about the fundamental human issues. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Kranjcevic, designed by Yugoslav artist Matija Zlamalik (1905-1965), engraved by Tanasije Krnjajic, and issued by Yugoslavia on December 24, 1960, Scott No. 591, plus a photo of the poet, a translation of a few lines from Silvije Strahimir Kranjcevic's poem Golgotha, and a link to an entertaining YouTube video biography (in Croatian) of the poet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szo-7oge6ZY

- nethryk



From Golgotha

The times are terrible, dark, and heavy,
Like a damned soul in disgrace;
On Golgotha is hanging the victim
From Nazareth, that wretched place!
In His nest is expiring now
That wounded white dove. Eli!

- Silvije Strahimir Kranjcevic

nethryk
Thanks, I see you still contribute actively to this thread. I just read Lermontov and yes he's a top notch romantic. Poetry is my other hobby. I write in french and publish on the poetry website "La passion des poèmes". Good to have you here! Daniel

timbres667 - Thanks! It's good to be here. Poets just don't get enough respect these days. I admire them all.

George Cosbuc (1866-1918) was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist noted for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life. Here is an image of a semi-postal (charity) stamp featuring a portrait of Cosbuc, printed by photogravure, and issued by Romania on August 15, 1943, Scott No. B215, as one of a set of five stamps benefiting the Transylvanian Refugees Fund, plus an undated photographic portrait of the poet which was probably the model for this stamp's design, and a translation of George Cosbuc's poem The Insolvent Debtor.

- nethryk

PS The line on the stamp refers to another of Cosbuc's poems in which he objects to foreigners farming on Romanian land, Noi vrem pamant! ("We Want Land!", 1894).



The Insolvent Debtor

Home walked she from the mill
Her sack was down and she
Could not lift it again.
'May I help?' 'What?' 'For pay!'
And in the narrow lane
Good girls shouldn't wave away
Such offers and say 'nay'.
That she agreed was plain.

With her sack on my back
I start, but half-way, feeling slack,
I want my pay - three kisses.
She stops - just like her, see?
Obstructs the way and thinks
And tells no end of things,
Too much, she can't agree:
Out of the question - three!

On two she does agree,
So, she pays half the fee;
The rest is due tonight
(Our meeting she can't miss),
Though she'll forget I judge!
So here I am, poor drudge,
To bear her sack and trudge -
All this for just one kiss!

- George Cosbuc

No poem, but Ogden Nash (1902-1971) wrote poetry that is understandable, funny, and witty. His poem "A drink with something in it" is my favorite.

stampfan9 - Ogden Nash's light verses are justly celebrated for their drollness. Thanks for your contribution!

Here is an image of another stamp honoring German poet Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805), designed by German graphic artist Rudolf Gerhardt, engraved by Hans-Joachim Fuchs, and issued by Germany (Berlin) on November 10, 1959 to commemorate the poet's birth centenary, Scott No. 9N172, plus a translation of Schiller's poem Das Geheimnis ("The Secret").

- nethryk




The Secret

He sought to breathe one word, but vainly--
Too many listeners were nigh;
And yet my timid glance read plainly
The language of her speaking eye.

Thy silent glades my footstep presses,
Thou fair and leaf-embosom'd grove!
Conceal within thy green recesses
From mortal eye our sacred love!

Afar with strange discordant noises,
The busy day is echoing;
And, 'mid the hollow hum of voices,
I hear the heavy hammer ring.
'Tis thus that man, with toil ne'er-ending,
Extorts from Heaven his daily bread;
Yet oft unseen the Gods are sending
The gifts of fortune on his head!

Oh, let mankind discover never
How true love fills with bliss our hearts!
They would but crush our joy forever,
For joy to them no glow imparts.
Thou ne'er wilt from the world obtain it--
'Tis never captured save as prey;
Thou needs must strain each nerve to gain it,
E'er Envy dark asserts her sway.

The hours of night and stillness loving,
It comes upon us silently--
Away with hasty footsteps moving
Soon as it sees a treach'rous eye.
Thou gentle stream, soft circlets weaving,
A wat'ry barrier cast around,
And, with thy waves in anger heaving,
Guard from each foe this holy ground!

- Friedrich Schiller