No Poet More Lofty Than Balmont! Poem by Liza Sud
No Poet More Lofty Than Balmont!
Epigraph:
"The poet of poets, he is the noblest, he is the best among those who lived for poetry. His soul, full of unchanging blessing to everything that lives and breathes, denies all negative, and from all poetic souls it most resembles the immense and high sky! " Balmont on Shelley
God, the beloved, handed out to me a white towel,
From the unwanted - so strongly to tie up my body,
So that it didn't caper and dance freely-lovely.
In the world there's no poet more lofty than Balmont!
Balmont's a soul, he is a soul, and gigantic, imperious.
He's loving only abstractions - the Lord and the devil.
If you read him - he gives kisses to you with great passion
Kissing your lips with his syllables and mantras-phrases.
Balmont brings you to the mountains. And by his visions
Gifts you with permanent depths and dreams Endless-Transcendent.
Above small beauties - the Beauty of the Universe Creatures,
Powerful Angels, as consciousness of Vrubel's painting.
Body and soul - he is equal in justifying.
There's no sin for him - only his beautiful passions!
For he is a god and genius. And reached the Highest.
And in Christ as a Result - to the Light all is rushing.
Shouts and ice. And the Harmony of saint oblivion.
The Death is Royal. All's Goodness. Ascension to Silence.
Balmont - the Sum! Absolute as a poet and genius.
Only the Soul. And just Love to the Soul is glancing.
"1920. March 20. Night. Palm Saturday. I was in our Church thinking about you. I love palm Saturday service and figures praying with willow branches in their hands. If there were more of this element in Christian worship, I would feel more like a Christian. I want in prayerfulness the presence of the Sun, the moon, the Stars, the Ocean, the magic of Fire, flowers, music. I always pray with all my being when I swim in the Ocean, when I walk on the seashore. Hence all my endless poems, from our happy life in Brittany and in Sulak. But you, Katya, did not quite understand my words that I am not a Christian. I'm multi-faceted, you know, and I combine Christian and non-Christian. I love both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. I love Gothic cathedrals that take the soul up. I love Christian legends and the faces of Italian and Spanish painting. I love it when the dark Russian man utters the word "Christ" — then I feel good the breath of the spirit that conquers the mighty and sweetly-century space. How could I not be a Muslim with Muslims, and faithful to Odin, and a prayer book of Brahma, and obedient to Osiris. My soul is everywhere, and when the sweetest quiet chants were sung now in the illuminated Church, I felt the sharp edges of the craters of the moon." K. Balmont.
Balmont translated the complete works of Shelley into Russian, which he began in 1893. Balmont was a polyglot, having studied
some forty languages, but he admired English above all and in addition to Shelley he translated nearly all
of Whitman and Poe, as well as works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Blake, Coleridge, Byron, Tennyson,
Swinburne, and Wilde.‘So complete was Balmont's immersion in the watercolor fluidity of the English
language, that he may paradoxically be considered an English poet writing in Russian' (Terras) .
Hi Liza, Balmont was a poet who had immense confidence in the power of man. He wrote “I am master of all I survey. I triumphed over cold oblivion To create my dream. In each moment I stream with revelation, And I always sing.” Your poem lauds this extraordinary poet.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Delivering Poems Around The World
Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
5/7/2024 1:55:56 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Konstantin Balmont is familiar to all those who love poetry, (of course to those who read English) because his works have been widely translated into English.