About this book
Good translations can be inspired if the translator is imaginative and fluent in both languages, being familiar with the idioms and allusions. This is not usually how we hear each other. Most of us are often bad listeners and bad readers of literature, even indifferent as to whether the translation is inspired or merely literal. Even the best readers, they say, create in their minds a different poem each time they read it. We take from things what we like at the time, and why not?
I have found beautiful and interesting poems written in different languages and times. If you want to understand the originals, they are represented elsewhere by translations that adhere to the originals as closely as possible, which has not been my intention here. Paste them into a translation program and see what you get.
The cover features my drawing of the reverse transcriptase enzyme.
How this book is organized
The contents page is organized alphabetically by the original languages. When I’ve selected more than one poem from a language, I put them in the order that I wrote them.
The book has three pages for each poem. The language codes label the links in the header. For example, for Bulgarian, language code Bg:
- En: My poem (in English)
- Bg+literal: The original Bulgarian poem, with a literal translation on its right
- En+Bg: My poem, with the original Bulgarian poem on its right
Poets
I’ve taken the descriptions of the poets represented in this book largely from wikipedia.
- Naim Frashëri wrote “O malet’ e Shqipërisë” (literally “O mountains of Albania”) in Albanian. Frashëri (1846-1900) was a historian, journalist, poet, and translator, and was proclaimed as the national poet of Albania.
- Imru’ al-Qays wrote “قفا نبك” (literally “Stop and let’s cry”) in Arabic. Imru’ al-Qays (496-565) was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet from najd in the late fifth and early sixth centuries and also the last King of Kinda. He is sometimes considered the father of Arabic poetry.
- Petros Duryan wrote “ԻՄ ՀԱՆԳԻՍՏԸ” (literally “My Rest”) in Armenian. Duryan (1851-1872) was an Armenian poet, playwright and actor born on the Asian side of the Bosporus, across from Istanbul.
- Hamo Sahyan wrote “ՈԻՇ ԱՇՆԱՆ ԵՐԳԸ” (literally “Some Autumn Song”) in Armenian. Sahyan (1914-1993) was poet and translator. He ran the Yerevan newspaper “Avangard,” the magazine “Vozni,” and was the editor-in-chief of “Literaturnaya Gazeta.”
- Bernat Etxepare wrote “Contrapas” (literally “Counterpasses”) in Basque. Etxepare (born ca. 1470) is famous for the first book to be published in the Basque language, the collection of poems titled Linguæ Vasconum Primitiæ.
- Rabindranath Tagore wrote “তুমি যে কাজ করছ, আমায় ” (literally “The work you are doing, me”) in Bengali. Tagore (1861-1941) was a polymath who was active as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, linguist, and painter during the Bengal Renaissance.
- Ivan Vazov wrote “Здраствуйте, братушки!” (literally “Hello, cousins!”) in Bulgarian. Ivan Vazov (1850-1921) was a poet, novelist, playwright, and politician, often referred to as “the Patriarch of Bulgarian literature.”
- Salvador Espriu wrote “Cançó de capvespre” (literally “Dusk song”) in Catalan. Espriu (1913-1985) was a poet, playwright, and novelist from Barcelona. He was a proponent of noucentisme, a Catalan cultural movement of the early 20th century that originated largely as a reaction against Modernisme.
- Su Shi wrote “江城子” (literally “Song of River City”) in Chinese. Su Shi (1037-1101) was a poet, essayist, calligrapher, painter, and scholar-official who lived during the Song dynasty. A major personality of the Song era, Su was an important figure in Song Dynasty politics.
- Li Bai wrote “静夜思” (literally “Thoughts in the Silent Night”) in Chinese. Li Bai (701-762) was acclaimed as one of the greatest and most important poets of the Tang dynasty and in Chinese history as a whole. His poems have been collected into the most important Tang dynasty collection, Heyue yingling ji, compiled in 753 by Yin Fan.
- Solomon Ratt wrote “ᓰᑿᐣ!” (literally “Spring!”) in Cree. Solomon Ratt (born in 1954) is a contemporary poet, storyteller, and professor of Cree language and literature.
- Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic wrote “Propast” (literally “Abyss”) in Czech. Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic (1871-1951) was a poet, writer and literary critic. He is a prominent representative of decadence in Czech literature.
- Einar Christiansen wrote “Orgelet suste og Sangen lød” (literally “The organ whistled and the song sounded”) in Danish. Einar Christiansen (1861-1939) was a poet, journalist, critic, editor, novelist, playwright, and artistic director of the Royal Danish Theatre.
- Willem Kloos wrote “Aan de Onbekend-Blijvenden” (literally “To the Unknown-Permanents”) in Dutch. Kloos (1859-1938) was a poet and literary critic. He was one of the prominent figures of the Movement of Eighty and became editor in chief of De Nieuwe Gids after the editorial fracture in 1893.
- Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī wrote “مهمانخانە” (literally “Guest House”) in Farsi (Persian). Rumi (1207-1273) was a poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic.
- Eino Leino wrote “Elegia” (literally “Elegy”) in Finnish. Eino Leino (1878-1926) was a poet and journalist who is considered one of the pioneers of Finnish poetry and a national poet of Finland.
- Victor Hugo wrote “Demain, dès l’aube” (literally “Tomorrow, at dawn”) in French. Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a Romantic writer and politician. His most famous works are the novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables.
- Guillaume Apollinaire wrote “La Blanche Neige” (literally “Snow White”) in French. Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) was a poet, playwright, short-story writer, novelist, journalist, and art critic of Polish descent. He was a forefather of Surrealism.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote “Der du von dem Himmel bist” (literally “You who are from heaven”) in German. Goethe (1749-1832) was a polymath (a poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic) who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language.
- Sappho wrote “Fragment 31” in Greek. Sappho (c.630-c.570 BCE) was a poet from the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music.
- Varun Anand wrote “हाकिम को इक चिट्ठी लिक्खो” (literally “Write a letter to the boss”) in Hindi. Varun Anand is a poet from Ludhiana, India.
- Attila József wrote “Tiszta szívvel” (literally “With a pure heart”) in Hungarian. Attila József (bbbb-dddd) was hailed during the communist era of the 1950s as Hungary’s great “proletarian poet” and is one of the most famous Hungarian poets of the 20th century.
- Jónas Hallgrímsson wrote “Við Sogið sat eg í vindi” (literally “At Sogid I sat in the wind”) in Icelandic. Hallgrímsson (1807-1845) was a poet, writer, and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal Fjölnir, intended to promote the Icelandic Independence Movement.
- Seán Ó Ríordáin wrote “Cúl an Tí” (literally “Back of the House”) in Irish. Ríordáin (1916-1977) was apoet and newspaper columnist and is widely regarded as one of the best Irish language poets of the 20th century.
- Torquato Tasso wrote “Non sono in queste rive” (literally “There are not on these shores”) in Italian. Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) was a poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem of 1099.
- Giosuè Carducci wrote “San Martino” in Italian. Giosuè Carducci (1835-1907) was a poet, writer, literary critic, and teacher. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906, and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy.
- Matsuo Bashō wrote “草のとも (Kusa no to mo)” (literally “The grass door”) in Japanese. Bashō (1644-1694) was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period, and is recognized as the greatest master of haiku.
- Yosa Buson wrote “夏河を (Natsukawa wo)” (literally “Summer River”) in Japanese. Buson (1716-1784) was a poet and painter, considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing haiga as a style of art, working with haibun prose, and experimenting with a mixed Chinese-Japanese style of poetry.
- Kim Sowol wrote “진달래꽃” (literally “Azalea”) in Korean. Kim Sowol (1902-1934) was a poet famous for his contributions to early modern poetry. Throughout his life he wrote his poignant poetry in a style reminiscent of traditional Korean folk songs.
- Bhanubhakta Acharya wrote “घाँसी (Ghansi)” in Nepali. Bhanubhakta Acharya (1814-1868) was a writer, poet, and translator. He is widely regarded as the first poet in the Nepali language.
- Gunvor Hofmo wrote “Fra en annen virkelighet” (literally “From another reality”) in Norwegian. Gunvor Hofmo (1921-1995) is often considered one of Norway’s most influential modernist poets. She was raised in a working-class family among socialists, communists and anti-Nazis.
- Wisława Szymborska wrote “Możliwości” (literally “Possibilities”) in Polish. Szymborska (1923-2012) was a poet, essayist, translator. She was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature “for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality.”
- Luís Vaz de Camões wrote “Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver” (literally “Love is a fire that burns without being seen”) in Portuguese. Camões (c.1524-1580) is considered Portugal’s and the Portuguese language’s greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Milton, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante.
- Alexander Pushkin wrote “K ***” (literally “To ***”) in Russian. Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) was a poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era. He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet, as well as the founder of modern Russian literature.
- Kālidāsa wrote “मन्द” (literally “Dull”) in Sanskrit. Kālidāsa (4th-5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India’s greatest poet and playwright..
- Octavio Paz wrote “Viento, agua, piedra” (literally “Wind, Water, Stone”) in Spanish. Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature..
- Pablo Neruda wrote “Caminando por ahí” (literally “Walking around there”) in Spanish. Neruda (1904-1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions in various countries during his lifetime and served a term as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party.
- Euphrase Kezilahabi wrote “Mafuriko” (literally “Flooding”) in Swahili. Euphrase Kezilahabi (1944-2020) was a Tanzanian novelist, poet, and scholar.
- Gustaf Fröding wrote “En kärleksvisa” (literally “A love song”) in Swedish. Gustaf Fröding (1860-1911) was a a Swedish poet, writer, and journalist. His poetry combines formal virtuosity with a sympathy for the ordinary, the neglected and the down-trodden.
- Huseng Batute wrote “Manggagawa” (literally “Worker”) in Tagalog. Huseng Batute (1894-1932) was a Filipino poet who expressed the Filipinos’ desire for independence during the American occupation of the Philippines.
- Sunthorn Phu wrote “พระอภัยมณี - สุดสาครเข้าเมืองการะเวก” (literally “Phra Aphai Mani - Sutsakorn enters the city of Karavek”) in Thai. Sunthorn Phu (1786-1855) is Thailand’s best-known royal poet. He wrote during the Rattanakosin period. His his epic poetry is popular in Thailand to the present day.
- Gendün Chöphel wrote “བདེན་པ་གཅེར་བུ། (bden pa gcer bu)” (literally “The naked truth”) in Tibetan. Gendün Chöphel (1903-1951) was a scholar, thinker, writer, poet, linguist, and artist. He was a creative and controversial figure and is considered by many to have been one of the most important Tibetan intellectuals of the twentieth century.
- Sālote Tupou III wrote “Sangone” (literally “Build”) in Tongan. Queen Sālote (1900-1965) was was Queen of Tonga from 1918 to her death in 1965. She reigned for nearly 48 years, the longest of any Tongan monarch. She was also a keen writer and author of dance songs and love poems.
- Nâzım Hikmet wrote “Yatar Bursa Kalesinde” (literally “He Lies in Bursa Castle”) in Turkish. Nâzım Hikmet (1902-1963) was a poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and memoirist.
- Taras Shevchenko wrote “Вітер з гаєм розмовляє” (literally “The wind talks to the forest”) in Ukrainian. Shevchenko (1814-1861) was a poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer.
- Obaidullah Aleem wrote “آئیڈیل” (literally “The ideal”) in Urdu. Obaidullah Aleem (1939-1998) was a Pakistani poet of Urdu language. His book of poetry received the highest award in literature in Pakistan, the Adamji Prize.
- Tản Đà wrote “Thề non nước” (literally “Oath of mountains and rivers”) in Vietnamese. Tản Đà (1889-1939) was a a transitional figure between the turn of the 1890s and the “New Poetry” movement of the 1930s.
- Láńrewájú Adépọ̀jù wrote “Máfipáwówó” (literally “No money”) in Yorùbá. Láńrewájú Adépọ̀jù (c.1940-2023) was a poet, writer, intellectual, and religious leader from Nigeria. He is known primarily for his politically-charged poetry. He was, at different times, a poetic conscience for the Yorùbá-speaking nation, a scourge on politicians, an advocate for the masses, a religious leader whose poems often took on proselytizing characteristics, and eventually a spokesperson for politicians and administrators whose positions he supported.
- Victor de la Cruz wrote “Dxi Biaba’” (literally “The Day I Fell”) in Zapotec. Victor de la Cruz (1948-2015) was an Oaxacan poet who compiled an important anthology of Zapotec literature, The Flower of the Word. He was a professor of social anthropology in the state of Oaxaca, and edited Guaracha’ Reza (Striped Iguana), a magazine of indigenous literature.
- Sibusiso Nyembezi wrote “Impilo Yami” (literally “My life”) in Zulu. Sibusiso Nyembezi (1919-2000) was a novelist, poet, scholar, teacher, and editor.
Links and shortcuts
In any page, you can click on or touch links to jump around in this book.
- Each entry in the contents links to the poem.
- The title for a poem links back to the contents, highlighting the entry for the poem.
- Words in the headers and footers link to the index, the contents, a listing of books by the author, to this page, and to the previous and next poems in the book.
You may find the following keyboard equivalents to be convenient. Here I use the symbol ⌥ for the option key on Mac/OS or the alt key on Windows, ⇧ for the shift key, and ⏎ for the return (enter) key. Arrow keys are ◄ (left), ► (right), ▲ (up), and ▼ (down).
Context | Keys | Jump to / Behavior |
---|---|---|
cover | ⌥ ◄ | Books by Tom Sharp |
⌥ ▲ | About Tom Sharp | |
⌥ ► | about this book (this page) | |
⌥ ▼ | contents | |
⇧ ⌥ ▼ | contents | |
contents | ⇧ ⌥ ▲ | cover |
⌥ ▼ | select the next item in the contents | |
⌥ ▲ | select the previous item in the contents | |
⌥ ► | open the selected page | |
⌥ ⏎ | open the selected page | |
poem | ⇧ ⌥ ▲ | contents |
⌥ ◄ | contents | |
⌥ ▲ | open the previous page | |
⌥ ► | open the original + literal translation, translation + original, or translation in rotation | |
⌥ ▼ | open the next page |
The poet

Tom Sharp is a Native American of Aleut heritage, a member of Seldovia Village Tribe. He is the author of numerous books, including Spectacles: A Sampler of Poems and Prose, Taurean Horn Press (ISBN 0-931552-10-9), a novel, Hans and the Clock (ISBN 979-8580172484), The book of science, SciFi (ISBN 979-8694935210), Things People Do (ISBN 979-8687425568), The book of beliefs (ISBN 979-8683553593), The I Ching (ISBN 979-8573510620), Images (ISBN 979-8577560515), Aleut Artifacts (ISBN 979-8575608998), Aleut Words (ISBN 979-8582103394), and First Nations (ISBN 979-8682924769).
You may email tom/AT/liztomsharp/DOT/-c-o-m-/ to share comments on this work.
