Under God's eyes they were bound as one,
Bell and Beaupré,
his beloved Dorothie,
a shining light in his heart.
So inspired by love was he
that he made her a window,
sunlight illuminating the stained glass,
colours dancing across stone halls.
The window, a display of their love,
their names joined in eternal embrace,
a love as fierce
as the fever that took him.
Charles d'Orleans
Modern English poetry translations by Michael R. Burch
Charles d'Orleans bio and timeline/chronology
Was Charles d'Orleans the world's greatest love poet? I believe he is certainly a candidate. His bio appears after his poems.
Oft in My Thought
by Charles d'Orleans (c. 1394-1465)
loose translation/interpretation/modernization by Michael R. Burch
These are my modern English translations of ancient Greek poems and epigrams by Sophocles, including antinatalist poems and epigrams.
It’s a hundred times better not be born;
but if we cannot avoid the light,
the path of least harm is swiftly to return
to death’s eternal night!
Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC), Oedipus at Colonus, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Not to have been born is best,
and blessed
beyond the ability of words to express.
—Sophocles, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
These are English translations of Spanish poems written by Pablo Neruda, along with translations of select epigrams and quotes.
PABLO NERUDA TRANSLATIONS
You can crop all the flowers but you cannot detain spring.
―Pablo Neruda, loose translation by Michael R. Burch
While nothing can save us from death,
still love can redeem each breath.
―Pablo Neruda, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
MICHELANGELO TRANSLATIONS
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564)was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet. He and his fellow Florentine, Leonardo da Vinci, were rivals for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man. Michelangelo is considered by many to be the greatest artist of all time.
MICHELANGELO EPIGRAM TRANSLATIONS
I saw the angel in the marble and freed him.―Michelangelo, translation by Michael R. Burch
I hewed away the coarse walls imprisoning the lovely apparition.―Michelangelo, translation by Michael R. Burch
These are modern English translations of Urdu poems by Mirza Ghalib.
Near Sainthood
by Mirza Ghalib
translation by Kanu V. Prajapati and Michael R. Burch
On the subject of mystic philosophy, Ghalib,
your words might have struck us as deeply profound ...
Hell, we might have pronounced you a saint,
if only we hadn't found
you drunk
as a skunk!
***
Ghazal
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
These are my modern English translations of Takaha Shugyo haiku and tanka...
hatogata horarete ichiju haya mebuku
A single tree
with a heart carved into its trunk
blossoms prematurely
—Takaha Shugyo, loose translation by Michael R. Burch
dôkefuku nugazu tentômushi no shi yo
Still clad in its clown's costume—
the dead ladybird.
—Takaha Shugyo, loose translation by Michael R. Burch
ochitsubaki ware naraba kyuryu e otsu
