I’m kissing you now — across The gap of a thousand years.

“Where does such tenderness come from And what do I do with it, you, sly, Adolescent, vagabond singer, Whose lashes couldn’t be longer?”

— Marina Tsvetaeva

“I’ll rise up as a poem…”

— Marina Tsvetaeva

“After a night of insomnia the body gets weaker, Becomes dear but no one’s — not even your own.”

— Marina Tsvetaeva

“The Mysterious Visitor Spirit, lovely guest, who are you? Whence have you flown down to us? Taciturn and without a sound Why have you…

— Vasily Zhukovsky

“We don't know how to say goodbye, We wander on, shoulder to shoulder Already the sun is going down You're moody, and I am…

— Anna Akhmatova

“Here's how I used to think you made a book: a poet comes along, mouth half open, inspired, then suddenly the idiot bursts into…

— Vladimir Mayakovsky

“But then he touched the flowers With the dry tips of his fingers. "Tell me how men kiss you. Tell me how you kiss.”

— Anna Akhmatova

“A chestnut-haired child Cheering up, went and stood in his stall. And took the whole incident like a young colt - and to live…

— Vladimir Mayakovsky

“If you prefer, I'll be pure raging meat, or if you prefer, as the sky changes tone, I'll be absolutely tender, not a man,…

— Vladimir Mayakovsky

“To a Familiar Genius Flying By Reveal yourself, anonymous enchanter! What heaven hastens you to me? Why draw me to that promised land again…

— Vasily Zhukovsky

“I hope for a light grief in old age. I was born in Rome and it has returned to me. My autumn was a…

— Anonymous

“Lalla Ruk Dearest dream, my soul's enchantment Lovely guest from heav'n above, Most benevolent attender To the earthly realm below, You gave me blissful…

— Vasily Zhukovsky

Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in…

— Alfred the Great

A thousand years may scare form a state. An hour may lay it in ruins.

— Lord Byron

Memory revises me. Even now a letter comes from a place I don’t know, from someone with my name and postmarked years ago, while…

— Li-Young Lee