Σκουριάζει το χρυσό και το ατσάλι παίρνει σήψη,

η πέτρα θρυμματίζεται, ο θάνατος παντού.

Πάνω στη γη πιο σταθερή η θλίψη

και πιο μακρόβιος ο λόγος του σοφού

I Taught Myself to Live Simply

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,

to look at the sky and pray to God,

and to wander long before eveningto tire my superfluous worries.

When the burdocks rustle in the ravine

and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops

I compose happy verses about life's decay, decay and beauty.

I come back. The fluffy cat

licks my palm, purrs so sweetly

and the fire flares bright

on the saw-mill turret by the lake.

Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof

occasionally breaks the silence.

If you knock on my door

I may not even hear.

Anna Akhmatova

I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all

oppression and shame;

I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish withthemselves, remorseful after deeds done;

I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying,neglected, gaunt, desperate;

I see the wife misused by her husband--I see the treacherous seducer of young women;

I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to behid--

I see these sights on the earth;

I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny--

I see martyrs andprisoners;

I observe a famine at sea--

I observe the sailors casting lots whos hall be kill'd, to preserve the lives of the rest;

I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;

All these--All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, lookout upon,

See, hear, and am silent.

By Walt Whitman

Para ser grande, sê inteiro: nadaTeu exagera ou exclui.Sê todo em cada coisa. Põe quanto ésNo mínimo que fazes.Assim em cada lago a lua todaBrilha, porque alta vive.