Voltaire Translations
This is my modern English translation of a French poem by Voltaire, one of my all-time favorite writers. The poem is followed by two translations of epigrams by Voltaire.
Les Vous et Les Tu (“You, then and now”)
by Voltaire
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Elegy for a little girl, lost
This is an elegy that I dedicated to my mother, Christine Ena Burch, after her death from Covid pneumonia.
Elegy for a little girl, lost
by Michael R. Burch
. . . qui laetificat juventutem meam . . .
She was the joy of my youth,
and now she is gone.
. . . requiescat in pace . . .
May she rest in peace.
. . . amen . . .
Amen.
Early Poems IX
These are early poems of mine, written beginning as a boy around age eleven, during my teens as a high school and college freshman and sophomore, and a few written in my early twenties.
The Toast
by Michael R. Burch
The Greatest Joke
"I died yesterday."
It was a start of a joke i heard.
He was a meer 18 years of age.
"I died yesterday."
That is all that he said.
He smiled and walked away.
Leaving me in tears of laughter.
Springtime Sun
Springtime Sun
Yin Qiqi (~800)In times of doubt I sing to spring’s fresh sun
And free the knots tied up within my gut—
Your young man’s left his home and not come back
But winter’s snow will wash the willow’s smut.
Chinese 陽春曲 殷七七 愁見唱陽春 令人離腸結 郎去未歸家 柳自飄香雪 | Pronunciation Yáng Chūn Qū Yīn Qīqī |