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"It was a time when only the dead
smiled, happy in their peace.
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Stars of Death stood over us,
and innocent Russia squirmed
under the bloody boots,
under the wheels of black Marias."
Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), Russian poet. "Requiem," introduction, trans. by Richard McKane (1985).
Though Akhmatova's long poem about the Stalinist purges—during which time her only son was arrested—was written mainly 1935-1940, it was not published until 1963 in West Germany, and not in its entirety in the Soviet Union until 1987. |
"The triumphs of a mysterious non-meeting are desolate ones; unspoken phrases, silent words."
Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), Russian poet. "Two Poems," no. 2, l. 1 (1956), trans. by Dimitri Obolensky (1965). |
"Wild honey smells of freedom
The dust—of sunlight
The mouth of a young girl, like a violet
But gold—smells of nothing."
Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), Russian poet. "Wild Honey Smells of Freedom," lines 1-4, as translated by Lenore Mayhew and William McNaughton (1943). |
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Anna Akhmatova
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