from 'Poems of Akhmatova' selected, translated and introduced by Stanley Kunitz with Max Hayward.
Anna Akhmatova's life - http://kashpureff.org/susan/Akhmatova.txt
selected poems:
* "I Wrung My Hands..."
I wrung my hands under my dark veil...
"Why are you pale, what makes you reckless?"
-- Beacause I have made my loved one drunk
with an astringent sadness.
I'll never forget. He went out, reeling;
his mouth was twisted, desolate...
I ran downstairs, not touching the banisters,
and followed him as far as the gate.
And shouted, choking: "I meant it all
in fun. Don't leave me, or I'll die of pain."
He smiled at me - oh so calmly, terribly -
and said: "Why don't you get out of the rain? "
- Kiev, 1911
* "Heart's Memory of Sun ..."
Heart's memory of sun grows fainter,
sallow is the grass;
a few flakes toss in the wind
scarcely, scarcely.
The narrow canals no longer flow,
they are frozen over.
Nothing will ever happen here,
oh, never!
In the bleak sky the willow spreads
its bare-boned fan.
Maybe I'm better off as I am,
not as your wife.
Heart's memory of sun grows fainter.
What now? Darkness?
Perhaps! This very night unfolds
the winter.
- Kiev, 1911
* "Three Things Enchanted Him..."
Three things enchanted him:
white peacocks, evensong,
and faded maps of America.
He couldn't stand bawling brats,
or raspberry jam with his tea,
or womanish hysteria.
... And he was tied to me.
- 1911
* The Guest
Nothing is changed: against the dining-room windows
hard grains of whirling snow still beat.
I am what I was,
but a man came to me.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"To be with you in hell," he said.
I laughed, "It's plain you mean
to have us both destroyed."
He lifted his thin hand
and lightly stroked the flowers:
"Tell me how men kiss you,
tell me how you kiss."
His torpid eyes were fixed
unblinking on my ring.
Not a single muscle stirred
in his clear, sardonic face.
Oh, I see: his game is that he knows
intimately, ardently,
there's nothing from me he wants,
I have nothing to refuse.
- 1 January 1914
Her favorite drawing of herself by her friend Modigliani
http://kashpureff.org/susan/Modigliani_Akhmatova.jpg
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