Anna Akhmatova Poetry
Here's a sound clip of Akhmatova reciting
the poem "To the Muse," from the video the
Akhmatova File.
.mp3 file format 173K
Here are some Akhmatova poems translated into
English:
When you're drunk it's so much fun --
An early fall has strung
The elms with yellow flags.
We've strayed into the land of deceit
And we're repenting bitterly,
Why then are we smiling these
Strange and frozen smiles?
We wanted piercing anguish
Instead of placid happiness. . .
I won't abandon my comrade,
So dissolute and mild.
1911 (Paris)
-- translated by Judith Hemschemeyer
Complete
Poems of Anna Akhmatova
Originally published (in Russian) in the book
Evening, 1912
How many demands the beloved can make!
The woman discarded, none.
How glad I am that today the water
Under the colorless ice is motionless.
And I stand -- Christ help me! --
On this shroud that is brittle and bright,
But save my letters
So that our descendants can decide,
So that you, courageous and wise,
Will be seen by them with greater clarity.
Perhaps we may leave some gaps
In your glorious biography?
Too sweet is earthly drink,
Too tight the nets of love.
Sometime let the children read
My name in their lesson book,
And on learning the sad story,
Let them smile shyly. . .
Since you've given me neither love nor peace
Grant me bitter glory.
1913
-- translated by Judith Hemschemeyer
Complete
Poems of Anna Akhmatova
Originally published (in Russian) in the book
Rosary, 1914
Somewhere there is a simple life and a world,
Transparent, warm and joyful. . .
There at evening a neighbor talks with a girl
Across the fence, and only the bees can hear
This most tender murmuring of all.
But we live ceremoniously and with difficulty
And we observe the rites of our bitter meetings,
When suddenly the reckless wind
Breaks off a sentence just begun --
But not for anything would we exchange this
splendid
Granite city of fame and calamity,
The wide rivers of glistening ice,
The sunless, gloomy gardens,
And, barely audible, the Muse's voice.
June 23, 1915
-- translated by Judith Hemschemeyer
Complete
Poems of Anna Akhmatova
Originally published (in Russian) in the book
White Flock, 1917.
-Has this century been worse
Than the ages that went before?
Perhaps in this, that in a daze of grief and anguish
It touched, but could not cure, the vilest sore.
In the west the earthly sun is still shining,
And the roofs of the cities gleam in its rays,
But here the white one already chalks crosses on the houses
And summons the crows, and the crows come flying..
Winter 1919
-- translated by Judith Hemschemeyer
Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova
Originally published (in Russian) in the book
Plantain,
1921.
To the Many
I -- am your voice, the warmth of your breath,
I -- am the reflection of your face,
The futile trembling of futile wings,
I am with you to he end, in any case.
That's why you so fervently love
Me in my weakness and in my sin;
That's why you impulsively gave
Me the best of your sons;
That's why you never even asked
Me for any word of him
And blackened my forever-deserted home
With fumes of praise.
And they say -- it's impossible to fuse more closely,
Impossible to love more abandonedly. . .
As the shadow from the body wants to part,
As the flesh from the soul wants to separate,
So I want now -- to be forgotten..
September 1922
-- translated by Judith Hemschemeyer
Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova
Originally published (in Russian) in the book
Anno Domini MCMXXI,
1922.
Wild honey has the scent of freedom,
dust--of a ray of sun,
a girl's mouth--of a violet,
and gold--has no perfume.
Watery--the mignonette,
and like an apple--love,
but we have found out forever
that blood smells only of blood.
1933
--Translated by Jane Kenyon
Twenty
Poems of Anna Akhmatova
Originally published (in the Russian) in the book
Reed, 1924.