Anna Akhmatova: Trending quotes (page 3)

Translated by Judith Hemschemeyer from Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova (1989)
Requiem; 1935-1940 (1963; 1987), The Sentence
Context: Today I have so much to do:
I must kill memory once and for all,
I must turn my soul to stone,
I must learn to live again—
Unless... Summer's ardent rustling
Is like a festival outside my window.

Soul , Learning , Memory

“Regarding myself as a mere echo,
Cave-like, unintelligible and nocturnal…”

Anna Akhmatova

Source: The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

“I go forth to seek —
To seek and claim the lovely magic garden
Where grasses softly sigh and Muses speak.”

Anna Akhmatova

Translated by Irina Zheleznova

Love , Grass

“All has been looted, betrayed, sold;
black death's wing flashed ahead.”

Anna Akhmatova

"Looted" (1921), as translated by Dmitri Obolensky

Death

“The stars of death stood over us.
And Russia, guiltless, beloved, writhed
under the crunch of bloodstained boots,
under the wheels of Black Marias.”

Anna Akhmatova

Stars of death stood
Above us, and innocent Russia
Writhed under bloodstained boots, and
Under the tyres of Black Marias.
Translated by D. M. Thomas
Requiem; 1935-1940 (1963; 1987), Prologue

Death , Star

“A multi-colored crowd streaked about,
and suddenly all was totally changed.
It wasn't the usual city racket.
It came from a strange land.”

Anna Akhmatova

"The First Long Range Artillery Fire On Leningrad," translation by Daniela Gioseffi (1993) http://users.tellurian.net/wisewomensweb/OnPrgudc.html

Color , Change

“Already madness lifts its wing
to cover half my soul.”

Anna Akhmatova

Requiem; 1935-1940 (1963; 1987)

Soul , Madness

“Besides
what have poets, in any case, to do with sin?
They must dance before the Ark of the Covenant
or die! But what am I trying to say?”

Anna Akhmatova

Poem without a Hero (1963)

Dance

“No-one was more cherished, no-one tortured
Me more, not
Even the one who betrayed me to torture,
Not even the one who caressed me and forgot.”

Anna Akhmatova

"I Don't Know If You're Alive Or Dead" (1915)

“Prince Charming, prince of the mockers —
compared with him the foulest of sinners
is grace incarnate…”

Anna Akhmatova

Poem without a Hero (1963)

“You will come in any case — so why not now?
How long I wait and wait. The bad times fall.
I have put out the light and opened the door
for you, because you are simple and magical.
Assume, then, any form that suits your wish,
take aim, and blast at me with poisoned shot,
or strangle me like an efficient mugger,
or else infect me — typhus be my lot”

Anna Akhmatova

Requiem; 1935-1940 (1963; 1987), To Death

Light , Time , Waiting

“The sand as white
as old bones, the pine trees
strangely red where the sun comes down.
I cannot say if it is our love,
or the day, that is ending.”

Anna Akhmatova

Departures (1964), translated by Michael Cuanach http://web.archive.org/20041217155724/members.tripod.com/~Cuanach/anna.html

Love , Tree , Sun

“I am not one of those who left the land
to the mercy of its enemies.
Their flattery leaves me cold,
my songs are not for them to praise.”

Anna Akhmatova

I am not one of those who left the land..." (1922), translated in Poems of Akhmatova (1973) by Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward

“Thinking of the sun makes
my heart beat faster — too fast!
What darkness!
From this night winter begins.”

Anna Akhmatova

Variant translations:
Memory of sun fades in my heart
What is this? Darkness? Maybe! —
During the night comes
winter.
"Memory of the Sun" (alternate translation by Paula Goodman)
Thinking Of The Sun (1911)

Thinking , Winter , Sun , Heart

“Such grief might make the mountain stoop,
reverse the waters where they flow,
but cannot burst these ponderous bolts
that block us from the prison cells
crowded with mortal woe…”

Anna Akhmatova

The mountains bow before this anguish,
The great river does not flow.
In mortal sadness the convicts languish;
The bolts stay frozen.
Translated by D. M. Thomas
Requiem; 1935-1940 (1963; 1987), Dedication

Mountain , Water