“He is no better and no worse,
but he is free of Lethe's curse:
his warm hand makes a human pledge.”

—  Anna Akhmatova

Poem without a Hero (1963)
Context: All the mirrors on the wall
show a man not yet appeared
who could not enter this white hall.
He is no better and no worse,
but he is free of Lethe's curse:
his warm hand makes a human pledge.
Strayed from the future, can it be
that he will really come to me,
turning left from the bridge?

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Anna Akhmatova photo
Anna Akhmatova 99
Russian modernist poet 1889–1966

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