White Flock: Poetry of Anna Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova Page A

…"
    Decem ber 9, 1913
    " Beneath this bare home’s frozen roof …"
    " All year long, you have always been near me …"
    " The ancient city seems neglected …"
    " The black road was winding slowly …"
    " How I love, how I loved to gaze endlessly …"
    " Here, human voice was never known …"
    Separation
    "The road of the seaside garden turns dark …"
    " God has no mercy on gardeners and reapers …"
    " We’re not in the forest, no need to bellow …"
    “He was promised to me by it all …”
    "Each and every day, I get …"
    " An angel of God, who betrothed us …"
    " Somewhere, without complications …"
    “I don’t think of you often at all …”
    “These squares are so spacious and wide …”
    Escape
    "When, with a firm but tired hand …"
    Statue in Tsarskoye Selo
    “The visions of Pavlovsk abound …”
    "In drowsiness, once more astounded …"
    "The immortelle is dry and rosy …"
    "I concealed all my wo rry inside me …"
     
    III
     
    May snow
    "Why is it that you still beguile me …"
    "The empty skies with a transparent gloss …"
    July 1914 – I
    July 1914 – II
    “ That voice, with silence disputing …”
    "We never quite learned to part …"
    Comfort             
    "Is thi s why, for countless days …"
    Prayer
    “Where, tall lady, is your gypsy child? …”
    “ O, how often did I curse …”
    “ Neither boat nor cart can go …”
    " I see, I see the crescent’s bow …"
    "We paced the house, stricken …"
    To my sister
    “ Thus others to the wounded crane …”
    “ In the churchyard, I’ll sleep soundly …”
    “ Your spirit, by your arrogance obscured …”
    "I come and I’m relieved of restlessness …"
    “I dream of him less often with each night …”
    "We’ll be together, dear, together …"
    In memory of July 19, 1914
     
    IV
     
    “There are such days before the spring …”
    “ The fifth of the year’s seasons …”
    “ I myself had all the say …”
    Dream
    White house
    “ Through villages and fields, he’d go …”
    “ The evening sky is gold and vast …”
    “I don’t know if you’re dead or still living …”
    “ No, tsarevich, it’s not I …”
    “ Out of your memory, I will remove this day …”
    “ He didn’t glorify or scold me …”
    “My shadow remained and it pines there …”
    “The twenty first. Monday. Night …”
    “ The heavens sow a light rain …”
    “ I know that you are my reward …”
    “These meeting didn’t leave …”
    To the beloved
    “Was my fate altered to such an extent …”
    “ Like a white stone at the bottom of the well …”
    “First ray – Lor d’s blessing, falling frail …”
    “I was born neither early nor late …”
    “Best for me to boisterously yell chastushki out …”
    “No bliss or happiness is needed …”
    “The spring was still mysterious and gentle …”
    “ The city’s gone…”
    “ O, there are words that cannot be repeated …”
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I
     

    ***
    Думали: нищие мы, нету у нас ничего,
    А как стали одно за другим терять,
    Так, что сделался каждый день
    Поминальным днем,-
    Начали песни слагать
    О великой щедрости Божьей
    Да о нашем бывшем богатстве.
     
    12 апреля 1915
     

    ***
    We thought: we’re poor and don’t have anything,
    But as we started to lose one thing after another,
    So much that each day became
    A remembrance day, -
    We began to write songs
    About God’s immense generosity
    And the wealth we once had.
     
    April 12, 1915

    ***
    Твой белый дом и тихий сад оставлю.
    Да будет жизнь пустынна и светла.
    Тебя, тебя в моих стихах прославлю,
    Как женщина прославить не могла.
    И ты подругу помнишь дорогую
    В тобою созданном