217 Quotes by Anna Akhmatova

The evening sky is gold and vast.I’m soothed by April’s cool caress.You’re late. Too many years have passed, -I’m glad to see you, nonetheless.Come closer, sit here by my side,Be gentle with me, treat me kind:This old blue notebook – look inside –I wrote these poems as a child.Forgive me that I felt forsaken,That grief and angst was all I knew.Forgive me that I kept mistakingToo many other men for you.

Now that you're there, where everything is known—tell me:What else lived in that house besides us?

And it’s not because I’m tortured Or by some delirium swayed That I conjure up misfortune: It is just my trade.

Now prisoners will come back home, and two Russias will look each other in the eye,the one that put in prison andthe one that was put in prison.

In those years only the dead smiled, Glad to be at rest: And Leningrad city swayed like A needless appendix to its prisons.

We learned not to meet anymore,We don't raise our eyes to one another,But we ourselves won't guaranteeWhat could happen to us in an hour.

How the miracle of our meetingShone there and sang,I didn't want to returnFrom there to anywhere.Happiness instead of dutyWas bitter delight to me.Not obliged to speak to anyone,I spoke for a long while.Let passions stifle lovers,Demanding answers,We, my dear, are only soulsAt the limits of the world.

The celebrationsOf secret nonmeetings are empty,Unspoken conversations,Unuttered words.Glances that don't intersectDon't know where to come to rest.And only the tears rejoiceBecause they can flow and flow. Sweetbrier around Moscow,Alas! Somehow it is here ...And all this they will callLove eternal.

You will not live again.You will not rise from the snowTwenty-eight holes from the bayonetFive from the gun.I have made a shroud for my friend,Sad cloth.She loves, loves bloodThis Russian earth.