217 Quotes by Anna Akhmatova

I know beginnings, I know endings too, and life-in-death, and something else I’d rather not recall just now.

The secret of secrets is inside me again.

I am in the middle of it: chaos and poetry; poetry and love and again, complete chaos. Pain, disorder, occasional clarity; and at the bottom of it all: only love; poetry. Sheer enchantment, fear, humiliation. It all comes with love.

First as a serpent, it’ll cast its spell Next to your heart, curled up. Then it’ll come as a dove as well, Cooing for days nonstop.

Sweet to me was not the voice of man, But the wind’s voice was understood by me. The burdocks and the nettles fed my soul, But I loved the silver willow best of all.

Wild honey smells of freedom The dust – of sunlight The mouth of a young girl, like a violet But gold – smells of nothing.

I myself, from the very beginning, Seemed to myself like someone’s dream or delirium Or a reflection in someone else’s mirror, Without flesh, without meaning, without a name. Already I knew the list of crimes That I was destined to commit.

Love conquers, deceitful and slow, With a soft amateurish refrain. So strange to think – not long ago You weren’t dejected and gray.

I’ve got no more tears or explanations.