217 Quotes by Anna Akhmatova

Every evening I receiveA letter like a brideTo my friend I giveResponse late at night."I'll be guest of the white deathOn my journey down.You, my tender one, don't doHarm to anyone."And there stands a giant starBetween two wood beams,With such calmness promisingTo fulfil your dreams.

For this gloomy beast within my breast - A heart. But the thing is,We've all had to learn not to sleep for three years.In the morning we shall find outWho has died in the night.

Let whoever wants to, relax in the south,And bask in the garden of paradise.Here is the essence of north—and it's autumnI've chosen as this year's friend.

Will you forgive me these November days?

But what would it have cost you to make people happy and agree that you'd had an affair?" She replied very gravely, "I have lived my own unique life, and my life lacks nothing; it has no need to borrow from other people

All my contemporaries—hundred-and-fivers or convicts—will tell you how we livedin barely sentient fear, raisingchildren for the executioner,prison, or the torture chamber.

Could Beatrice have written like Dante,or Laura have glorified love's pain?I set the style for women's speech.God help me shut them up again!

I do not count mortal daysUnder the roof of a chilled empty building,I'm reading the Apostles' words,Words of Psalm-singer I am reading.Sleet is fluffy, and stars turn blue,And more marvelous is each meeting --And in the Bible a leafOn Song of Songs is sitting.

Like thick and tangled hairOf Magdalenes half-crazed.