Free Final Meeting: Selected Poetry of Anna Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova
     
    Final Meeting

     
     
     
     
     
    Copyrigh t Kneller, Boston, 2011
    All rights reserved

     
    Also by Andrey Kneller:
     
    White Flock: Poetry of Anna A khmatova
    Wondrous Moment: Selected Poetry of Alexan der Pushkin
    My Poems: Selected Poetry of Marina Tsve taeva
    Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry of Vladimir Maya kovsky
    February: Selected Poetry of Boris P asternak
    The Stranger: Selected Poetry of Alexander B lok
    Unfinished Flight: Selected Poetry of Vladimi r Vysotsky
    O, Time…: Selected Poetry of Victoria Roshe
    Discernible Sound: Select ed Poetry
     
     
     
     

 
 
 
 
For Len a

     
    Table of Contents
     
    "My night - I think of you obsessively…"
    Reading Hamlet
    "Either I remained with you…"
    "The pillow is already hot…"
    "The stifling wind is hot and parching…"
    "In my room, there is a serpent…"
    He loved…
    "Hands pressed together under the veil…"
    During the white night
    Song of the final meeting
    "Love conquers, deceitful and slow…"
    In the evening
    "Real tenderness can't be confused…"
    "The boy said to me…"
    "We are all heavy-drinkers and whores…"
    "There's hardly any body left…"
    "I don’t think of you often at all…"
    The Guest
    “I went in to see the poet…”
    "An angel of God, who betrothed us…"
    "The earthly glory is like smoke…"
    "Leaving behind the groves…"
    "These meetings didn't leave…"
    "We thought: we're poor…"
    "Each and every day I get…"
    "There are such days before the spring…"
    "The evening sky is gold and vast…"
    "He didn't glory or scold me…"
    "I know that you are my reward…"
    "All's taken away…"
    "We never quite learned to part…"
    "You're always enigmatic and new…"
    "All is traded, betrayed, and languished…"
    The Muse
    "For all the foolishness I've said…"
    "When a person dies…"
    "Not weeks, not months…"
    The teacher
    “Like a river, I was turned off course…”
    "Like someone deaf, blind and mute…"
    "Pray before sleep…"
     
    Requiem
    Instead of a Preface
    Dedication
    Prologue
    I
    II
    III
    IV
    V
    VI
    VII The Verdict
    VIII To Death
    IX
    Crucifixion
    Ep ilogue
     
 
     
     

     
     
    Anna Akhmatova
     
    Selected Poetry
    19 09-1959
     

    ***
    Ночь моя – бред о тебе,
    День – равнодушное: пусть!
    Я улыбнулась судьбе,
    Мне посылающей грусть.
     
    Тяжек вчерашний угар,
    Скоро ли я догорю,
    Кажется, этот пожар
    Не превратиться в зарю.
     
    Долго ль мне биться в огне,
    Дальнего тайно кляня?...
    В страшной моей западне
    Ты не увидишь меня.
     
    1909, Киев
     

    ***
    My night – I think of you obsessively,
My day – indifferent: let it be!
I turned and smiled at my destiny
That brought me only misery.

The fumes of yesterday are dire,
The flames that burn me will not die,
It seems to me, this blazing fire
Will not become a sunlit sky.

Shall I endure without conceding,
And curse you for not being there?...
You’re far away. You’ll never see me
Imprisoned in my awful snare.
     
    1909, Kiev

    Читая Гамлета
    У кладбища направо пылил пустырь,
    А за ним голубела река.
    Ты сказал мне: "Ну что ж, иди в монастырь
    Или замуж за дурака..."
    Принцы только такое всегда говорят,
    Но я эту запомнила речь,-
    Пусть струится она сто веков подряд
    Горностаевой мантией с плеч.
     
    1909
     

    Reading Hamlet
    There’s the graveyard, the wasteland, the shore,
Where the river shines cool and blue.
You told me: “Get thee to a nunnery or
Find a fool to marry you…”
That’s the sort of thing princes say, I know,
But I’ll never forget this one, –
Like an ermine mantle let your