Section: «Poems»

Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings: artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.); a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").

Thoughts Of The Sunlight

Thoughts of the sunlight fainter and dimmer,And parched the grass.Breezes, freh breezes at dawn's early shimmer,Flit by repass.Look at the willows..

© Anna Akhmatova

I Have No Use For Odic Legions

I have no use for odic legions,Or for the charm of elegiac playFor me, all verse should be off kilterNot the usual way.If only you knew what trash..

© Anna Akhmatova

How Many Demands...

How many demands the beloved can make!The woman discarded, none.How glad I am that today the waterUnder the colorless ice is motionless.And I stand ..

© Anna Akhmatova

Now No-One Will Be Listening To Songs

Now no-one will be listening to songs.The days long prophesied have come to pass.The world has no more miracles. Don't breakMy heart, song, but be..

© Anna Akhmatova

In The Evening

The garden rang with musicOf inexpressible despair.A dish of oysters spread on iceSmelled like the ocean, fresh and sharp.He told me: 'I'm a faithful..

© Anna Akhmatova

The Last Toast

I drink to home, that is lost,To evil life of mine,To loneness in which we’re both,And to your future, fine, --To lips by which I was betrayed,To..

© Anna Akhmatova

He Did Love

He did love three things in this world:Choir chants at vespers, albino peacocks,And worn, weathered maps of America.And he did not love children..

© Anna Akhmatova

Somewhere There Is A Simple Life

Somewhere there is a simple life and a world,Transparent, warm and joyful. . .There at evening a neighbor talks with a girlAcross the fence, and only..

© Anna Akhmatova

Alexander By Thebes

I think, the king was fierce, though young,When he proclaimed, 'You’ll level Thebes with ground.'And the old chief perceived this city proud,He’d..

© Anna Akhmatova

This Evening’s Light Is Golden Bright

This evening's light is golden bright,The April’s coolness is so tender,Though you are many years too late,I still do welcome you to enter.Right next..

© Anna Akhmatova

In Dream

Black and enduring separationI share equally with you.Why weep? Give me your hand,Promise me you will come again.You and I are like highMountains and..

© Anna Akhmatova

True Tenderness

True tenderness is silentand can't be mistaken for anything else.In vain with earnest desireyou cover my shoulders with fur;In vain you try to..

© Anna Akhmatova

I am a Bard...

I am a bard - I am a heaven bird,I need no any richness of the world.I love a flower and so charming lassIn aromatic springs that never pass.I love a..

© Anna Akhmatova

Muse

When, in the night, I wait for her, impatient,Life seems to me, as hanging by a thread.What just means liberty, or youth, or approbation,When..

© Anna Akhmatova

Song Of The Final Meeting

My breast grew helplessly cold,But my steps were light.I pulled the glove from my left handMistakenly onto my right.It seemed there were so many..

© Anna Akhmatova

A Widow In Black

A widow in black -- the crying fallCovers all hearts with a depressing cloud...While her man's words are clearly recalled,She will not stop her..

© Anna Akhmatova

Greetings!

Do you hear the soft rustlebeside your table?Don't bother to writefor I'll come to you.Is it possible you are angrywith me like the last time?You say..

© Anna Akhmatova

I Don'T Like Flowers

I don't like flowers - they do remind me oftenOf funerals, of weddings and of balls;Their presence on tables for a dinner calls.But sub-eternal..

© Anna Akhmatova

"Thank You, God..."

Thank you, God: I dream of him more seldom,And don't see him now in every place,The white path with clouds has been laden,Easy shadows o'er the..

© Anna Akhmatova

In Human Closeness There Is A Secret Edge

In human closeness there is a secret edge,Nor love nor passion can pass it above,Let lips with lips be joined in silent rage,And hearts be burst..

© Anna Akhmatova

The Two Of Us Won’t Share A Glass Together

The two of us won’t share a glass togetherBe it of water or of sweet red wine;We won’t be kissing, in the morning eitherNor, late at night, enjoy an..

© Anna Akhmatova

As A White Stone In The Well's Cool Deepness

As a white stone in the well's cool deepness,There lays in me one wonderful remembrance.I am not able and don't want to miss this:It is my torture..

© Anna Akhmatova

And As It's Going

And as it's going often at love's breaking,The ghost of first days came again to us,The silver willow through window then stretched in,The silver..

© Anna Akhmatova

Here Is My Gift

Here is my gift, not roses on your grave,not sticks of burning incense.You lived aloof, maintaining to the endyour magnificent disdain.You drank..

© Anna Akhmatova

Willow

And I grew up in patterned tranquillity,In the cool nursery of the young century.And the voice of man was not dear to me,But the voice of the wind I..

© Anna Akhmatova