«Fourth month of the blockade. In the preceding weeks air-raid alerts had lasted anything from ten to twelve hours. The Leningrad bread ration averaged 125 to 250 grams. Dariya Vlasievna, my next-door neighbour, / Let us sit down and talk, we two, / Let's talk about the days of peace, / The pe...»
«Wake as you will, but wake in me, — / in the cold, in the voiceless depths of me. I will not beg for words, but give / me a sign that you are still alive. Not for long — just a moment of your time. / If not a verse, just a sigh, just a cry. Just a whisper or just a moan. / Just t...»
«But I keep remembering one of them, / that first spring of the blockade… / / How many rusty beds and bunks / littered the streets those days! / They hunched down among the ruins / senselessly trying to screen them. / Their sombre, bony dance twirled / everywhere the ground was bei...»
«When I set out my mother gave me / a little ikon depicting Silence. / Dumbly desperate now, for long / it has had no work beseeching god. / / And the blessed angel of Silence / watched over me jealously. / Twice – and it was no accident – / he turned me from the path. He knew…...»