Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova Poems

Akhmatova, whose real surname was Gorenko, is one of the two greatest women poets in the history of Russian poetry. The daughter of a merchant marine engineer, she spent much of her childhood in Tsarskoye Selo, the village outside St. Petersburg where the Tsar's summer palace was located. The regal nature of her work is perhaps in part attributable to this royal environment. Her first books of poetry, Vecher (Evening) (1912) and Chyotki (Rosary) (1913; reissued eleven times), brought her critical acclaim. From 1910 to 1918 she was married to Nikolay Gumilev.

Akhmatova's poetry, with a few exceptions, is distinguished from that of Russia's other preeminent woman poet, Marina Tsvetayeva, by its polished form, classical transparency, and thematic intimacy. She wrote comparatively few poems of a "civic" character and, unlike almost any other poet, little or nothing that could be called mediocre. Her poetry has stood well the test of time, as evidenced by such works as "Mne golos byl..." (I heard a voice...), which repudiates immigration; the patriotic "Muzhestvo" (Courage), which appeared during World War II; the remarkable "Rekviem" (Requiem); and others.

It is revealing that, despite the personal tragedy of her son's arrest and persecution during Stalin's worst purges in 1937-1938, she did not grow bitter but bore her pain with dignity and endurance. In 1946 Akhmatova, along with Mikhail Zoshchenko, fell prey to harsh and unjust criticism in a party resolution "About the Journals Zvezda and Leningrad" in a repressive persecution of the arts led by Andrey Zhdanov. She was not rehabilitated fully until the 1960s. In 1964 she was awarded the Italian Taormina Prize and in 1965 she received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. At the time of her death Akhmatova was highly acclaimed both at home and abroad. Her funeral was a farewell to an entire literary epoch (more than half a century) of which she herself was the queen with a very heavy crown.

1907

1909

1910

1911

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in german

Anna Achmatowa, gedichte (deutsch)

1909

1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1916

1917

1921

1922

1935

1936

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1945

in french

Anna Akhmatova, des poèmes (français)

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1917

1918

1921

1924

1935

1940

1957

1959

1963

in spanish

Anna Ajmátova, poemas (español)

1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1917

1919

1922

1924

1925

1934

1936

1939

1940

1942

1943

1944

1958

1959

in bulgarian

Анна Ахматова, стихотворения (български)

1916

1960

in italian

Anna Achmatova, poesie (italiano)

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

1921

1922

1934

1935

1939

1940

1946

1960

1961

in croatian

Ana Ahmatova, pjesme (hrvatski)

1911

1915

1935

1939

1943

in greek

Άννα Αχμάτοβα, ποιήματα (ελληνικά)

1913

in turkish

Anna Ahmatova, şiirler (türkçe)

1911

1913

1915

1919

in portuguese

Anna Akhmátova, poemas (português)

1909

1911

1913

1934

1940

in hungarian

Anna Ahmatova, versek (magyar)

1911

1912

1916

1924

in polish

Anna Achmatowa, wiersze (polski)

1912

in swedish

Anna Achmatova, dikter (svenska)

1913

1914

in dutch

Anna Achmatova, gedichten (nederlands)

1911

1915

1922

1959

in finnish

Anna Ahmatova, runoja (suomi)

1910

1911

1913

1914

1918

1922

1957

1963

in vietnamese

Anna Akhmatova, những bài thơ (tiếng việt)

1912

1913

in malayalam

അന്ന അഖ്മത്തോവ, കവിതകൾ (മലയാളം)

1961

in albanian

Anna Akhmatova, poezi (gjuha shqipe)

1940

in romanian

Anna Ahmatova, poezii (română)

1911

1915

1921

1946

1956

1959

in lithuanian

Ana Achmatova, eilėraščiai (lietuvių)

1911

in belarusian

Ганна Ахматава, вершы (беларуская)

1959

in armenian

Աննա Ախմատովա, բանաստեղծություններ (հայերեն)

1910

1911

1917

1924