Anna Akhmatova
Everything’s plundered, betrayed, in ruin’s jaws...

Everything’s plundered, betrayed, in ruin’s jaws,
The black wing of death flicks and gleams;
A hungry sick anguish at bowels and guts gnaws,
And yet here we are dreaming our dreams?

By daylight the woods near the outskirts of town
Breathe out an astringent and cherry-laced smell,
By night there are skies of July’s eiderdown,
Grown brilliant with starlight that darkness can’t quell.

And so near comes that something of wonder
To our derelict, sullied and filthy abodes,
We’ve been craving forever its recondite umbra,
But what is it? Where is it bound? No one knows.

Translated by U. R. Bowie