Anna Akhmatova
We met there for the final time again...

We met there for the final time again
On the embankment, where we’d always go.
There was high water on the Neva then,
And all were scared that it may overflow

He spoke about the summer and he said
A woman and a poet — too bizarre.
I still recall the Fortress overhead,
And the majestic Palace of the Tsar! —

Because the air was rather strange that evening,
It was miraculous — as if a gift from God.
And at that very moment I was given
The next and final mad song of the lot.

Translated by Andrey Kneller