Anna Akhmatova
- In Memory of V. C. Sreznevskaya, by Donald Michael Thomas
(Impossible almost, for you were always here...) - In Memory of Valeriya Sreznevskaya, by A. S. Kline
(Almost, it cannot be: you were always there...)
«Upon the paling blue veneer / That is conceivable in mid-spring, / The birch-tree branches reappeared / And quietly settled into evening. The pattern was precise and fair, / A web unmoved and finely sewn, / A drawing done on porcelain ware, / With lines immaculately drawn, — A darl...»
«On the pale-blue enamel, / that April can bring, / birch branches’ imperceptible / sway, slipped towards evening. A network of finely etched lines, / is the pattern’s finished state, / the carefully-made design, / like that on a porcelain plate, the thoughtful artist set, / on th...»
«Freedom is a wondrous marvel / Sweet to crave in candlelight. / “Stay with me before you travel,” / Cried Devotion in the night, “You are crowned by me alone. / Hold your freedom in regard / As a law that’s carved in stone; / Heed it with a loving heart…” “As a law that...»
«Your vague image, frail and born in ache, / In the fog I could not sense by touch. / “God!” my tongue let out, though by mistake, / For I did not mean to say that much. So God’s name, much like a wide-winged bird, / From my chest took on its feathered flight. / Up ahead of it, dense...»