Anna Akhmatova
There’s hardly any body left...

There’s hardly any body left,
The tortured lips have all but withered!
I didn’t want this kind of death,
The time-frame that I chose was different.
I had an image: two big clouds
Collide together, fast and free,
And lightning’s fire plummets down,
And mighty ecstasy rings loud,
And both, like angels, come for me.

Translated by Andrey Kneller