Anna Akhmatova
You’ve come to comfort me, dearest...

You’ve come to comfort me, dearest;
you’re really the tenderest, sweetest!
I haven’t the strength to sit up in bed,
the windows are carefully fastened
against the slightest draft.

You guessed you’d find me already dead.
That’s why you brought that simple little wreath.
Nothing hurts me so much as your smile;
you’re very good, but your jokes and fake bravery
are perhaps the saddest thing of all.

Now I don’t even care about death’s onset,
that last wrench of pain!
As long as you’re here, I’ll pray to God,
whom soon I’ll see, to be good to all
whom you love, and to you.

Translated by Seraphina Powell