Anna Akhamatova -- Requiem & Other Poems with Annotations

March 7, 2022 12:50 PM

Witness History -- Anna Akhmatova -- Voice of Russia -- BBC Sounds

Requiem by Anna Akhmatova in English translation

In the awful days of the Yezhovschina I passed seventeen months in the outer waiting line of the prison visitors in Leningrad. Once, somebody ‘identified’ me there. Then a woman, standing behind me in the line, which, of course, never heard my name, waked up from the torpor, typical for us all there, and asked me, whispering into my ear (all spoke only in a whisper there):

“And can you describe this?”

And I answered:

“Yes, I can.”

Then the weak similarity of a smile glided over that, what had once been her face.

April 1, 1957; Leningrad

Requiem by Anna Akhmatova in Russian
...Well, it may be silly in aspect but it is in Russian...

In Our Time -- Anna Akhmatova -- BBC (January 18, 2018)

See also

Anna Akhmatova

Owlcation: Understanding the Poem Cycle "Requiem" by Anna Akhmatova

Poems by Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhamatova Assessed

posted by y2karl (10 comments total)

Спасибо y2karl .
posted by doctornemo at 1:56 PM on March 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Добро пожаловать!
posted by y2karl at 2:00 PM on March 7, 2022

1914

"The air reeks with smolder. For all of four weeks
Dry peat in the bogs has been burning.
Even the birdsong is mute and discreet,
And the aspen tree’s tremble lacks yearning.

Sunlight that sears speaks of Godly disfavor,
Not a sprinkle of rainfall since Easter.
In the courtyard alone stands a querulous raver,
A one-legged transient preacher."
posted by clavdivs at 3:09 PM on March 7, 2022 [5 favorites]

A raver raven makes faux an only in English mondegreen mosh pit of one.
posted by y2karl at 3:23 PM on March 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

The BBC In Our Time installment on Akhamatova is also an excellent start. LINK
posted by Caxton1476 at 7:23 PM on March 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

That's why it was the 1st link in More Inside! ;)
posted by y2karl at 8:06 PM on March 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Well, 2nd, to be sure. To paraphrase Engelbert Humperdink, "Please delete me, can't you see... (musical notes emoji)
posted by y2karl at 8:14 PM on March 7, 2022

Mod note: y2karl, please don't threadsit.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 8:20 PM on March 7, 2022

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know much about her but have been reading through her poems chronologically on the second last link throughout the day. I'm up to 1916. Her style (or the translations) is exactly my preference in poetry - not too centred or focused on rhyme or structure, but about striking images and ideas and interiority. I like how quiet but emotive they are, and intimate.

Stunning website design by the way, that link.

I wonder what Languagehat would have commented in this post, I seem to remember he was deeply interested in Russian literature.
posted by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were at 8:22 PM on March 7, 2022

She was my dear Russian professor’s favorite poet, but I have never read her work and had forgotten about her. Thank you for reminding me.
posted by Comet Bug at 5:22 PM on March 8, 2022