Anna Achmatova: Muse
Anna Achmatova
(1889 – 1966)
Muza
Kogda ja noč’ju ždu ee prixoda,
Žizn’, kažetsja, visit na voloske.
Cto pocesti, cto junost’, cto svoboda
Pred miloj gost’ej s dudockoj v ruke.
I vot vošla. Otkinuv pokryvalo,
Vnimatel’no vzgljanula na menja.
Ej govorju: “Ty l’ Dantu diktovala
Stranicy Ada?” Otvecaet: “Ja”.
(1924)
Muse
When, at night, I waited for her, impatient,
Life seemed to me, as if hanging by a thread.
What just means liberty, or youth, or approbation,
When compared with the gentle piper’s tread?
And she came in, threw out the mantle’s edges,
She declined to me with a sincere heed.
I said to her, “Did you dictate the Pages
Of Hell to Dante?” She answered: “Yes, I did.”
(1924)
Anna Andrejevna Achmatova poetry
(Анна Андреевна Ахматова)
fleursdumal.nl magazine
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