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Anna Achmatova: My breast grew helplessly cold

Anna Achmatova

(1889 – 1966)

My breast grew helplessly cold


My breast grew helplessly cold,

But my steps were light.

I pulled the glove from my left hand

Mistakenly onto my right.

 

It seemed there were so many steps,

But I knew there were only three!

Amidst the maples an autumn whisper

Pleaded: “Die with me!

 

I’m led astray by evil

Fate, so black and so untrue.”

I answered: “I, too, dear one!

I, too, will die with you…”

 

This is a song of the final meeting.

I glanced at the house’s dark frame.

Only bedroom candles burning

With an indifferent yellow flame.

 

29 September 1911, Tsarskoe Selo


Так беспомощьно грудь холодела,

Но шаги мои были легки.

Я на правую руку надела

Перчатку с левой руки.

 

Показалось, что много ступеней,

А я знала – их только три!

Между кленов шепот осенний

Попросил: “Со мною умри!

 

Я обманут моей унылой,

Переменчивой, злой судьбой”.

Я ответила: “Милый, милый!

И я тоже. Умру с тобой…”

 

Эта песня последней встречи.

Я взглянула на темный дом.

Только в спальне горели свечи

Равнодушно-желтым огнем.

 

29 сентября 1911, Царское Село

 

Anna Andrejevna Achmatova poetry

(Анна Андреевна Ахматова)

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