04/28/2021
Anna Akhmatova is one of the most significant figures in the Russian literature of the 20th century. She became established as a popular poet in 1910s and is known to bring in a distinct woman's voice in the Russian literature of that time. Having lost many friends and family members to prisons and concentration camps during the period of Stalinism started in 1927, her later poetry became an eyewitness testimony of the Stalinist terrors. This period of Akhmatova's literary work is represented by her most famous cycle Requiem.
Lot’s Wife
And God’s luminous messenger, larger than life,
Led the one righteous man along the black mountain.
But regret cried out to his wife:
“It’s not too late, you can still catch a glimpse of Sodom,
The red rooftops of home,
The square where you sang, the yard where you spun,
The tall house, its windows abandoned—
The house where your sons and daughters were born.”
She looked back—a sudden arc of pain stripped her eyes of sight,
Fused her feet to the ground —
Her flesh became transparent salt.
Who will mourn this nameless woman?
She seems the least of all we lack.
Yet I, for one, can never forget
How she gave her life for one look back.
Anna Akhmatova, 1924
(Translated by Meryl Natchez)
Лотова жена
И праведник шел за посланником Бога,
Огромный и светлый, по черной горе.
Но громко жене говорила тревога:
Не поздно, ты можешь еще посмотреть
На красные башни родного Содома,
На площадь, где пела, на двор, где пряла,
На окна пустые высокого дома,
Где милому мужу детей родила.
Взглянула — и, скованы смертною болью,
Глаза ее больше смотреть не могли;
И сделалось тело прозрачною солью,
И быстрые ноги к земле приросли.
Кто женщину эту оплакивать будет?
Не меньшей ли мнится она из утрат?
Лишь сердце мое никогда не забудет
Отдавшую жизнь за единственный взгляд.
Анна Ахматова, 1924 г.
📷Image: Anna Akhmatova in 1920s, photographer unknown.
