White Flock Quotes

“The evening sky is gold and vast.
I’m soothed by April’s cool caress.
You’re late. Too many years have passed, -
I’m glad to see you, nonetheless.

Come closer, sit here by my side,
Be gentle with me, treat me kind:
This old blue notebook – look inside –
I wrote these poems as a child.

Forgive me that I felt forsaken,
That grief and angst was all I knew.
Forgive me that I kept mistaking
Too many other men for you.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“Forgive me that I felt forsaken,
That grief and angst was all I knew.
Forgive me that I kept mistaking
Too many other men for you.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“Why is it that you still beguile me –
As wind, stone, bird – and all the likes?
Why is that you smile on me –
With sudden summer lightning strikes?”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“No one else was as close and as open,
No one else so boiled my blood,
Even he, who consigned me to torment,
Even he, who caressed and forgot.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“And it’s not because I’m tortured
Or by some delirium swayed
That I conjure up misfortune:
It is just my trade.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“I've ceased to smile long ago,
The bitter winds now chill my lips,
Another hope was just let go,
Another song was added since.
Against my will, I'll cede this song
To people's laughter and offense,
Because love's silence for the soul
Is too unbearably immense.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“Oh, my home is not my own –
I lament and rue.
Answer, stranger yet unknown,
I am seeking you!”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“I’m happy. But some beauty is nonesuch -
The gently sloping path across the wood,
The wretched bridge that’s just a little skewed
And that, for which, I won’t be waiting much.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“We never quite learned to part,
-We wander slowly side by side.
Outside it’s starting to get dark,
I’m silent, - you’re preoccupied.

We’ll enter a church and we’ll see
Baptisms, marriages, mass.
A minute later, we’ll leave…
Why is everything different with us?

Or we’ll sit on the trampled snow
In a dark cemetery and sigh,
With a stick in your hand, you’ll draw
A palace for just you and I.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“They soar, they are somewhere mid-flight,
The words of love and liberation
And I'm succumbing to stage-fright,
My lips – ice cold in trepidation.
But soon, where birches, thin and humble,
Caress the windows with their leaves, -
The voice of the unseen will rumble
And roses will be tied in wreaths.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“You dreamt of me, I knew,
And hence I couldn't sleep.
The lantern flickered blue
And there my path ran steep.

[...]

"This is a lake," you thought.
"There is an island here..."
Just then, on the darkened road,
A little blue light appeared.

By wretched sunlight severed,
You stirred and moaned in pain,
And for the first time ever,
You called me by my name.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“That is why we love this city –
Dark and stern, and full of water,
And we love our separations,
And brief moments when we meet.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“Безвольно слабеют колени,
И кажется, нечем дышать...
Ты - солнце моих песнопений,
Ты - жизни моей благодать.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“You’re the sinner, seeing the heavenly,
Sweetest dream, before passing away…”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“He never asks for endearment, all quiet,
Only gazes at me all the time,
And he bears with a blissful smile
This distressing oblivion of mine.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“Oh, how often you’ll remember
The sudden pain of unnamed longing

—Anna Akhmatova, from “I’ll erase this day from your memory,” trans. A. S. Kline, White Flock (Hyperborea, 1917)”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“Oh, how often you’ll remember
The sudden pain of unnamed longing

— Anna Akhmatova, from “I’ll erase this day from your memory,” trans. A. S. Kline, White Flock (Hyperborea, 1917)”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“Place down the poison right before me
To take my voice out of my chest
And wash away my shameful glory
Into the gleaming nothingness.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“These tiresome talks and debates,
Lifeless chandelier’s yellowish daze,
And the flicker of elegant plates
Near the graceful hand, slightly raised”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“Is this why, for countless days,
In my arms I carried you,
Is this why your strength had blazed
Through your lively eyes of blue!”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“Each and every day, I get
One letter like a bride.
I’m responding to my friend,
Writing late at night:

“On my way into the dark,
I’ve stopped in white death’s den.
My dear, don’t leave an evil mark
On another man.”

And a brilliant star gleams
Between two trees at night,
Calmly promising that dreams
Will soon be satisfied.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“But don’t raise your eyes in defiance,
Protect my life, my dear.
They’re brighter than first violets,
But deadly to me, I fear.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“You haunt me still somehow,
I’ve saved each word from you.

— Anna Akhmatova, White Flock: Poetry of Anna Akhmatova. Translated by Andrey Kneller (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform July 30, 2013)”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock