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Requiem and Poem Without a Hero
With this edition Swallow Press presents two of Anna Akhmatova's best-known works that represent the poet at full maturity, and that most trenchantly process the trauma she and others experienced living under Stalin's regime.
Akhmatova began the three-decade process of writing "Requiem" in 1935 after the arrests of her son, Lev Gumilev, and her third husband. The autobiographical fifteen-poem cycle primarily chronicles a mother's wait-lining up outside Leningrad Prison every day for seventeen months-for news of her son's fate. But from this limbo, Akhmatova expresses and elevates the collective grief for all the thousands vanished under the regime, and for those left behind to speculate about their loved ones' fates. Similarly, Akhmatova wrote "Poem without a Hero" over a long period. It takes as its focus the transformation of Akhmatova's beloved city of St. Petersburg-historically a seat of art and culture-into Leningrad. Taken together, these works plumb the foremost themes for which Akhmatova is known and revered. When Ohio University Press published D. M. Thomas's translations in 1976, it was the first time they had appeared in English. Under Thomas's stewardship, Akhmatova's words ring clear as a bell.
Akhmatova began the three-decade process of writing "Requiem" in 1935 after the arrests of her son, Lev Gumilev, and her third husband. The autobiographical fifteen-poem cycle primarily chronicles a mother's wait-lining up outside Leningrad Prison every day for seventeen months-for news of her son's fate. But from this limbo, Akhmatova expresses and elevates the collective grief for all the thousands vanished under the regime, and for those left behind to speculate about their loved ones' fates. Similarly, Akhmatova wrote "Poem without a Hero" over a long period. It takes as its focus the transformation of Akhmatova's beloved city of St. Petersburg-historically a seat of art and culture-into Leningrad. Taken together, these works plumb the foremost themes for which Akhmatova is known and revered. When Ohio University Press published D. M. Thomas's translations in 1976, it was the first time they had appeared in English. Under Thomas's stewardship, Akhmatova's words ring clear as a bell.
78 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
37 people are currently reading
504 people want to read
About the author
Anna Akhmatova
425 books943 followersalso known as: Анна Ахматова
Personal themes characterize lyrical beauty of noted work of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, pseudonym of Anna Andreevna Gorenko; the Soviet government banned her books between 1946 and 1958.
People credit this modernist of the most acclaimed writers in the canon.
Her writing ranges from short lyrics to universalized, ingeniously structured cycles, such as Requiem (1935-40), her tragic masterpiece about the Stalinist terror. Her work addresses a variety of themes including time and memory, the fate of creative women, and the difficulties of living and writing in the shadow of Stalinism. She has been widely translated into many languages, and is one of the best-known Russian poets of 20th century.
In 1910, she married the poet, Nikolay Gumilyov, who very soon left her for lion hunting in Africa, the battlefields of World War I, and the society of Parisian grisettes. Her husband did not take her poems seriously, and was shocked when Alexander Blok declared to him that he preferred her poems to his. Their son, Lev, born in 1912, was to become a famous Neo-Eurasianist historian.
Nikolay Gumilyov was executed in 1921 for activities considered anti-Soviet; Akhmatova then married a prominent Assyriologist Vladimir Shilejko, and then an art scholar, Nikolay Punin, who died in the Stalinist Gulag camps. After that, she spurned several proposals from the married poet, Boris Pasternak.
After 1922, Akhmatova was condemned as a bourgeois element, and from 1925 to 1940, her poetry was banned from publication. She earned her living by translating Leopardi and publishing essays, including some brilliant essays on Pushkin, in scholarly periodicals. All of her friends either emigrated or were repressed.
Her son spent his youth in Stalinist gulags, and she even resorted to publishing several poems in praise of Stalin to secure his release. Their relations remained strained, however. Akhmatova died at the age of 76 in St. Peterburg. She was interred at Komarovo Cemetery.
There is a museum devoted to Akhmatova at the apartment where she lived with Nikolai Punin at the garden wing of the Fountain House (more properly known as the Sheremetev Palace) on the Fontanka Embankment, where Akhmatova lived from the mid 1920s until 1952.
Personal themes characterize lyrical beauty of noted work of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, pseudonym of Anna Andreevna Gorenko; the Soviet government banned her books between 1946 and 1958.
People credit this modernist of the most acclaimed writers in the canon.
Her writing ranges from short lyrics to universalized, ingeniously structured cycles, such as Requiem (1935-40), her tragic masterpiece about the Stalinist terror. Her work addresses a variety of themes including time and memory, the fate of creative women, and the difficulties of living and writing in the shadow of Stalinism. She has been widely translated into many languages, and is one of the best-known Russian poets of 20th century.
In 1910, she married the poet, Nikolay Gumilyov, who very soon left her for lion hunting in Africa, the battlefields of World War I, and the society of Parisian grisettes. Her husband did not take her poems seriously, and was shocked when Alexander Blok declared to him that he preferred her poems to his. Their son, Lev, born in 1912, was to become a famous Neo-Eurasianist historian.
Nikolay Gumilyov was executed in 1921 for activities considered anti-Soviet; Akhmatova then married a prominent Assyriologist Vladimir Shilejko, and then an art scholar, Nikolay Punin, who died in the Stalinist Gulag camps. After that, she spurned several proposals from the married poet, Boris Pasternak.
After 1922, Akhmatova was condemned as a bourgeois element, and from 1925 to 1940, her poetry was banned from publication. She earned her living by translating Leopardi and publishing essays, including some brilliant essays on Pushkin, in scholarly periodicals. All of her friends either emigrated or were repressed.
Her son spent his youth in Stalinist gulags, and she even resorted to publishing several poems in praise of Stalin to secure his release. Their relations remained strained, however. Akhmatova died at the age of 76 in St. Peterburg. She was interred at Komarovo Cemetery.
There is a museum devoted to Akhmatova at the apartment where she lived with Nikolai Punin at the garden wing of the Fountain House (more properly known as the Sheremetev Palace) on the Fontanka Embankment, where Akhmatova lived from the mid 1920s until 1952.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
July 16, 2025
"During the terrible years of the Yekhov terror I spent seventeen months in the prison queues in Leningrad. One day someone ‘identified’ me. Then a woman with lips blue with cold who was standing behind me, and of course had never heard of my name, came out of the numbness which affected us all and whispered in my ear—(we all spoke in whispers there): ‘Could you describe this?’ I said, ‘I can!’ Then something resembling a smile slipped over what had once been her face"—Requiem, Anna Akhmatova
Akhmatova writes of the city, her ultimate muse, “We are inseparable, / My shadow is on your walls.”
“The white night of June 24, 1942, Petersburg, the city is in ruins”--Akhmatova
“The real- not the calendar- / Twentieth Century draws near”--Akhmatova
The autobiographical fifteen-poem cycle, worked on for decades, was intended (with Requiem, I think) by Anna Akhmatova, as her major poetic statement. Both deal with the siege of Leningrad, where Russia defended itself against Nazi Germany, though much of the wonderful city was destroyed and tens of thousands of people were killed, many starved. One of the great tragedies of that war. The poem AA says was intended for those who were there, those that died, those that survived, and not for posterity, so it has lots of references that I needed help to understand. Many literary and cultural references, lots of epigraphs, inside information. The poem has a formal cast, an ode to the city and its people, and elegy, a kind of dirge. Some of AA’s early poetry is light and breezy, many love poems, when she was in the avant garde, going to read at the Stray Dog, but this is tragic opera. I heard that she initially conceived of it as the libretto to a tragic ballet on the topic of her much loved city.
The poem tells the story of a mother’s (AA’s) vigil waiting in line outside Leningrad Prison every day for seventeen months-for news of her son Lev’s fate. But then AA broadens her perspective to express collective grief for all the millions vanished under the Stalinist regime, and those killed or starved during the siege. It was dedicated to all those friends and countrymen that died at Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Though it was not published until after her death, in 1966, Akhmatova began it in 1940, and proceeded to work on it til the end, considering it the major work of her life. Today, it is one of her longest and most well known works, and regarded as one of the finest poems of the twentieth century.
The poem also features the Fountain House, where for many years AA lived, and where she composed much of Poem Without a Hero. So she looks at herself and her friends and Russia at various stages as she was living in the house/museum. Here’s a film biography of her re: the house:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3OFd...
An excerpt:
The Don runs softly in the night,
The yellow crescent walks inside.
It enters, with its hat askance –
And sees a shadow in a trance.
It’s a woman, who needs help,
It’s a woman, by herself,
Her spouse - dead, her son – in jail.
I am she. Please, say a prayer.
Another excerpt:
the year 1913. A lyrical digression: a final memory of Tsarskkoye Selo.
The wind, recalling or prophesying, mutters:
Bonfires in Petersburg, warm Christmas,
carriages fall from the bridges,
and my mourning city drifts,
floating from its graves
along the Neva or against the current
toward a secret assignation.
Blackening at the Galernaya arch,
a weathervane cries shrilly in the Summer Garden,
chilling vividly a silver moon
freezing the century's silver eyelids
on every roadway,
near each threshold,
a shadow is approaching slowly,
wind rips posters from the walls,
smoke perches, dancing on the houses,
and the graveyards smell of lilacs
lurking unaccountably, a humming . . .
muffled, vaguely audible,
almost beyond rumor, barely reaching out to touch the ear,
buried in a snowdrift by the Neva
like a man who does not wish to know
that he is mirrored by the terrifying night
a human frenzy
on a famous embankment
this
approaches,
not the calendar’s, reality’s
its own, its Twentieth Century.
Now leave quickly
through the Cameron Galley
and the icy, hidden garden,
where the waterfall is quiet,
and the nine still greet me
happily as you welcomed me
beyond the island and the garden,
we will greet each otherÕs eyes
serenely, lucidly again
and will you say
the word
that conquers
death
that answers for my life?
Another excerpt from Poem Without a Hero
Epilogue
To my city
A white night. 24 June. The year 1942. My city in ruins. From the Harbor to
Smolney, everything visible as in a grave. In places old fires from a conflagration are still
burning out. In Sheremetev Garden lindens are flowering and a nightingale chanting.
One third-floor window (facing a crippled maple) is blown out, from it a black emptiness. From the Kronstadt quarter, a rumble of heavy guns. But in general, stillness.
Short documentary (2:27 minute) film, AA reading:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtXgq...
“You will Hear Thunder” by AA, not read by her but by an actor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vnau...
Portraits of Anna Akhmatova, as she was the muse for (and lover with) in addition to many poets, many painters and photographers:
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/port...
I visited Leningrad in the early nineties, having read these poems, and wrote my own ode to her and the city.
Akhmatova writes of the city, her ultimate muse, “We are inseparable, / My shadow is on your walls.”
“The white night of June 24, 1942, Petersburg, the city is in ruins”--Akhmatova
“The real- not the calendar- / Twentieth Century draws near”--Akhmatova
The autobiographical fifteen-poem cycle, worked on for decades, was intended (with Requiem, I think) by Anna Akhmatova, as her major poetic statement. Both deal with the siege of Leningrad, where Russia defended itself against Nazi Germany, though much of the wonderful city was destroyed and tens of thousands of people were killed, many starved. One of the great tragedies of that war. The poem AA says was intended for those who were there, those that died, those that survived, and not for posterity, so it has lots of references that I needed help to understand. Many literary and cultural references, lots of epigraphs, inside information. The poem has a formal cast, an ode to the city and its people, and elegy, a kind of dirge. Some of AA’s early poetry is light and breezy, many love poems, when she was in the avant garde, going to read at the Stray Dog, but this is tragic opera. I heard that she initially conceived of it as the libretto to a tragic ballet on the topic of her much loved city.
The poem tells the story of a mother’s (AA’s) vigil waiting in line outside Leningrad Prison every day for seventeen months-for news of her son Lev’s fate. But then AA broadens her perspective to express collective grief for all the millions vanished under the Stalinist regime, and those killed or starved during the siege. It was dedicated to all those friends and countrymen that died at Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Though it was not published until after her death, in 1966, Akhmatova began it in 1940, and proceeded to work on it til the end, considering it the major work of her life. Today, it is one of her longest and most well known works, and regarded as one of the finest poems of the twentieth century.
The poem also features the Fountain House, where for many years AA lived, and where she composed much of Poem Without a Hero. So she looks at herself and her friends and Russia at various stages as she was living in the house/museum. Here’s a film biography of her re: the house:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3OFd...
An excerpt:
The Don runs softly in the night,
The yellow crescent walks inside.
It enters, with its hat askance –
And sees a shadow in a trance.
It’s a woman, who needs help,
It’s a woman, by herself,
Her spouse - dead, her son – in jail.
I am she. Please, say a prayer.
Another excerpt:
the year 1913. A lyrical digression: a final memory of Tsarskkoye Selo.
The wind, recalling or prophesying, mutters:
Bonfires in Petersburg, warm Christmas,
carriages fall from the bridges,
and my mourning city drifts,
floating from its graves
along the Neva or against the current
toward a secret assignation.
Blackening at the Galernaya arch,
a weathervane cries shrilly in the Summer Garden,
chilling vividly a silver moon
freezing the century's silver eyelids
on every roadway,
near each threshold,
a shadow is approaching slowly,
wind rips posters from the walls,
smoke perches, dancing on the houses,
and the graveyards smell of lilacs
lurking unaccountably, a humming . . .
muffled, vaguely audible,
almost beyond rumor, barely reaching out to touch the ear,
buried in a snowdrift by the Neva
like a man who does not wish to know
that he is mirrored by the terrifying night
a human frenzy
on a famous embankment
this
approaches,
not the calendar’s, reality’s
its own, its Twentieth Century.
Now leave quickly
through the Cameron Galley
and the icy, hidden garden,
where the waterfall is quiet,
and the nine still greet me
happily as you welcomed me
beyond the island and the garden,
we will greet each otherÕs eyes
serenely, lucidly again
and will you say
the word
that conquers
death
that answers for my life?
Another excerpt from Poem Without a Hero
Epilogue
To my city
A white night. 24 June. The year 1942. My city in ruins. From the Harbor to
Smolney, everything visible as in a grave. In places old fires from a conflagration are still
burning out. In Sheremetev Garden lindens are flowering and a nightingale chanting.
One third-floor window (facing a crippled maple) is blown out, from it a black emptiness. From the Kronstadt quarter, a rumble of heavy guns. But in general, stillness.
Short documentary (2:27 minute) film, AA reading:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtXgq...
“You will Hear Thunder” by AA, not read by her but by an actor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vnau...
Portraits of Anna Akhmatova, as she was the muse for (and lover with) in addition to many poets, many painters and photographers:
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/port...
I visited Leningrad in the early nineties, having read these poems, and wrote my own ode to her and the city.
March 20, 2019
An extract from Poem Without a Hero
"To heat the holidays bonfires burned,
And carriages on bridges overturned,
And the black-draped city was borne away
To drift on toward an unknown goal,
Following or fighting the Neva’s flow—
But always moving away from its graves.
The Galernaya arch sank into gloom,
In the Summer Garden a weathervane’s tune 400
Rang delicately, and a silver moon
Hung frozen over the Silver Age.
Because along every road approaching,
Because upon every door encroaching,
Slowly, steadily, a shadow fell.
The wind tore fluttering posters down,
Smoke squatting on rooftops whirled around,
And lilacs had a funereal smell.
And, cursed by the wife the tsar hadn’t wanted,
Dostoyevskian and demon-haunted, 410
The city plunged into its foggy night.
Out from the murk an old Peterite peeked,
Some sidewalk idler—and solemn drums beat
As if a firing squad stood nearby . . . "
"To heat the holidays bonfires burned,
And carriages on bridges overturned,
And the black-draped city was borne away
To drift on toward an unknown goal,
Following or fighting the Neva’s flow—
But always moving away from its graves.
The Galernaya arch sank into gloom,
In the Summer Garden a weathervane’s tune 400
Rang delicately, and a silver moon
Hung frozen over the Silver Age.
Because along every road approaching,
Because upon every door encroaching,
Slowly, steadily, a shadow fell.
The wind tore fluttering posters down,
Smoke squatting on rooftops whirled around,
And lilacs had a funereal smell.
And, cursed by the wife the tsar hadn’t wanted,
Dostoyevskian and demon-haunted, 410
The city plunged into its foggy night.
Out from the murk an old Peterite peeked,
Some sidewalk idler—and solemn drums beat
As if a firing squad stood nearby . . . "
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September 27, 2021Touchée en plein coeur ! ❤️
May 24, 2023
Probably her best two poems. My favorite is Requiem.
October 18, 2023
En este libro encontramos una serie de poemas integrados en torno al clamor doliente de la muerte, real y tangible pero también la muerte simbólica. Para Anna Ajmàtova la palabra es un acto de liberación colectiva, las lagrimas que se vierten ante lo incomprensible.
Read
February 26, 2021210226: i am not rating this because it is poetry, from language i do not know, from history i do not know, so i am not confident i understand it all. some i like very much, part three, appendices, but some requires allusions to history i do not know. some is just long and not the sort of poetry liked. the translator says translation of poetry is always degree of failure but makes good arguments for his work. i have not read other works. i have read some of her work from ‘stray dog cafe’ which i really really liked. this is case where there is history and formal techniques and language specific aspects then there is the poetry. so there is the art and everything else is everything else...
October 2, 2025
Longtemps je lui ai demandé
D'attendre l'hiver avec moi.
Mais elle a dit: "Ici, c'est une tombe,
Comment peux-tu encore respirer?"
Read
May 11, 2013I appreciate this poem. I feel this gave a humble view of the pain a successful Russian may have experienced trying to live their life in Russia during Stalin's reign. I gained more from the poem after reading a short biography on Anna before reading the poem. I recommend the same to future readers.
September 1, 2022
Read for my master's dissertation on translations of Anna Akhmatova. Five stars for the original poems, but Thomas' translations were by far my least favourite, so two stars it is.
June 15, 2025
On sent qu'on perd vraiment au change avec la traduction, mais la poésie d'Akhmatova reste accessible, très belle et profonde.
February 1, 2025
“Réquiem” (1935-1940) de Anna Ajmátova es una obra que trasciende los límites de la poesía para convertirse en un testimonio histórico, un puente entre la tradición oral y la memoria colectiva. Es un ciclo poético narrado, dicho, recitado, en voz alta, que se considera fijado/cerrado en el año 65, con la grabación de Ajmátova recitándolo, y no en su fecha de publicación. “Réquiem” se ha comparado, por su oralidad y ambientación rural, con las antiguas bylinas —“былины”—, poemas épicos de la tradición oral rusa, que narran las hazañas de héroes legendarios —por ejemplo, “El cantar del príncipe Ígor”— y algunos acontecimientos históricos o mitológicos. A pesar de ser Ajmátova una mujer de extracción noble, aristócrata de la ciudad, alude al paisaje campesino —a las isbas— para conectar con las raíces históricas y culturales de su pueblo, para vincularse a la antigüedad a través de lo popular. “Réquiem” emplea un tiempo verbal pasado con el propósito de crear, en directo —desde el presente absoluto—, una epopeya contemporánea sobre los grandes años del terror estalinista en la URSS, es decir, para darle un valor histórico a lo que ocurre. Hay poemas dentro del ciclo con una forma que recuerdan a confesiones, más líricas y sentimentales, versos que evocan oraciones con tonalidades religiosas y otros que se parecen a canciones de cuna. “Réquiem” tiene una función de denuncia que determina, en gran medida, el tono y las imágenes que presenta: los poemas están destinados a convertirse en grandes documentos de la época y Ajmátova, consciente de ello, emplea una voz clara para ser comprendida por todos, para que cualquiera pueda identificarse. Ajmátova no solo escribe para sí misma, sino para todos aquellos que comparten su dolor.
“Réquiem” se erige como un monumento literario a las víctimas que conjuga la tensión entre la historia individual y la memoria colectiva, una obra que da voz a las dos grandes vocaciones de la literatura del trauma. Es un ciclo lírico, en la medida en la que trata los sentimientos de la poeta, de un solo ser humano, y épico porque retrata el calvario que sufre el pueblo ruso del siglo XX. Así el concepto de “voz” es central y multifacético en la obra. Cada poema articula, desde distintas voces, los mismos temas de sufrimiento, pérdida y resistencia, creando un tejido polifónico que trasciende la experiencia personal. “Réquiem” presenta una estructura coral que se manifiesta en la multiplicidad de voces que la narradora maneja a través de diversas personas gramaticales; la primera persona — el “yo” sujeto lírico que representa a Anna Ajmátova y “nosotras”—, la tercera persona — “ella” y “ellas” que hacen referencia a las madres que esperan en la cola— y la segunda persona —“tú” y “vosotras” que funcionan como una súplica o exhortación que pide una plegaria por ella/ellas/yo/nosotras—. Hay también un “ella” que remite a la muerte y otro que se emplea en el momento en el que la poetisa habla consigo misma. El desdoblamiento del sujeto dialoga con la fragmentación interna propia de la experiencia del trauma. Se trata de un sujeto esquizofrénico, escindido, que gramaticalmente oscila entre un "yo", sujeto narrante, y un "ella", sujeto trágico, que son y no los mismos; son personas gramaticales flexibles que funcionan como metonimias, es decir, que son extensibles. Ambos sujetos se miran mutuamente, separados por el abismo del trauma, y entablan una conversación como si fueran dos mitades de una conciencia fracturada. Es el proceso de alienación que experimentan otros autores del Gulag, por ejemplo Shalámov, que reflexiona también sobre la imposibilidad de expresar el “yo” intacto tras una experiencia extrema —“el yo de aquellos tiempos cuando ahora sufro por otras cosas”—, la dificultad de convertir el dolor en arte, de descubrir la forma de transformarlo en versos, en poesía, que es la forma artística más alejada de lo natural. “Réquiem” soluciona el problema de la memoria colectiva a través de la autoridad: el sujeto lírico NO es la voz de la colectividad, sino una voz particular autorizada a hablar en nombre de la colectividad. Ajmatova se convierte en portavoz porque ella misma es víctima y testimonio del horror, una madre cuyo hijo ha sido encarcelado, y además recibe el encargo de tratar lo que sucede por el pueblo ruso. Al ser una poeta de renombre en Rusia, tiene la obligación de comprometerse socialmente, de defender a la gente.
En resumen, el acto de transformar el trauma en arte es, en sí mismo, un acto doloroso que desgarra al sujeto entre el sufrimiento individual y el deber histórico: Ajmátova emplea su propio dolor para crear un monumento simbólico a las personas que sufren.
“Requiem" además de hablar de todas las formas de terror soviético encuentra su epicentro en el amor maternofilial, en el sufrimiento de las madres que esperan, lloran y rezan por sus hijos condenados o muertos. La mujer aparece en calidad de madre a través de diferentes imágenes: la de la propia Ajmátova, la de las compañeras de la cola en la prisión, la de la madre de Dios, la Virgen llorando bajo la cruz en el Calvario, y la de la madre Rusia maltratada. Es una pieza de literatura testimonial escrita en clave femenina; la memoria (память) convertida en memorial, en monumento (памятник). Es también una poesía evidentemente religiosa. Aunque el título sugiere una misa de difuntos, “Réquiem” no aborda solo la muerte, sino que presenta un carácter religioso y alegórico, fuertemente trópico, con una forma extremadamente literaria que evoca una misa musicalizada, algo más parecido a una litanía —una oración que consiste en una serie de invocaciones y súplicas repetitivas—. Tal y como dice Jesús García Gabaldón «”Réquiem” es también un acto de purificación por medio del dolor, un acto de intercesión frente al desamparo y la impotencia, un lúgubre gemido, una llamada patética a la compasión humana, una súplica del perdón, concebido como alivio, consuelo, descanso, paz de las almas. “Réquiem” es, en última instancia, un acto de fe en la especie humana, un canto a la esperanza, un salmo: "pero la esperanza canta siempre a lo lejos"» (p.42)
“Réquiem” se erige como un monumento literario a las víctimas que conjuga la tensión entre la historia individual y la memoria colectiva, una obra que da voz a las dos grandes vocaciones de la literatura del trauma. Es un ciclo lírico, en la medida en la que trata los sentimientos de la poeta, de un solo ser humano, y épico porque retrata el calvario que sufre el pueblo ruso del siglo XX. Así el concepto de “voz” es central y multifacético en la obra. Cada poema articula, desde distintas voces, los mismos temas de sufrimiento, pérdida y resistencia, creando un tejido polifónico que trasciende la experiencia personal. “Réquiem” presenta una estructura coral que se manifiesta en la multiplicidad de voces que la narradora maneja a través de diversas personas gramaticales; la primera persona — el “yo” sujeto lírico que representa a Anna Ajmátova y “nosotras”—, la tercera persona — “ella” y “ellas” que hacen referencia a las madres que esperan en la cola— y la segunda persona —“tú” y “vosotras” que funcionan como una súplica o exhortación que pide una plegaria por ella/ellas/yo/nosotras—. Hay también un “ella” que remite a la muerte y otro que se emplea en el momento en el que la poetisa habla consigo misma. El desdoblamiento del sujeto dialoga con la fragmentación interna propia de la experiencia del trauma. Se trata de un sujeto esquizofrénico, escindido, que gramaticalmente oscila entre un "yo", sujeto narrante, y un "ella", sujeto trágico, que son y no los mismos; son personas gramaticales flexibles que funcionan como metonimias, es decir, que son extensibles. Ambos sujetos se miran mutuamente, separados por el abismo del trauma, y entablan una conversación como si fueran dos mitades de una conciencia fracturada. Es el proceso de alienación que experimentan otros autores del Gulag, por ejemplo Shalámov, que reflexiona también sobre la imposibilidad de expresar el “yo” intacto tras una experiencia extrema —“el yo de aquellos tiempos cuando ahora sufro por otras cosas”—, la dificultad de convertir el dolor en arte, de descubrir la forma de transformarlo en versos, en poesía, que es la forma artística más alejada de lo natural. “Réquiem” soluciona el problema de la memoria colectiva a través de la autoridad: el sujeto lírico NO es la voz de la colectividad, sino una voz particular autorizada a hablar en nombre de la colectividad. Ajmatova se convierte en portavoz porque ella misma es víctima y testimonio del horror, una madre cuyo hijo ha sido encarcelado, y además recibe el encargo de tratar lo que sucede por el pueblo ruso. Al ser una poeta de renombre en Rusia, tiene la obligación de comprometerse socialmente, de defender a la gente.
En resumen, el acto de transformar el trauma en arte es, en sí mismo, un acto doloroso que desgarra al sujeto entre el sufrimiento individual y el deber histórico: Ajmátova emplea su propio dolor para crear un monumento simbólico a las personas que sufren.
“Requiem" además de hablar de todas las formas de terror soviético encuentra su epicentro en el amor maternofilial, en el sufrimiento de las madres que esperan, lloran y rezan por sus hijos condenados o muertos. La mujer aparece en calidad de madre a través de diferentes imágenes: la de la propia Ajmátova, la de las compañeras de la cola en la prisión, la de la madre de Dios, la Virgen llorando bajo la cruz en el Calvario, y la de la madre Rusia maltratada. Es una pieza de literatura testimonial escrita en clave femenina; la memoria (память) convertida en memorial, en monumento (памятник). Es también una poesía evidentemente religiosa. Aunque el título sugiere una misa de difuntos, “Réquiem” no aborda solo la muerte, sino que presenta un carácter religioso y alegórico, fuertemente trópico, con una forma extremadamente literaria que evoca una misa musicalizada, algo más parecido a una litanía —una oración que consiste en una serie de invocaciones y súplicas repetitivas—. Tal y como dice Jesús García Gabaldón «”Réquiem” es también un acto de purificación por medio del dolor, un acto de intercesión frente al desamparo y la impotencia, un lúgubre gemido, una llamada patética a la compasión humana, una súplica del perdón, concebido como alivio, consuelo, descanso, paz de las almas. “Réquiem” es, en última instancia, un acto de fe en la especie humana, un canto a la esperanza, un salmo: "pero la esperanza canta siempre a lo lejos"» (p.42)
September 27, 2013
Al esposo de Ana Ajmátova lo fusilaron porque supuestamente tenía ideas contrarias a la Revolución Rusa, y su hijo estuvo 17 meses en la cárcel. Estas dos experiencias marcan la obra de esta escritora, que deja ver en su poesía un velo de tristeza, de melancolía por lo que pudo ser y no fue. El tema de la muerte es recurrente, pero curiosamente también le escribe con frecuencia (y claridad) al amor, aunque no es un amor feliz porque ella no es una mujer sumisa y esto le crea contradicciones. Hay unos poemas verdaderamente hermosos en este libro, que además se ajusta al paisaje ruso, frío y estepario
May 23, 2014
"Como llama pura en la arcilla
O copo de nieve en una tumba abierta"
O copo de nieve en una tumba abierta"
May 24, 2024
Poétiquement déprimant
July 17, 2023
I wish i spoke Russian and understood some more of the references to other poets in poem without a hero but still 10/10 experience, I want to spend more time with akhmatovas stuff and poetry more generally
“No it is not I, it is somebody else who is suffering. I should not have been able to bear what happened,
Let them shroud it in black, And let them carry off the lanterns..
Night.”
“No it is not I, it is somebody else who is suffering. I should not have been able to bear what happened,
Let them shroud it in black, And let them carry off the lanterns..
Night.”
October 11, 2019
Le goût des cendres et du sang, l'appel de la mer, la prière, le poids des âmes et du monde, la voix de la Muse et l'éternité...
August 23, 2024
"Tú eres nuestro cisne inescrutable/ murmura un snob retrasado" 👁️👄👁️✨💖
November 24, 2016
Ambos poemas son indescriptibles.
Nota: Si pueden leerlos en otra edición, en la que el traductor no se tome casi CIEN páginas en hablar, hablar y hablar de lo sublime que son ambos poemas, de repetir y repetir y repetir lo mismo una y otra vez, debió haber escrito un ensayo sobre sus impresiones y publicarlo aparte. A mí me resultó tedioso tener que leerme todas esas páginas escritas por el traductor.
Nota: Si pueden leerlos en otra edición, en la que el traductor no se tome casi CIEN páginas en hablar, hablar y hablar de lo sublime que son ambos poemas, de repetir y repetir y repetir lo mismo una y otra vez, debió haber escrito un ensayo sobre sus impresiones y publicarlo aparte. A mí me resultó tedioso tener que leerme todas esas páginas escritas por el traductor.
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October 9, 2008Una revaloración del espíritu del pueblo. Carta de mujer desde fuera de la prisión. Congela la sangre, se queda en el recuerdo como un moretón en la piel. Corto en forma, largo en interpretación.
June 20, 2014
I liked the most "Réquiem" because of the context and the shadows that Anna is trying to show us, is such a letter for death. "Poem without hero" I liked the name that's it.
June 6, 2015
No, it is not I, it is else who is suffering.
I could not have borne it. And this thing, which has happened
Let them cover it with black cloths,
And take away the lanterns...
I could not have borne it. And this thing, which has happened
Let them cover it with black cloths,
And take away the lanterns...
March 28, 2016
Coup de coeur pour cette autre poétesse russe !
October 6, 2025
Finished a selection of poetry by Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966): “Reed,” which includes her most well-known “Requiem” poems written in response to the Stalinist terror years during which her first husband was executed and son was imprisoned in the Gulag, and “Poem Without a Hero,” poems written in memory of the siege of Leningrad. As one might expect, Akhmatova’s lyrics are filled with melancholy and nostalgic memories of family, friends, including fellow poets such as Alexander Blok. For example, “Misfortune’s black whisper / Nestles warmly to my ear— / And murmurs, as if this were / Its business for the night: / ‘You wanted comfort, / Do you know where it is—your comfort?’” (1936). In the prologue of “Requiem,” the poet recalls, “The stars of death stood above us / And innocent Russia writhed / Under bloody boots / And under the tires of the Black Marias” (the vehicles driven by the NKVD, the secret police, were called “black marias”).
“Poem Without a Hero” is a complex series of poems full of impossibly obscure literary and historical allusions difficult to understand even with explanatory notes. They remind me of what it’s like reading T. S. Eliot. Or imagine a foreigner not familiar with American pop culture trying to make sense of Don Mclean’s “American Pie.” In a self-deprecating stanza, the poet expresses her editor’s exasperation: “Three themes at once! / After reading the last phrase, you don’t know who loves whom, / Who met whom, and when and why, / and who perished and who survived…” Yet Akhmatova was unapologetic and considered her abstruse “A Poem Without a Hero” one of her most important works.
Unlike many Russian writers who fled the country, Akhmatova stubbornly remained, though she could be scathingly clear in her contempt. In one of her later poems, “To the Defenders of Stalin,” she writes: “There are those who shouted: ‘Release / Barabbas for us on this feast,' / Those who ordered Socrates to drink poison / In the bare, narrow prison. // They are the ones who should pour this drink / Into their own innocently slandering mouths, / These sweet lovers of torture, / Experts in the manufacture of orphans” (1962). Indeed!
“Poem Without a Hero” is a complex series of poems full of impossibly obscure literary and historical allusions difficult to understand even with explanatory notes. They remind me of what it’s like reading T. S. Eliot. Or imagine a foreigner not familiar with American pop culture trying to make sense of Don Mclean’s “American Pie.” In a self-deprecating stanza, the poet expresses her editor’s exasperation: “Three themes at once! / After reading the last phrase, you don’t know who loves whom, / Who met whom, and when and why, / and who perished and who survived…” Yet Akhmatova was unapologetic and considered her abstruse “A Poem Without a Hero” one of her most important works.
Unlike many Russian writers who fled the country, Akhmatova stubbornly remained, though she could be scathingly clear in her contempt. In one of her later poems, “To the Defenders of Stalin,” she writes: “There are those who shouted: ‘Release / Barabbas for us on this feast,' / Those who ordered Socrates to drink poison / In the bare, narrow prison. // They are the ones who should pour this drink / Into their own innocently slandering mouths, / These sweet lovers of torture, / Experts in the manufacture of orphans” (1962). Indeed!
May 2, 2020
I always felt I should read Anna Akhmatova, given that I am endlessly interested in stories about the relationships between major Soviet artists and Stalin (e.g., Dmitri Shostakovich and Mikhail Bulgakov), how interesting her own story is (most recently I read it in the excellent The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization), and her role in the history of Russian and world poetry.
Unfortunately, I don't like poetry very much and this volume did not win me over to it. So my judgment is my own reaction, not pretending to judge her on her merits. I got Selected Poems and read about one third of the poems while reading both "Requiem" and "Poem Without a Hero" in full (they were originally published on their own so am reviewing that edition). I did not care for many of the shorter poems but did find "Requiem" to be spooky and powerful in a way, although not as interesting as the story of its composition and oral transmission for decades to her friends before being committed to paper. But it does have a combination of universality and commentary on Soviet oppression that will make me want to read it again. I had a harder time getting into and following "Poem Without a Hero," while I liked some passages and parts I did not feel I was following how it all fit together and why it should keep my sustained attention.
Unfortunately, I don't like poetry very much and this volume did not win me over to it. So my judgment is my own reaction, not pretending to judge her on her merits. I got Selected Poems and read about one third of the poems while reading both "Requiem" and "Poem Without a Hero" in full (they were originally published on their own so am reviewing that edition). I did not care for many of the shorter poems but did find "Requiem" to be spooky and powerful in a way, although not as interesting as the story of its composition and oral transmission for decades to her friends before being committed to paper. But it does have a combination of universality and commentary on Soviet oppression that will make me want to read it again. I had a harder time getting into and following "Poem Without a Hero," while I liked some passages and parts I did not feel I was following how it all fit together and why it should keep my sustained attention.
August 3, 2019
Hoy tengo que hacer muchas cosas:
Hay que matar la memoria,
Hay que petrificar el alma,
Hay que aprender de nuevo a vivir.
El volumen presenta dos poemas célebres de Ana Ajmátova: Réquiem y Poema sin héroe. Dos poemas que en mi opinión son bastante distintos. El primero es corto, centrado en la encarcelación en Siberia de su hijo, con el lenguaje claro característico de los acmeístas. El segundo es largo, lleno de simbolismos con menciones a numerosas obras y escritores, donde San Petersburgo es el principal protagonista.
Para mi sorpresa, me ha gustado mucho más Réquiem. La autora trasmite muy bien el dolor que ella misma sufrió con las purgas estalinistas. Por el otro lado, no he llegado nunca a conectar con Poema sin héroe debido principalmente a las constantes menciones a otras obras artísticas que cortaban el ritmo. Hay algunos pasajes bonitos cuando habla desde su exilio en Tashkent pero, para mí, poco más.
En cuanto a la edición de Cátedra, me gusta que sea una edición bilingüe. Creo que toda poesía debería ser editada así. Otro acierto es la incorporación de las distintas versiones del Poema sin héroe. Hay una larga introducción a Anna así como a los dos poemas, que si bien ayuda a entender mejor lo que vamos a leer, la alabanza constante a la autora hace que se pierda capacidad de análisis crítico. Al final, lo que sacamos en claro es que al que ha escrito estas páginas le gusta mucho la poetisa rusa y ya.
En resumen, sin ser la poesía el género literario que más me gusta, siempre es interesante acercarse a los grandes poetas, siendo Anna Ajmátova uno de ellos.
Hay que matar la memoria,
Hay que petrificar el alma,
Hay que aprender de nuevo a vivir.
El volumen presenta dos poemas célebres de Ana Ajmátova: Réquiem y Poema sin héroe. Dos poemas que en mi opinión son bastante distintos. El primero es corto, centrado en la encarcelación en Siberia de su hijo, con el lenguaje claro característico de los acmeístas. El segundo es largo, lleno de simbolismos con menciones a numerosas obras y escritores, donde San Petersburgo es el principal protagonista.
Para mi sorpresa, me ha gustado mucho más Réquiem. La autora trasmite muy bien el dolor que ella misma sufrió con las purgas estalinistas. Por el otro lado, no he llegado nunca a conectar con Poema sin héroe debido principalmente a las constantes menciones a otras obras artísticas que cortaban el ritmo. Hay algunos pasajes bonitos cuando habla desde su exilio en Tashkent pero, para mí, poco más.
En cuanto a la edición de Cátedra, me gusta que sea una edición bilingüe. Creo que toda poesía debería ser editada así. Otro acierto es la incorporación de las distintas versiones del Poema sin héroe. Hay una larga introducción a Anna así como a los dos poemas, que si bien ayuda a entender mejor lo que vamos a leer, la alabanza constante a la autora hace que se pierda capacidad de análisis crítico. Al final, lo que sacamos en claro es que al que ha escrito estas páginas le gusta mucho la poetisa rusa y ya.
En resumen, sin ser la poesía el género literario que más me gusta, siempre es interesante acercarse a los grandes poetas, siendo Anna Ajmátova uno de ellos.
March 15, 2024
Me recomendaron a esta poeta porque estaba buscando poetas de mucho dolor y desgarro y siento decir que ha sido una mala recomendación porque no me ha llegado en absoluto. Cabría esperar que tratando de experiencias tan trágicas como en las que teóricamente se basa Ajmatóva hubiese mucho más sufrimiento, pero no me lo ha transmitido. Son poemas con imágenes a mi parecer muy clásicas y manidas o bien con constantes referencias hiperconcretas que seguro que tienen mucha relevancia en el recorrido vital de la autora pero que a mí me han parecido inaccesibles o incluso algo pedantes (más que nada con todas las referencias metaliterarias de otros autores que te explican en las notas al pie). Hay algún verso que sí me ha dicho algo por el medio, pero en general poca emoción para lo que busco.
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May 20, 2021J'ai beaucoup vu le nom d'Akhmatova passer sur booksta, souvent associé à des termes élogieux. Ne lisant pas beaucoup de poésie, j'ai décidé d'essayer afin de me réconcilier avec le genre. Mais toujours pas. J'y suis vraiment hermétique je crois. Un ou deux poèmes m'ont vraiment plu, quelques jolis vers par ci par là et Requiem est sublime, je le reconnais. (le seul qui m'ait vraiment touché à vrai dire). Pour ce qui est du reste.. page blanche.
Je ne vais donc pas noter l’œuvre, cela n'aurait aucun sens.
Je ne vais donc pas noter l’œuvre, cela n'aurait aucun sens.
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July 21, 2025basically inhaled this. once again i curse myself for not being fluent in russian in order to be able to understand the beauty of these and akhmatova's quiet severity (as beautifully remarked in the preface) in its native language. poetry is not my cup of tea but this was stunning; even if read in english. although i feel i didn't give it enough justice as i was a tad distracted and couldn't understand all its references. will revisit this once i have more general knowledge and have learnt russian
April 18, 2020
Un recueil de poème fort en émotion, Anna Akhmatova nous parle d’amour, nous parle de souffrance, nous parle de son pays qui souffre. C’est un recueil très émouvant et vraiment très beau, Anna Akhmatova tisse des notes poétiques à en faire frissonner plus d’un, elle met des mots sur des sensations et des émotions difficiles à expliquer.
Je recommande cette lecture, mais plutôt dans une période hivernale pour être complètement plonger dans la Russie d’Anna Akhmatova ❤️
Je recommande cette lecture, mais plutôt dans une période hivernale pour être complètement plonger dans la Russie d’Anna Akhmatova ❤️
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