Status Updates From Akhmatova: Poems

It’s hard for me to tell how good these translations are, as I cannot read the original Russian. However, I have a feeling they could be better. Maybe I’ll look for a different translator, to compare.

Such a wise writer. So great.

“Lying in me, as though it were white
Stone in the depths of a well, is one
Memory that I cannot, will not, fight:
It is happiness, and it is pain.
(…)
I know the gods changed people into things,
Leaving their consciousness alive and free,
To keep alive the wonder of suffering,
You have been metamorphosed into me.”
.
-page 77

“O, the heart is not made of stone
As I said, it’s made of flame…
I’ll never understand it, are you close
To me, or did you simply love me?”
.
- page 26