Memory of sun ebbs from the heart.
Memory of sun ebbs from the heart.
Grass fades early.
Wind blows the first snowflakes
Barely, barely.
Freezing water can’t flow
Along these narrow channels.
Nothing happens here, oh
Nothing can happen.
A willow against the sky
Spreads its transparent fan.
Better perhaps, if I
Hadn’t accepted your hand.
Memory of sunlight ebbs from the heart.
What’s this? Darkness? Perhaps! …
In the night
Winter has overcome us.
Translated by A. S. Kline © 2005, 2012
Anna Akhmatova (the pen name of Anna Andreyevna Gorenko, 1889 – 1966) was a Russian modernist poet. Her work often dealt with the difficulties of living under Stalinism, during which two of her husbands were killed and her son jailed. Her poetry was banned by Stalinist authorities for decades.
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Janis Freegard's Weblog 
Hi Janis. A very appropriate poem for this time of year…and yet a sad one considering her history and that the weather is mostly a metaphor for the times. And how shocking that such poetry was banned. How icy the political climate. Brr