by ANNA AKHMATOVA
(Translated by A. S. Kline)
(The following poem was written in 1939 by Anna Akhmatova for her son, Lev Gumilev, who was deported to Gulags during Joseph Stalin’s atrocious rule. Ed.)
Seventeen months I’ve pleaded
for you to come home.
Flung myself at the hangman’s feet,
my terror, oh my son.
And I can’t understand,
now all’s eternal confusion,
who’s beast, and who’s man,
how long till execution.
And only flowers of dust,
ringing of censers, tracks just
running somewhere, nowhere, far.
And deep in my eyes gazing,
swift, fatal, threatening,
one enormous star.
…
Lightly the weeks fly, too,
what’s happened I can’t understand.
Just as, my darling child, in prison,
white nights gazed at you,
so now again they gaze,
hawk-eyed, passionate-eyed,
and of your cross on high,
of death, they speak today.