Anna Akhmatova Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Forgive me, that I manage badly, Manage badly but live gloriously, That I leave traces of myself in my songs, That I appeared to you in waking dreams.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Dream, Song, Forgive Me

  34 Copy quote

• But Fear and the Muse in turn guard the place
  Where the banished poet has gone
  And the night that comes with quickened pace
  Is ignorant of dawn.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Night, Poetry, Ignorant

  4 Copy quote

• The word landed with a stony thud Onto my still-beating breast. Nevermind, I was prepared, I will manage with the rest. I have a lot of work to do today; I need to slaughter memory, Turn my living soul to stone Then teach myself to live again. . . But how. The hot summer rustles Like a carnival outside my window; I have long had this premonition Of a bright day and a deserted house.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Summer, Memories, Long

  Anna Akhmatova, “Requiem”

  7 Copy quote

• We learned not to meet anymore, We don't raise our eyes to one another, But we ourselves won't guarantee What could happen to us in an hour.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Eye, Guarantees, Hours

  25 Copy quote

• If you were music I would listen to you ceaselessly And my low spirits would brighten up.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Spirit, Lows, Ifs

  18 Copy quote

• Hands, matches, an ashtray. A ritual beautiful and bitter.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Beautiful, Hands, Bitter

  23 Copy quote

• You thought I was that type: that you could forget me, and that I'd plead and weep and throw myself under the hooves of a bay mare, or that I'd ask the sorcerers for some magic potion made from roots and send you a terrible gift: my precious perfumed handkerchief. Damn you! I will not grant your cursed soul vicarious tears or a single glance. And I swear to you by the garden of the angels, I swear by the miracle-working ikon, and by the fire and smoke of our nights: I will never come back to you.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Broken Heart, Angel, Night

  Anna Akhmatova, “You Thought I Was That Type”

  8 Copy quote

• I am not one of those who left the land to the mercy of its enemies. Their flattery leaves me cold, my songs are not for them to praise.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Song, Land, Enemy

  Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, Stanley Kunitz, Max Hayward (1997). “Избранные Стихи”, p.75, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  17 Copy quote

• I have long had this premonition of a bright day and a deserted house

  Anna Akhmatova

  Long, House, Premonition

  Anna Akhmatova, “Requiem”

  17 Copy quote

• Though you are three times more beautiful than angels, Though you are the sister of the river willows, I will kill you with my singing, Without spilling your blood on the ground. Not touching you with my hand, Not giving you one glance, I will stop loving you, But with your unimaginable groans I will finally slake my thirst. From her, who wandered the earth before me, Crueler than ice, more fiery than flame, From her, who still exists in the ether— From her you will set me free.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Beautiful, Angel, Flames

  17 Copy quote

• How the miracle of our meeting Shone there and sang, I didn't want to return From there to anywhere. Happiness instead of duty Was bitter delight to me. Not obliged to speak to anyone, I spoke for a long while. Let passions stifle lovers, Demanding answers, We, my dear, are only souls At the limits of the world.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Passion, Long, Miracle

  7 Copy quote

• Sweet to me was not the voice of man, But the wind's voice was understood by me. The burdocks and the nettles fed my soul, But I loved the silver willow best of all.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Sweet, Men, Wind

  Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, D. M. Thomas (1985). “You will hear thunder: Akhmatova, poems”, Ohio Univ Pr

  16 Copy quote

• The triumphs of a mysterious non-meeting are desolate ones; unspoken phrases, silent words.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Communication, Triumph, Phrases

  7 Copy quote

• The celebrations Of secret nonmeetings are empty, Unspoken conversations, Unuttered words. Glances that don't intersect Don't know where to come to rest. And only the tears rejoice Because they can flow and flow. Sweetbrier around Moscow, Alas! Somehow it is here ... And all this they will call Love eternal.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Secret, Tears, Moscow

  7 Copy quote

• Not, not mine: it's somebody else's wound; I could never have borne it. So take the thing that happened, hide it, stick it in the ground; whisk the lamps away.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Sadness, Lamps, Sticks

  "Requiem". Poem by Anna Akhmatova, translated by D. M. Thomas, 1963.

  15 Copy quote

• And you know, I agree to everything: I will condemn, I will forget, I will give comfort to the enemy, Darkness will be light and sin lovely.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Light, Giving, Darkness

  9 Copy quote

• All has been looted, betrayed, sold;
  black death's wing flashed ahead.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Wings, Black, Betrayed

  "Looted". Poem by Anna Akhmatova, 1921.

  66 Copy quote

• A land not mine, still forever memorable, the waters of its ocean chill and fresh. Sand on the bottom whiter than chalk, and the air drunk, like wine, late sun lays bare the rosy limbs of the pinetrees. Sunset in the ethereal waves: I cannot tell if the day is ending, or the world, or if the secret of secrets is inside me again.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Ocean, Memorable, Wine

  24 Copy quote

• The stars of death stood over us. And Russia, guiltless, beloved, writhed under the crunch of bloodstained boots, under the wheels of Black Marias.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Stars, Russia, Black

  Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, Stanley Kunitz, Max Hayward (1997). “Избранные Стихи”, p.103, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  21 Copy quote

• This cruel age has deflected me, like a river from this course. Strayed from its familiar shores, my changeling life has flowed into a sister channel. How many spectacles I've missed: the curtain rising without me, and falling too. How many friends I never had the chance to meet.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Fall, Rivers, Age

  Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, Stanley Kunitz, Max Hayward (1997). “Избранные Стихи”, p.129, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  25 Copy quote

• Flowers, cold from the dew, And autumn's approaching breath, I pluck for the warm, luxuriant braids, Which haven't faded yet. In their nights, fragrantly resinous, Entwined with delightful mystery, They will breathe in her springlike Extraordinary beauty. But in a whirlwind of sound and fire, From her shing head they will flutter And fall—and before her They will die, faintly fragrant still. And, impelled by faithful longing, My obedient gaze will feast upon them— With a reverent hand, Love will gather their rotting remains.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Flower, Fall, Autumn

  24 Copy quote

• That was when the ones who smiled Were the dead, glad to be at rest.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Glad

  "Review: Anna Of All The Russias" by Olga Grushin, www.nytimes.com. March 17, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• We aged a hundred years, and this happened in a single hour: the short summer had already died, the body of the ploughed plains smoked.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Summer, Years, Body

  "'In Memoriam, July 19, 1914' ('White Flock')". Poem by Anna Akhmatova, 1917.

  19 Copy quote

• This Cruel Age has deflected me.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Age

  Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, Stanley Kunitz, Max Hayward (1997). “Избранные Стихи”, p.129, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• In the terrible years of the Yezhov terror I spent seventeen months waiting in line outside the prison in Leningrad. One day somebody in the crowd identified me . . . and asked me in a whisper . . . "Can you describe this?" And I said: "I can."

  Anna Akhmatova

  Years, Waiting In Line, One Day

  Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, Stanley Kunitz, Max Hayward (1997). “Избранные Стихи”, p.99, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  23 Copy quote

Page 2 of 3

First

← Prev

1

2

3

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin