Oh, there's no reason for sighs,
Sadness is pointless, a crime,
Here, from grey canvas, I rise,
Vaguely, strangely through time.
Arms lifted, freely curtailed,
A tormented smile on my face,
I was forced to become like this
Through hours of mutual grace.
He wished it so, he willed it so,
With words, spiteful and dead.
Anxiety clotted my mouth: oh,
My cheeks with snow were wed.
It's no sin of his, it seems,
Other eyes, he left to see,
No matter these empty dreams
Of my mortal lethargy.
Return to the Anna Akhmatova Home Page, or . . . Read the next poem; 'Let the organ peal out once more,'