Анна Ахматова - Муза (Anna Akhmatova - The Muse)

Akhmatova in 1922 (Portrait by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin)

Anna Akhmatova [wiki]
Russian and English text side by side, translated by Andrey Kneller
Anna Akhmatova [poets.org]
some english Translations
中文譯詩
Elaine Feinstein's Anna of the Russias the life of Anna Akhmatova (2005)


Muse

When, in the night, I wait for her, impatient,
Life seems to me, as hanging by a thread.
What just means liberty, or youth, or approbation,
When compared with the gentle piper's tread?

And she came in, threw out the mantle's edges,
Declined to me with a sincere heed.
I say to her, "Did you dictate the Pages
Of Hell to Dante?" She answers, "Yes, I did."


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, August, 2000
Edited by Orit Bonver, August 2000


another English translation version by Elaine Feinstein
The Muse

At night, as I wait for her coming, my life
Seems to hang by a thread. What are
Youth, honours, freedom to me
Compared with the flute in her hand.

Look, here she is. She throws back her veil
And fixes her eyes upon me with serenity.
I ask, 'Are you the one whom Dante
Heard dictate the Inferno?' She answers 'Yes'.
1924


Анна Ахматова - Муза (Anna Akhmatova - The Muse)