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“All is despoiled, abandoned, sold …” by Anna Akhmatova 🇷🇺 (23 Jun 1889 – 5 Mar 1966)
Translated from the Russian by Richard Wilbur
All is despoiled, abandoned, sold;
Death’s wing has swept the sky of color;
All’s eaten by a hungry dolor.
What is this light which we behold?
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Odors of cherry blossom sigh
From the rumored forest beyond the town.
At night, new constellations crown
The high, clear heavens of July.
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Closer it comes, and closer still,
To houses ruinous and blind:
Some marvelous thing still undivined.
Some fiat of the century’s will.