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“Bury me, bury me, wind! …” by Anna Akhmatova 🇷🇺 (23 Jun 1889 – 5 Mar 1966)
Translated from the Russian by Andrey Kneller
Bury me, bury me, wind!
None of my kin had arrived,
Above me, the evening dimmed
And the earth indistinctly sighed.
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Like you, I was free and of course,
I couldn’t resist life’s charms
And now, wind, you see my corpse,
With no one to fold my arms.
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Let this black wound recede
As the shroud of darkness spreads,
And command azure mist to read
Psalms up above my head.
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To ease me, alone, on the brink
Of sleep for the final time,
Make the sedges rustle of spring,
Of the spring that used to be mine.