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“I am listening to the orioles’ ever mournful voice …” by Anna Akhmatova 🇷🇺 (23 Jun 1889 – 5 Mar 1966)
Translated from the Russian by Judith Hemschemeyer
I am listening to the orioles’ ever mournful voice
And saluting the splendid summer’s decline.
And through grain pressed tightly, ear to ear,
The sickle, with its snake’s hiss, slices.
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And the short skirts of the slender reapers
fly in the wind, like flags on a holiday.
The jingling of bells would be jolly now,
And through dusty lashes, a long, slow gaze.
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It’s not caresses I await, nor lover’s adulation,
The premonition of inevitable darkness,
But come with me to gaze at paradise, where together
We were innocent and blessed.