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“All is despoiled, abandoned, sold …” by Anna Akhmatova 🇷🇺 (23 Jun 18895 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?
Odors of cherry blossom sigh
From the rumored forest beyond the town.
At night, new constellations crown
The high, clear heavens of July.
Closer it comes, and closer still,
To houses ruinous and blind:
Some marvelous thing still undivined.
Some fiat of the century’s will.