Anna Akhmatova

If I do not see you –
I feel: minutes, as centuries, are endless.
If I once had seen you –
Again suffers a heart’s wound, so merciless.
If I do not see you –
I am winded with frost and with darkness.
If I once had seen you –
Seared by something, with boiled pitch in likeness.

If I want to see you –
Angels’ hands will convey me to Heaven.
If I once had seen you –
To the tortures of Hell I am given.
And my peace is a loss:
Without you or with you – it’s in ruins:
I’m not got by the earth,
And repelled by the heavenly blueness.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, April 16, 2008
Corrected May-June 2008