Anna Akhmatova

Oh, Lord, I can forgive what’s done to me by them,
But better, a wild hawk, I would tear a lamb,
Or, a snake – sting the sleeping in the grasses,
Than to be man, and see what people masses
Do on the earth, and through the noxious shame
To not dare up my eyes to heavens’ pure flame.  


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, August, 2002