Anna Akhmatova: A brief self-report
Anna Akhmatova
June 1889+0 1 (23rd day of the new calendar) was born near Odessa (Grand Fountain). My father is a retired naval mechanical engineer. When I was a one-year-old child, I was sent to the north-into Huangcheng Village. I lived there until 16 years old.
My first memory of Huangcun is as follows: lush greenery, wet and splendid parks, pastures that my nanny took me to, racetracks where we rode all kinds of ponies, ancient railway stations and some other things, which were later recorded in Ode to Huangcun.
Every summer, I spend time near Sevastopol, the shore of Sagittarius Bay, where I make friends with the sea. What impressed me most in these years is the ancient city of Hellson, where we once lived.
I learned to read lev tolstoy letter by letter. When I was five years old, I learned to speak French by listening to a female teacher give lessons to older children.
When I wrote my first poem, 1 1 years old. For me, the enlightenment of poetry came not from Pushkin and lermontov, but from Jerchavin (Birthday of the Royal Boy) and Necrasov (Cold Red Nose). My mother can recite all these works.
I study in Huangcun Girls' High School. At first, my grades were poor, but later I became very good, but I was always unwilling to learn.
1905 My parents divorced and my mother moved to the south with her children. We live in Yevpatoria all the year round. I studied the first grade course before graduating from middle school at home. I often miss Huangcun and wrote many vulgar and boring poems. 1905 The echo of the revolution reached Yevpatoria, which is almost isolated from the world. I finished my last grade course in Kiev, and 1907 graduated from Von Dukleyev Middle School.
I was admitted to the law department of the senior girls' school in Kiev. I have to study legal history temporarily, especially Latin. I used to be very satisfied, because at that time, I was only teaching legal courses, and then I became indifferent to these courses.
1910 (April 25th) I got married with Nicolas Milev, and we went to Paris for our honeymoon.
On the living body in Paris (Zola described it this way), the laying of the new street park was not completely completed (Raspail Street Park). Addison's friend Vernier pointed to two tables in Pantern and said to me, "This is your Social Democratic Party, that is the Bolshevik and that is the Menshevik." Some women who like to constantly change their patterns are going to wear those pants (jupes-cullottes), while others are going to wear those that almost cover their legs (jupes-entravees). Few people care about poetry. People buy poetry books only because the flowers on them come from famous or little-known painters. I understand now that the paintings in Paris have swallowed up the poems in Paris.
After I returned to Petersburg, I studied in Rayev Higher Institute of Literature and History. I wrote many poems here, which were later included in my first collection of poems.
When people showed me the proof of Inakenki Ann Nenski's poetry collection "Cedar Jewelry Box", I was so excited that I finished reading it and forgot everything in the world.
19 10, the crisis of symbolism was clearly exposed, and the poets who just started no longer followed this school. Some of them joined futurism, while others joined Ahmet. At the first seminar, my colleagues and I-Shtamm, Thern Kevic and Narbut-became members of Akme.
I spent 19 1 1 year in Paris, where I became a witness to the successful premiere of Russian ballet. 19 12, I visited northern Italy (Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Bologna, Padua, Venice). Italy's natural scenery and architectural art left a deep impression on me: it is like a dream, and you will never forget it.
19 12 My first book of poetry, Dusk, came out. It only printed 300 copies. Critics appreciate it.
19 12 10 October 1 My only son, Lev, was born.
1965438+In March 2004, my second collection of poems, rosary, was published. Its sales lasted about six weeks. At the beginning of May, silence began in Petersburg, and people gradually fled the city. This parting from Petersburg turned out to be forever. When we come back again. It is no longer Petersburg, but Petrograd. From the19th century, we suddenly plunged into the 20th century. Since the appearance of cities, everything has changed beyond recognition. I think, as a beginner, the pamphlet of love poems will naturally be lost in world events. But the time is not arranged like this.
I spend every summer in the former Tver province, which is 15 miles away from Lezke. The scenery here is not suitable for people: the fields on the mountain have been plowed into neat squares, mills, mud ponds, dry swamps, "small courtyards", crops, crops ... I have finished many poems in the Rose Sutra and the white statues there. The white statue was released in September, 19 17.
This is unfair to readers and critics of this book. Why would I think that? Because it is less reactive than rosary. The publication of this collection of poems is in a big stage of social change. The traffic was paralyzed-the book could not even be sent to Moscow, and it was snapped up in Petrograd. The magazine is closed, so is the newspaper. Therefore, compared with the rosary, The White Statue lacks lively media participation. What is getting worse is hunger and conflict. How terrible, but at that time, these conditions were ignored.
After the October Revolution, I worked in the library of Agricultural College. 192 1 year, my poetry anthology Plantago was published, 1922, published in Anno Domini.
In the mid-1920s, I began to study the ancient Petersburg architectural art and Pushkin's life and literary creation with great interest. Pushkin's research results mainly include three books: The Golden Rooster, Adolf of Benjamin Sunstein and The Stone Man. These articles were published at that time.
I have been engaged in Alexander's Poetic Style, Pushkin and Neva Seaside, Pushkin 1828 for nearly 20 years. Obviously, I want to include them in the monograph Death of Pushkin.
Since the mid-1920s, my new poems have almost stopped publishing, while my old poems can still be reprinted.
194 1 I was forced to stay in Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. At the end of September, the blockade has begun and I just flew to Moscow.
I lived in Tashkent before May 1944, and I eagerly collected all the news related to Leningrad and the front line. Like other poets, I often go to military hospitals to express my condolences and read poems for wounded soldiers. In Tashkent, I learned for the first time what is heat, what is shade and what is underwater sound. Moreover, I also know what human feelings are: I was ill many times in Tashkent, and I was very ill.
1944 in may, I arrived in Moscow in spring by plane, and it was completely immersed in the happy hope and expectation of victory.
That terrible ghost blocked my city and scared me. I wrote down my encounter with it in prose. That time prompted me to write essays such as Three Lilacs and Visiting the House of Death, which was related to my reading poems at the front line in Jericho. Prose is always mysterious and attractive to me. I knew everything about poetry from the beginning, but I knew nothing about prose. My initial experiment was praised by everyone, but of course I didn't believe it myself. My name is Zuo Xianke. He ordered me to delete some paragraphs and said that he agreed to keep others. I am very happy. Later, my son was arrested and I burned them and other manuscripts.
I have always been interested in literary translation. I have translated many works in recent years. It is still being translated.
1962, I finished writing a narrative poem without heroes for 22 years.
Last spring, on the eve of Dante's Year, I listened to Italian again-I went to Rome and Sicily. 1965 In the spring, I went to Shakespeare's hometown, saw the sky and Atlantic Ocean in Great Britain, reunited with old friends, made some new friends, and went to Paris.
I didn't stop writing poetry. Writing poetry for me is my connection with time and the new life of my people. When I wrote them, I lived in that rhythm, and this melody echoed in the heroic history of my motherland. I am happy because I live in this era and have witnessed those unprecedented events.
1965.