Preface
In that scary ezhov era, I spent 17 months waiting in line for prison visits. One day, someone recognized me. The woman with no color in her lips behind me, although she had never heard of my name, suddenly woke up from the unique numbness of all of us and whispered in my ear (where everyone whispered), "Can you write this all down?" "yes." I said. Then, a seemingly smiling expression passed over the part of her face that used to be a face.
(in Leningrad on April 1st, 1957)
No, I was not in a foreign country,
nor was I hiding under the wings of others-
I was with my people,
in a place where my people were unfortunate.
(1961)
Dedication
In the face of this sorrow, the mountains will bow their heads,
the surging river will still flow,
but the heavy prison door is still tightly closed,
behind the door is the "convict's dark kang",
and the deadly sorrow.
For whom the breeze blows gently, and for whom the sunset makes people frown-
We don't know anything about this.
The sound we hear everywhere
is just the harsh turning of the key on the door lock,
and the heavy sound of soldiers' boots.
We get up early like a morning prayer,
we cross the wild capital,
we gather there, which is less alive than the dead,
the sun is low and neva river is foggy,
but hope is singing in the distance.
When the verdict was announced ... I was in tears.
I was far away from everyone.
I felt a sharp pain like digging my heart.
I was pushed to the ground rudely.
But I still walked forward ... and I was lonely.
where are the female friends who were in trouble in those two years,
now?
What are their hallucinations?
In that snowstorm in Siberia?
What did they seem to see?
When the moon was round?
I send my feelings of farewell to their hearts.
(194。 3)
Overture
When this happens,
only the dead will be happy, and
I am glad that he has gained peace.
Leningrad is like a redundant waste,
wandering around its own prison,
condemned people walking in lines,
suffering makes them look crazy,
the train whistle sings parting words briefly.
Under the bloody boots,
Under the black tires of the prison car,
Innocent Ross is struggling,
The stars of death are hanging high above our heads.
You were taken away at dawn,
I followed you like a funeral.
The little children are crying in the narrow room.
In front of the shrine is a tearful candlelight.
Icons leave a trace of coolness on your lips,
Cold sweat on your forehead ...
Don't forget it! -
I want to be like an archer's wife,
crying down beside the Kremlin tower.
(1935。 Autumn. Moscow)
The Don River flows quietly,
The dim moonlight shines into the building.
In the dim moonlight, wearing a hat askew,
I came into the room to see people.
This woman is sick,
This woman is lonely.
My husband has gone to prison.
Please pray for me.
no, this is not me,
this is another one who suffers.
If it is me, how can I stand it?
It's a disaster from the sky.
Let the black woolen cloth cover it.
Let people take away all the lights ...
Only the vast night is left.
You are a person who likes to make fun of others,
You are the darling of all your friends,
You are a happy offender in Huangcun,
Now I want to let you know,
What will happen to you in your life-
You have to stand next to the prison bars in Kleister,
Ranked No.3, holding the articles for visiting, < p!
Like the poplar swaying in the prison,
it is silent-and
how many innocent lives are dying in the big wall ...
(1938)
I wailed loudly for seventeen months,
I called you home for a long time,
I prostrated myself at the feet of the executioner,
My son!
Everything seems to be black and white forever.
Now I can't tell the difference.
Who is a man and who is a beast?
How long will the death penalty wait?
There is only the sound of shaking the stove to disperse the fragrance,
There are clusters of flowers,
Footprints are one after another,
reaching to some unknown place.
A huge star
threatened to be destroyed
stared at me.
(1939)
Skimming around.
What has happened is always confusing.
Son, they stare at you day and night
How to get into the cell,
How fierce they look at you
like an eagle.
talking about your tall cross,
talking about your death.
(1939。 Spring)
Sentence
Stonehenge-like words press on
my dying chest.
It's nothing. I'm already prepared.
I can bear it no matter what.
I have a lot of things to do today.
I want to cut off my memory.
I want to turn my heart into stone.
I want to learn my life again.
But ... the hot noise in summer,
seems to be the constant sound of festivals in front of my window.
I had a premonition that there would be a sunny day,
and the empty room.
(1934。 Summer.
To death
You will come sooner or later-why not now?
I waited for you very hard.
I put out the lights and opened the door for you.
You are so ordinary and so strange.
whatever form you take to come in,
it's like a cannonball dipped in poisonous juice,
it's like a habitual thief with dumbbells sneaking in,
it's like the smoke of typhoid fever.
Still with the familiar and disgusting
lies you made up-
Let me see the pale face of the housekeeper over the sky-blue hat
.
it doesn't matter to me now.
The Yenisei River is rolling and the Polaris is shining.
The blue spark in the lover's eyes
covers the last fear.
(1939。 8。 19。 Fountain House)
Madness has covered half of my heart with one wing,
filled me with hot wine pulp
lured me to the deep black valley.
I know very well in my heart that
I should give it victory,
I listen to my own nonsense,
it seems to be someone else's nonsense.
(No matter how I beg,
No matter how I beg)
It won't nod
I'll take anything away:
Whether it's my son's frightened eyes-
the insensitive pain,
or the day when a thunderstorm struck,
when I met the prison.
Whether it's the coolness left by my dear hands,
Whether it's the touching bodhi shade,
Or the last words of comfort-
A slight voice coming from a distance.
(194。 5。 4)
crucify
"Mother, don't cry for me,
I'm still in the coffin."
1
Angels sang praises of the great moment,
but the sky melted into the fire.
I said to my father, "Why did you abandon me?"
And he said to his mother, "Oh, don't cry for me ..."
2
Magdalina beat his chest and wept bitterly,
his beloved disciple turned to stone,
but where his mother stood silently,
no one dared to look at each other.
epilogue
1
I know how emaciated my face is,
what anxiety flashes under my eyelids,
how pain
depicts thick and hard wedge-shaped wrinkles on my cheeks,
how curly hair with light gray and thick black hair
suddenly turns into white hair, and
smiles on my supple lips.
I don't just pray for me,
but for all those people,
who stand with me under the dazzling red wall,
whether it's the cold in winter
or the hot summer in July.
2
The time for mourning is approaching again.
I watched, listened and felt you:
There was the woman who was helped to the window,
There was also the woman who couldn't set foot on her homeland,
And how beautiful the woman who shook her head was,
She once said, "Coming here is like coming home."
I wanted to name them all.
The list of helpless people has been taken away, so we can't know.
I knitted a wide shroud for them,
with a few words I overheard from them.
I remember them at any time and place.
Even if a new disaster strikes, I will never forget them.
Even if my suffering mouth is blocked,
hundreds of millions of people will protest with my cry.
On the eve of my death,
Let them express their condolences to me in this way.
If one day in this country,
someone wants to erect a monument for me,
but only under such a condition,
I agree to commemorate the victory-
Don't stand by the seaside where I was born,
I have cut off contact with the sea,
Don't stand by the stump where I miss Huangcun Garden so much.
Because in my liberated death,
I am afraid that I will forget the scream of the black prison car.
I'm afraid to forget the disgusting sound of the prison door closing,
and the old woman weeping like a wounded beast.
Let the immobile bronze eyes
shed melted snow like tears,
Let the prison pigeons fly far away,
Let the ships cruise quietly on the Neva River.
(translated by Yeri)
Appreciation
Requiem is a masterpiece of Akhmatova's later poems, and its creation background is the Great Cleansing Movement that swept the Soviet Union in 1934 and shocked the world. At that special period, the poet's son was implicated in the problems of the poet's ex-husband and was arrested and imprisoned. Akhmatova ran around asking for help to save his son. She stood in line outside the prison in Leningrad for 17 months. In those days when there was no way to cry and cry, Akhmatova recorded his own sufferings with Requiem.
The Requiem is about 2 lines long. With concise and powerful language and changing lyric angle, the poet truly shows a woman's complicated emotional course in that particular situation. Pain, despair, struggle and rationality are intertwined, showing the unbearable "weight" of individual life.
in requiem, the language of poetry is concise and powerful, and sometimes it shows a certain intellectual style. This language style is very consistent with the heavy feelings expressed by the poet, and the two complement each other to make poetry have shocking emotional power. The arrest and imprisonment of the poet's last relative, his son, made the poet "feel as if he had a heart-digging pain,/as if he had been rudely pushed to the ground ..." The miserable poet began a long running cry: "I have been wailing loudly for seventeen months,/I have been calling you home for a long time,/I prostrated myself at the executioner's feet,/My son, you have made me afraid,/Everything seems to be black and white forever. The extreme pain and despair made the poet almost fall into madness, but the tenacious nature made the poet cheer up quickly, and then he could rationally observe and reflect on his current situation: "Madness has covered half of his soul with one wing,/filled me with hot wine/attracted me to the dark valley. /I know very well in my heart/I should give it victory,/listening to my own nonsense,/it seems to be someone else's nonsense. " The concrete expression of this kind of profound emotion appears many times in poems, such as "The Yenisei River is rolling, and the Polaris is shining" in the eleventh verse. /the blue spark in the eyes of the beloved/covering the last fear ",etc. The concrete expression of emotion is different from the aesthetic style when expressing one's feelings directly, which makes the whole poetic style tend to be rational, temperate and intelligent, and makes the meaning of poetry deeper and more emotional.
By consciously changing the lyric person, the poet expresses the complex emotions and emotions of the subject from multiple angles, and the poet's emotional space of the subject is fully expanded and enriched, which enhances the emotional shock of poetry from another level. In addition to the direct description in the first person, when the poet expresses the subject's feelings, he also uses the third person and the second person to separate himself into a bystander or interlocutor, and sets off the inner sadness with an objective and calm narrative on the surface: "This woman is sick,/This woman is alone. /Your husband has gone to prison ... You are a person who likes to make fun of others,/You are the darling of all your friends,/... Now I want to let you know,/What will happen to your life-/You have to stand next to the prison in Kleister,/Ranked at No.3, holding the agent.