Memorial Day Weekend Akhmatova Blogging

To the Many

I -- am your voice, the warmth of your breath,
I -- am the reflection of your face,
The futile trembling of futile wings,
I am with you to he end, in any case.

That's why you so fervently love
Me in my weakness and in my sin;
That's why you impulsively gave
Me the best of your sons;
That's why you never even asked
Me for any word of him
And blackened my forever-deserted home
With fumes of praise.
And they say -- it's impossible to fuse more closely,
Impossible to love more abandonedly. . .

As the shadow from the body wants to part,
As the flesh from the soul wants to separate,
So I want now -- to be forgotten..

September 1922
-- translated by Judith Hemschemeyer

We need to stop sending our young people, our children, our sons and daughters off to kill and be killed simply so that scared men who are, themselves, damaged by all the evils of patriarchy, can continue to refuse to examine their own shadows. On Memorial Day weekend, this is my will. So mote it be.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Biorgaphers report that, "After the end of the Second World War . . . Akhmatova was labeled 'alien to the Soviet people' for her 'eroticism, mysticism, and political impartiality.'" Of course, eroticism and mysticism are two of the most marked characteristics of the Russians. And, of course, the more that Soviet officials declared her "alien to the Soviet people," the more the Russian people loved her.