'Requiem' by Anna Akhmatova
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Not under foreign skies
Nor under foreign wings protected -
I shared all this with my own people
There, where misfortune had abandoned us.
[1961]
INSTEAD OF A PREFACE
During the frightening years of the Yezhov terror, I
spent seventeen months waiting in prison queues in
Leningrad. One day, somehow, someone 'picked me out'.
On that occasion there was a woman standing behind me,
her lips blue with cold, who, of course, had never in
her life heard my name. Jolted out of the torpor
characteristic of all of us, she said into my ear
(everyone whispered there) - 'Could one ever describe
this?' And I answered - 'I can.' It was then that
something like a smile slid across what had previously
been just a face.
[The 1st of April in the year 1957. Leningrad]
DEDICATION
Mountains fall before this grief,
A mighty river stops its flow,
But prison doors stay firmly bolted
Shutting off the convict burrows
And an anguish close to death.
Fresh winds softly blow for someone,
Gentle sunsets warm them through; we don't know this,
We are everywhere the same, listening
To the scrape and turn of hateful keys
And the heavy tread of marching soldiers.
Waking early, as if for early mass,
Walking through the capital run wild, gone to seed,
We'd meet - the dead, lifeless; the sun,
Lower every day; the Neva, mistier:
But hope still sings forever in the distance.
The verdict. Immediately a flood of tears,
Followed by a total isolation,
As if a beating heart is painfully ripped out, or,
Thumped, she lies there brutally laid out,
But she still manages to walk, hesitantly, alone.
Where are you, my unwilling friends,
Captives of my two satanic years?
What miracle do you see in a Siberian blizzard?
What shimmering mirage around the circle of the moon?
I send each one of you my salutation, and farewell.
[March 1940]
INTRODUCTION
[PRELUDE]
It happened like this when only the dead
Were smiling, glad of their release,
That Leningrad hung around its prisons
Like a worthless emblem, flapping its piece.
Shrill and sharp, the steam-whistles sang
Short songs of farewell
To the ranks of convicted, demented by suffering,
As they, in regiments, walked along -
Stars of death stood over us
As innocent Russia squirmed
Under the blood-spattered boots and tyres
Of the black marias.
I
You were taken away at dawn. I followed you
As one does when a corpse is being removed.
Children were crying in the darkened house.
A candle flared, illuminating the Mother of God. . .
The cold of an icon was on your lips, a death-cold
sweat
On your brow - I will never forget this; I will gather
To wail with the wives of the murdered streltsy (1)
Inconsolably, beneath the Kremlin towers.
[1935. Autumn. Moscow]
II
Silent flows the river Don
A yellow moon looks quietly on
Swanking about, with cap askew
It sees through the window a shadow of you
Gravely ill, all alone
The moon sees a woman lying at home
Her son is in jail, her husband is dead
Say a prayer for her instead.
III
It isn't me, someone else is suffering. I couldn't.
Not like this. Everything that has happened,
Cover it with a black cloth,
Then let the torches be removed. . .
Night.
IV
Giggling, poking fun, everyone's darling,
The carefree sinner of Tsarskoye Selo (2)
If only you could have foreseen
What life would do with you -
That you would stand, parcel in hand,
Beneath the Crosses (3), three hundredth in
line,
Burning the new year's ice
With your hot tears.
Back and forth the prison poplar sways
With not a sound - how many innocent
Blameless lives are being taken away. . .
[1938]
V
For seventeen months I have been screaming,
Calling you home.
I've thrown myself at the feet of butchers
For you, my son and my horror.
Everything has become muddled forever -
I can no longer distinguish
Who is an animal, who a person, and how long
The wait can be for an execution.
There are now only dusty flowers,
The chinking of the thurible,
Tracks from somewhere into nowhere
And, staring me in the face
And threatening me with swift annihilation,
An enormous star.
[1939]
VI
Weeks fly lightly by. Even so,
I cannot understand what has arisen,
How, my son, into your prison
White nights stare so brilliantly.
Now once more they burn,
Eyes that focus like a hawk,
And, upon your cross, the talk
Is again of death.
[1939. Spring]
VII
THE VERDICT
The word landed with a stony thud
Onto my still-beating breast.
Nevermind, I was prepared,
I will manage with the rest.
I have a lot of work to do today;
I need to slaughter memory,
Turn my living soul to stone
Then teach myself to live again. . .
But how. The hot summer rustles
Like a carnival outside my window;
I have long had this premonition
Of a bright day and a deserted house.
[22 June 1939. Summer. Fontannyi Dom (4)]
VIII
TO DEATH
You will come anyway - so why not now?
I wait for you; things have become too hard.
I have turned out the lights and opened the door
For you, so simple and so wonderful.
Assume whatever shape you wish. Burst in
Like a shell of noxious gas. Creep up on me
Like a practised bandit with a heavy weapon.
Poison me, if you want, with a typhoid exhalation,
Or, with a simple tale prepared by you
(And known by all to the point of nausea), take me
Before the commander of the blue caps and let me
glimpse
The house administrator's terrified white face.
I don't care anymore. The river Yenisey
Swirls on. The Pole star blazes.
The blue sparks of those much-loved eyes
Close over and cover the final horror.
[19 August 1939. Fontannyi Dom]
IX
Madness with its wings
Has covered half my soul
It feeds me fiery wine
And lures me into the abyss.
That's when I understood
While listening to my alien delirium
That I must hand the victory
To it.
However much I nag
However much I beg
It will not let me take
One single thing away:
Not my son's frightening eyes -
A suffering set in stone,
Or prison visiting hours
Or days that end in storms
Nor the sweet coolness of a hand
The anxious shade of lime trees
Nor the light distant sound
Of final comforting words.
[14 May 1940. Fontannyi Dom]
X
CRUCIFIXION
Weep not for me, mother.
I am alive in my grave.
1.
A choir of angels glorified the greatest hour,
The heavens melted into flames.
To his father he said, 'Why hast thou forsaken me!'
But to his mother, 'Weep not for me. . .'
[1940. Fontannyi Dom]
2.
Magdalena smote herself and wept,
The favourite disciple turned to stone,
But there, where the mother stood silent,
Not one person dared to look.
[1943. Tashkent]
EPILOGUE
1.
I have learned how faces fall,
How terror can escape from lowered eyes,
How suffering can etch cruel pages
Of cuneiform-like marks upon the cheeks.
I know how dark or ash-blond strands of hair
Can suddenly turn white. I've learned to recognise
The fading smiles upon submissive lips,
The trembling fear inside a hollow laugh.
That's why I pray not for myself
But all of you who stood there with me
Through fiercest cold and scorching July heat
Under a towering, completely blind red wall.
2.
The hour has come to remember the dead.
I see you, I hear you, I feel you:
The one who resisted the long drag to the open window;
The one who could no longer feel the kick of familiar
soil beneath her feet;
The one who, with a sudden flick of her head, replied,
'I arrive here as if I've come home!'
I'd like to name you all by name, but the list
Has been removed and there is nowhere else to look.
So,
I have woven you this wide shroud out of the humble
words
I overheard you use. Everywhere, forever and always,
I will never forget one single thing. Even in new
grief.
Even if they clamp shut my tormented mouth
Through which one hundred million people scream;
That's how I wish them to remember me when I am dead
On the eve of my remembrance day.
If someone someday in this country
Decides to raise a memorial to me,
I give my consent to this festivity
But only on this condition - do not build it
By the sea where I was born,
I have severed my last ties with the sea;
Nor in the Tsar's Park by the hallowed stump
Where an inconsolable shadow looks for me;
Build it here where I stood for three hundred hours
And no-one slid open the bolt.
Listen, even in blissful death I fear
That I will forget the Black Marias,
Forget how hatefully the door slammed and an old woman
Howled like a wounded beast.
Let the thawing ice flow like tears
From my immovable bronze eyelids
And let the prison dove coo in the distance
While ships sail quietly along the river.
[March 1940. Fontannyi Dom]
FOOTNOTES
1 An elite guard which rose up in rebellion
against Peter the Great in 1698. Most were either
executed or exiled.
2 The imperial summer residence outside St
Petersburg where Ahmatova spent her early years.
3 A prison complex in central Leningrad near the
Finland Station, called The Crosses because of the
shape of two of the buildings.
4 The Leningrad house in which Ahmatova lived.
First published Sasha Soldatow Mayakovsky in Bondi
BlackWattle Press 1993 Sydney.
Translated by Sasha Soldatow
Editor 1 Interpretation
Requiem by Anna Akhmatova: A Poem for the Ages
Introduction
Requiem, a poem by Anna Akhmatova, is a powerful work of literature that captures the emotions of a nation during one of the darkest periods in its history. The poem was written during the height of Stalin’s purges in the Soviet Union, and as such, it reflects the fear, terror, and grief that the people of the nation felt during that period. Anna Akhmatova is considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, and this poem is one of her most well-known works. In this literary criticism, I will analyze Requiem in detail, exploring its themes, symbolism, and the historical context in which it was written.
Historical Context
Before diving into the poem itself, it is important to understand the historical context in which it was written. Stalin’s purges were a series of political repressions that occurred in the Soviet Union from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. During this period, Stalin’s regime targeted anyone who was seen as a potential threat to his power, including intellectuals, artists, and political dissidents. Many were arrested, tortured, and executed, and the country was gripped by a sense of fear and paranoia.
Akhmatova herself was personally affected by the purges. Her son, Lev Gumilyov, was arrested in 1935 and spent several years in prison and labor camps. As a result, Akhmatova was under constant surveillance by the authorities, and many of her friends and colleagues were arrested or disappeared. Requiem was written during this period of extreme repression and fear.
Themes and Symbolism
Requiem is a deeply emotional poem that explores a number of themes, including grief, loss, and resistance. The poem is structured in a series of 13 parts, each of which explores a different aspect of the experience of living under Stalin’s regime. The first part sets the tone for the rest of the poem:
No monument stands over Babi Yar. A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone. I am afraid.
The reference to Babi Yar, a ravine near Kiev where thousands of Jews were murdered by the Nazis in 1941, highlights the atmosphere of fear and grief that pervaded the Soviet Union during this period. The lack of a monument to commemorate the victims is symbolic of the regime’s attempt to erase the memory of those who were killed.
Throughout the poem, Akhmatova uses powerful imagery to convey the emotions of the people living under Stalin’s regime. In Part II, she describes the fear and uncertainty that people felt:
In the terrible years of the Yezhov terror I spent seventeen months in the prison lines of Leningrad. Once, someone “recognized” me. Then a woman with bluish lips Standing behind me, who, of course, had never heard me called by name Jabbed me with a finger and whispered: “As for you, You ought to be ashamed.”
The image of a woman with bluish lips jabbing Akhmatova and whispering in her ear is chilling and conveys the sense of paranoia and suspicion that prevailed during this period. The fact that the woman had never heard Akhmatova called by name highlights the fact that anyone could be accused of being an enemy of the state, regardless of their actual activities or beliefs.
In Part V, Akhmatova describes the grief and mourning that accompanied the purges:
In the Kremlin’s shade, in the evening, / A soldier’s widow, her eyes grown dim, / Sold her last possession, her husband’s long coat. / A blue-eyed Ukrainian boy sobbed / On a metro stairway, unwilling / To part with his mutilated toy.
The image of a soldier’s widow selling her husband’s coat and a Ukrainian boy sobbing over a broken toy are both poignant and symbolic of the loss and grief that people experienced during this period. The fact that the woman is selling her last possession highlights the poverty and desperation that many people faced, while the boy’s broken toy is a metaphor for the shattered lives and dreams of those affected by the purges.
Resistance and Hope
Despite the overwhelming sense of fear, grief, and loss that pervades Requiem, the poem also contains elements of resistance and hope. In Part VIII, Akhmatova describes a moment of defiance:
But without a sound, without moving Only their lips whispered: “Blessed is He who comes….” Those who still had voice to speak Shrieked: “Our revenge will be terrible!”
The reference to the biblical phrase “Blessed is He who comes…” is significant, as it is a reference to the arrival of the Messiah. The fact that the people are whispering rather than speaking out loud highlights the need for secrecy and caution, but the fact that they are able to find solace in this shared expression of faith is a source of hope.
In Part IX, Akhmatova describes a moment of solidarity and compassion:
For seventeen months I have been screaming, / Calling you home. I’ve thrown myself at the feet of butchers / For you, my son and my horror. Everything has become muddled forever – / I can no longer distinguish / Who is an animal, who a person, and how long / The wait can be for an execution.
The fact that Akhmatova is willing to throw herself at the feet of butchers to save her son is a powerful expression of maternal love, but it is also a testament to the human capacity for sacrifice and compassion. The fact that she can no longer distinguish between animals and people and the uncertainty of waiting for execution are both symbols of the dehumanizing effect of the purges, but the fact that she remains hopeful and determined in the face of such horror is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Requiem is a powerful and emotive poem that captures the emotions of a nation during one of its darkest periods. Through its themes of grief, loss, resistance, and hope, the poem speaks to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. The use of powerful imagery and symbolism helps to convey the horror and despair of living under Stalin’s regime, while the moments of defiance and solidarity provide a source of hope and inspiration for the reader. Requiem is a timeless work of literature that speaks to the universal human experience of suffering and resilience, and it deserves to be celebrated as one of the greatest poems of the 20th century.
Editor 2 Analysis and Explanation
Requiem by Anna Akhmatova: A Poem of Sorrow and Resilience
Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem is a powerful and moving poem that captures the pain and suffering of the Russian people during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. Written between 1935 and 1940, the poem is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of oppression and tyranny. In this analysis, we will explore the themes, imagery, and structure of Requiem, and how they contribute to the poem’s emotional impact.
Themes
The central theme of Requiem is the suffering of the Russian people under Stalin’s regime. The poem is a lament for the victims of the purges, and a condemnation of the cruelty and injustice of the Soviet system. Akhmatova’s own experiences during this period inform the poem, as she witnessed the arrest and imprisonment of her friends and family members. The poem is also a tribute to the courage and resilience of those who survived the purges, and a call for remembrance and justice.
Another theme that runs through the poem is the power of memory and the importance of bearing witness. Akhmatova’s poem is a testament to the human capacity to remember and to honor the dead. The poem is also a reminder that the truth must be told, even in the face of censorship and repression. By bearing witness to the atrocities of the purges, Akhmatova ensures that the victims are not forgotten, and that their suffering is not in vain.
Imagery
Akhmatova’s use of imagery in Requiem is both vivid and haunting. The poem is filled with images of darkness, imprisonment, and death. The opening lines of the poem set the tone for what is to come:
No monument stands over Babi Yar. A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.
Here, Akhmatova describes the site of a mass grave where thousands of Jews were killed by the Nazis. The absence of a monument is a symbol of the erasure of memory, and the cliff is a reminder of the violence that took place there. Throughout the poem, Akhmatova uses images of darkness and imprisonment to convey the sense of despair and hopelessness that pervaded Soviet society during the purges. The following lines are a powerful example of this:
In the terrible years of the Yezhov terror I spent seventeen months in the prison lines outside the prison walls.
Here, Akhmatova describes her own experience of waiting outside a prison where her son was being held. The image of the prison lines is a symbol of the arbitrary and capricious nature of the purges, and the sense of helplessness that many people felt.
Structure
Requiem is a complex and multi-layered poem that is structured around a series of recurring motifs and themes. The poem is divided into ten sections, each of which explores a different aspect of the purges. The sections are not arranged in a linear or chronological order, but rather are presented as a series of fragments or snapshots. This fragmented structure reflects the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the purges, and the sense of disorientation that many people felt.
One of the most striking features of the poem is its use of repetition. Throughout the poem, Akhmatova repeats certain phrases and images, creating a sense of rhythm and continuity. For example, the phrase “I don’t know” appears several times in the poem, emphasizing the uncertainty and confusion that many people felt during the purges. The repetition of certain images, such as the prison lines and the sound of footsteps, creates a sense of foreboding and dread.
Conclusion
Requiem is a powerful and moving poem that captures the pain and suffering of the Russian people during the Stalinist purges. Through her use of vivid imagery and repetition, Akhmatova creates a sense of despair and hopelessness that is palpable. However, the poem is also a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of oppression and tyranny. By bearing witness to the atrocities of the purges, Akhmatova ensures that the victims are not forgotten, and that their suffering is not in vain. Requiem is a timeless work of art that speaks to the enduring human struggle for freedom and justice.
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