‘I have come to take your place, sister,
At the high fire in the forest’s heart.
Your eyes have grown dull, your tears cloudy,
Your hair is gray.
You don’t understand the songs birds sing
Anymore, nor stars, nor summer lightning.
Don’t hear it when the women strike
The tambourine; yet you fear the silence.
I have come to take your place, sister,
At the high fire in the forest’s heart’. . .
–‘You’ve come to put me in the grave.
Where is your shovel and your spade?
You’re carrying just a flute.
I’m not going to blame you,
Sadly a long time ago
My voice fell mute.
Have my clothes to wear,
Answer my fears with silence,
Let the wind blow
Through your hair, smell the lilac.
You have come by a hard road
To be lit up by this fire.’
And one went away, ceding
The place to another, wandered
Like a blind woman reading
An unfamiliar narrow path,
And still it seemed to her a flame
Was close. . . In her hand a tambourine . . .
And she was like a white flag,
And like the light of a beacon.
(Anna Akhmatova)
More Poetry from Anna Akhmatova:
Anna Akhmatova Poems based on Topics: Fire, Light, Silence, Woman, Hair, Sisters, Place- As a white stone in the well's cool deepness (Anna Akhmatova Poems)
- And you, my friends who have been called away (Anna Akhmatova Poems)
- A widow in black (Anna Akhmatova Poems)
- Along the hard crust of deep snows (Anna Akhmatova Poems)
- Gray-Eyed King (Anna Akhmatova Poems)
- Rachel (Anna Akhmatova Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Light Poems, Place Poems, Fire Poems, Woman Poems, Hair Poems, Silence Poems, Sisters PoemsBased on Keywords: tambourine, ceding
- The Song Of Hiawatha XII: The Son Of The Evening Star (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- Afternoon At A Parsonage (Jean Ingelow Poems)
- Poems - Written On The Deaths Of Three Lovely Children (Jean Ingelow Poems)
- The Passion Of Dido For Aeneas (John Denham Poems)
- The Pastoral, Or Lyric Muse Of Scotland. Canto First (Hector MacNeill Poems)