Courage, by Anna Akhmatova

We know what trembles on the scales,

and what we must steel ourselves to face.

The bravest hour strikes on our clocks:

may courage not abandon us!

Let bullets kill us--we are not afraid,

nor are we bitter, though our housetops fall.

We will preserve you, Russian speech,

from servitude in foreign chains,

keep you alive, great Russian word,

fit for the songs of our children’s children,

pure on their tongues, and free.

--23 February 1942

From “Poems of Akhmatova,” selected, translated and introduced by Stanley Kunitz with Max Hayward. (Mariner Books: 174 pp., $13) Copyright 1997 Reprinted by permission.