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Quote by Anna Akhmatova

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Poem without a hero and selected poems

This volume brings together one of the most significant long poems of the 20th century, 'Poem Without a Hero,' which is known for its complex, multi-layered structure and its meditation on the cultural and personal losses of the pre-revolutionary era. The selected poems that accompany it offer a broader view of the poet's lyrical range, including works that address love, time, and the role of the artist in society. The collection is recognized for its allusive style, rich symbolism, and the interplay between personal and collective history. more

Author

Anna Akhmatova
Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova (June 23, 1889 – March 5, 1966) was one of the most prominent Russian poets of the 20th century. Known for her profound emotions and exquisite artistic skills, she is often referred to as the 'nightingale of Russian poetry'. more

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“So one must be resigned to being a clock that measures the passage of time, now out of order, now repaired, and whose mechanism generates despair and love as soon as its maker sets it going? Are we to grow used to the idea that every man relives ancient torments, which are all the more profound because they grow comic with repetition? That human existence should repeat itself, well and good, but that it should repeat itself like a hackneyed tune, or a record a drunkard keeps playing as he feeds coins into the jukebox.”

“The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it was once the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales. Whenever good counsel was at a premium, the fairy tale had it, and where the need was greatest, its aid was nearest. This need was created by myth. The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest.”

“Since our technology is really just an extension of ourselves, we don’t have to have contempt for its manipulability in the way we might with actual people. It’s all one big endless loop. We like the mirror and the mirror likes us. To friend a person is merely to include the person in our private hall of flattering mirrors.”