And this tenderness was not like<br />That which a certain poet<br />At the beginning of the century called true<br />And, for some reason, quiet. No, not at all—<br />It rang out, like the first waterfall,<br />It crunched like the crust of bluish ice<br />And it prayed with a swanlike voice,<br />And it broke down right before our eyes.

Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova