'Memory of sun ebbs from the heart.'
by Anna Akhmatova
Memory of Sun Ebbs from the Heart (1911) distills the onset of winter and emotional numbness into a few spare, aching lines. "Memory of sunlight ebbs from the heart. / What's this? Darkness?"
Memory of sun ebbs from the heart.
Grass fades early.
Wind blows the first snowflakes
Barely, barely.
Freezing water can't flow
Along these narrow channels.
Nothing happens here, oh
Nothing can happen.
A willow against the sky
Spreads its transparent fan.
Better perhaps, if I
Hadn't accepted your hand.
Memory of sunlight ebbs from the heart.
What's this? Darkness?
Perhaps! ...In the night
Winter has overcome us.