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'Can you describe this?' And I said: 'I can.'

Anna Akhmatova, Requiem

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The idea in context

Akhmatova spent seventeen months in the queues outside a Leningrad prison, waiting for news of her son. One day a woman with blue-tinged lips recognised her, leaned in and whispered the question — everyone in those queues whispered. This exchange became the preface to 'Requiem', her poem cycle about the terror. For years it existed nowhere but in the memories of a few trusted friends, who learned it by heart so that no page could be found.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

'Bunu anlatabilir misiniz?' Ben de dedim ki: 'Anlatabilirim.'
Anna Ahmatova, Requiem

Ahmatova, oğlundan haber alabilmek için Leningrad'da bir hapishanenin önündeki kuyruklarda on yedi ay bekledi. Bir gün dudakları morarmış bir kadın onu tanıdı, eğilip bu soruyu fısıldadı; o kuyruklarda herkes fısıldardı. Bu kısa konuşma, terör yıllarını anlatan 'Requiem' şiir dizisinin önsözü oldu. Şiir yıllarca yalnızca birkaç güvenilir dostun belleğinde yaşadı; ele geçecek bir sayfa olmasın diye onu ezberlediler.

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Background reading: Anna AkhmatovaAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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