<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;" class="">Why Then Do We Not Despair?</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Times; min-height: 23px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Everything is plundered, betrayed, sold,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Death's great black wing scrapes the air,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Misery gnaws to the bone.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Why then do we not despair?</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">By day, from the surrounding woods,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">cherries blow summer into town;</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">at night the deep transparent skies</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">glitter with new galaxies.</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">And the miraculous comes so close</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">to the ruined, dirty houses --</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">something not known to anyone at all,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">but wild in our breast for centuries.</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Anna Akhmatova </div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (translated by Stanley Kunitz)</p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p></body></html>