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Why is this century worse than those others?
Maybe, because, in sadness and alarm,
It only touched the blackest of the ulcers,
But couldn't heal it in its span of time.

— Anna Akhmatova Why is this century worse than those others? (1919)

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More quotes by Anna Akhmatova

A new epoch has begun. You and I will wait for it together.

I go forth to seek —
To seek and claim the lovely magic garden
Where grasses softly sigh and Muses speak.

He is no better and no worse,
but he is free of Lethe's curse:
his warm hand makes a human pledge.

Poem without a Hero (1963)

I don't know if you're alive or dead.
Can you on earth be sought,
Or only when the sunsets fade
Be mourned serenely in my thought?

I Don't Know If You're Alive Or Dead (1915)

Each of our lives is a Shakespearean drama raised to the thousandth degree.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Anna Akhmatova (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.