The word dropped like a stone
on my still living breast.
Confess: I was prepared,
am somehow ready for the test.

Then fell the word of stone on My still existing, still heaving breast. Never mind, I was not unprepared, and Shall manage to adjust to it somehow. | Translated by D. M. Thomas | And the stone word fell On my still-living breast. Never mind, I was ready. I will manage somehow. | Translated by Judith Hemschemeyer from Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova (1989)