“But I am giving you notice
That I am living for the last time.
Not as a swallow, not as a maple,
Not as a reed and not as a star,
Not as water from a spring
Nor the ringing of bells -
Will I trouble anyone,
Nor visit others’ dreams
With my inconsolable moans.”
Anna Akhmatova, from “In the Fortieth Year.” Translated by Judith Hemschemeyer.
It strikes me that for all of us there comes a time when we begin living for ourselves, and not for anyone else’s ideas of who we are, of what we should be. We become our own metaphors. Let us give notice.
