The Stray Dog Cabaret
Anna Akhmatova


All of us here are hookers and hustlers.
We drink too much, and don't care.
The walls are covered with birds and flowers
that have never seen sunshine or air.

You smoke too much. There's always a cloud
of nicotine over your head.
Do you like this skirt? I wore it on purpose.
I wanted to show lots of leg.

The windows here have been covered forever.
Is it snowing out?...maybe it's rain.
You've got that look in your eyes again,
like a cat in a crouch for a kill.

Sometimes I feel this awful pain,
as if someone were breaking a spell.
Take a good look at that one over there!
She's dancing her way into hell!

Translated by Paul Schmidt

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We're all boozers and floozies here,
altogether a joyless crowd!
On the walls, the flowers and birds
yearn for the clouds.

You sit puffing your black pipe;
smoke is rising, strange and dim.
This tight skirt makes me look
slimmer than slim.

The windows are boarded up for good —
what's out there? Lightning? Snow?
Like those of a cautious cat
your eyes glow.

What is my heart longing for?
Am I waiting for Death's knell?
And the woman dancing now
is bound for hell.

1913

Translated by Margo Shohl Rosen