She

Nikolay Gumilyov (1886 – 1921) an influential Russian poet, literary critic, traveller, and military officer dedicated a number of passionate and spiritual poems to Anna Akhmatova, a famous Russian poetess. Poem “She” is one of them.
Eventually, they married and had a son. Gumilyov established the so-called Guild of Poets, which was modelled after medieval guilds of Western Europe. They advocated a view that poetry needs craftsmanship just like architecture. Writing a good poem they compared to building a cathedral. Gumilyov was arrested and executed by the Russian secret police in 1921.

The woman whom I know is quiet
 So bitterly tired of words
 That it shows in her shimmering eyes
 And mystique of her inner world.

 Her soul is thirsty and open
 To the music of poetry brass,
 But that soul is deaf and arrogant
 To the cheerful worldly mirage.

 So quiet and slow and graceful
 That magnetic demeanour of hers
 I would never say she is beautiful,
 But my happiness lies in her.

 When I feel unruly and wilful
 With her alone I feel approved
 I learn the wisdom of painful sweetness
 In her languid delirium.

 So light and clear in her anguish
 She holds the lightnings in her hands,
 Her dreams are clearer than shadows
 On the heavenly fiery sands.

 1912

 (By Nikolay Gumilyov,
 Translation by Svetlana Rakhimova)