Russian poet Anna Akhmatova's poem "Requiem" tells the story of government repression, abuse, and imprisonment in the Great Purge in the Soviet Union.
This poem, written from 1935 to 1961, is a heartbreaking tale. Poet Carolyn Forché reads the prose-poem "Instead of a Preface," published at the beginning of the longer poem, after the worst of the purge. Forché collected Akhmatova's poem in her groundbreaking book Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness. In her anthology, Forché publishes the work of 140 poets who lived under extremity, whether war, exile, torture, or abuse.
An introduction read by Shawn Sebastian Naar offers context and background on the poet and the poem.
11 янв 2022
