Yesterday's Shadow

You Will Hear Thunder

Anna Akhmatova

You will hear thunder and remember me,

And think: she wanted storms. The rim

Of the sky will be the colour of hard crimson,

And your heart, as it was then, will be on fire.

That day in Moscow, it will all come true,

when, for the last time, I take my leave,

And hasten to the heights that I have longed for,

Leaving my shadow still to be with you.

The poet Anna Akhmatova wrote a poem about the part of her life she is leaving behind. She is going to a place which is the last time anyone will see her. Perhaps she leaves behind a lover, but something calls her to this place, this height.
    The Russian poet Anna Akhmatova was brave and admired for not leaving Russia during the oppressive Stalin years. Her first husband was tortured, her poetry was banned and still she found the words to express a simple feeling from the heart... "You will hear thunder..."
   Perhaps she is calling on Russians to remember her for her strength in resisting the oppressiveness of Stalinism. Perhaps she is urging her people to remember that their hearts can be on fire again. When she dies, she tells them, remember you have strength and power (thunder). The crimson color could be the flag of Russia itself.
   Whenever we hear thunder, something dramatic is about to happen. When we leave a place or a person, the shadow left can be positive or negative memory.  Will your shadow leave behind a fire in someone's heart?