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''Requiem'' is a lyrical cycle of elegy, lamentation and witness written between 1935 and 1940 by Anna Akhmatova. Akhmatova composed, worked and reworked the long sequence in secret, depicting the suffering of the common people under the Stalinist Terror. She carried it with her, redrafting, as she worked and lived in towns and cities across the Soviet Union. It was conspicuously absent from her collected works, given its explicit condemnation of the purges. The work in Russian finally appeared in book form in Munich in 1963, the whole work not published within the USSR until 1987. It would become her best known work. The work consists of ten numbered poems that examine a series of emotional states, exploring suffering, despair, devotion, rather than a clear narrative. Biblical themes such as Christ's crucifixion and the devastation of Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mary Magdelene, reflect the ravaging of Russia, particularly witnessing the harrowing of women in the 1930s. It represented, to some degree, a rejection of her own earlier romantic work as she took on the public role as chronicler of the Terror. This is a role she holds to this day. Following its publication, ''Requiem'' became known internationally for its blend of graceful language and complex and classical Russian poetry.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/requiem/ )〕 ==Overview== The set of poems is introduced by one prose paragraph that briefly states how she was “picked out” to describe the months of waiting outside Leningrad Prison, along with many other women, for just a glimpse of fathers, brothers or sons who had been taken away by the secret police in Russia. Following the introductory paragraph, the core set of poems in ''Requiem'' consists of 10 short numbered poems, beginning with the first reflecting on the arrest of Akhmatova's third husband Nikolay Punin and other close confidants.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.uvm.edu/~sgutman/Akhmatova.htm )〕 The next nine core poems make references to the grief and agony she faced when her son, Lev Gumilev was arrested by the secret police in 1938.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://poetsforhumanrights.ning.com/profiles/blogs/721766:BlogPost:1423 )〕 She writes, "one hundred million voices shout" through her "tortured mouth". Seventeen months I've pleaded for you to come home. Flung myself at the hangman’s feet. My terror, oh my son. And I can’t understand. Now all’s eternal confusion. Who’s beast, and who’s man? How long till execution? While the first set of poems relate to her personal life, the last set of poems are left to reflect on the voices of others who suffered losses during this time of terror. With each successive poem, the central figure experiences a new stage of suffering. Mute grief, growing disbelief, rationalization, raw mourning, and steely resolve are just a few that remain constant throughout the entire cycle. Writing sometimes in first person and sometimes in third person, Ahkmatova universalizes her personal pain and makes a point to connect with others who experienced the same tragedy as herself. Since the topics chosen were controversial at the time, ''Requiem'' was written in 1940 but was not published. Akhmatova believed it would be too dangerous for Requiem to be published during that period of danger and felt it was better to keep it reserved in her head, only revealing it to some of her closest friends. Following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Akhmatova felt it was safe to share the poems she had kept secret for so long and ended up having it fully published in 1963 in Munich. It was not published in Russia until 1987 due to all of the controversy that surrounded it.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Requiem (Anna Akhmatova)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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