Lot's Wife

I've been reading Russian literature for my World Lit class and this is a poem is one of the ones I had to read. I love this poem. You really have to read it at least three times. I've read it at least seven times already.. Here it is, Enjoy

Lot's Wife

By Anna Akhmatova, translated by D.M. Thomas

And the just man trailed God's messenger

His huge, light shape devoured the black hill.

But uneasiness shadowed his wife and spoke to her:

"It's not too late, you can look back still

At the red towers of Sodom, the place that bore you,

The square in which you sang, the spinning-shed,

At the empty windows of that upper storey

Where children blessed your happy marriage-bed."

Her eyes that were still turning when a bolt

Of pain shot through them, were instantly blind;

Her body turned into transparent salt,

And her swift legs were rooted to the ground.

Who mourns one woman in a holocaust?

Surely her death has no significance?

Yet in my heart she will never be lost

She who gave up her life to steal one glance.