Tao Te Ching

“The mountains bow before this anguish,
The great river does not flow.
In mortal sadness the convicts languish;
but cannot burst these ponderous bolts
that block us from the prison cells
crowded with mortal woe...”

— Anna Akhmatova Анна Ахматова 1889 – 1966 CE via D. M. Thomas
(Andreyevna Gorenko)
Russia's most loved female poet
from "Dedication"