There is a frontier-line in human closeness    
That life and passion cannot violate–   
Though in silence mouth to mouth be soldered   
And passionate devotion cleave the heart.

Here friendship, too, is powerless, and yours    
Of that sublime and fiery happiness    
When the free soul has broken clear    
From the slow languor of voluptuousness.

Those striving towards it are demented, and    
If the line seem close enough to broach–    
Stricken with sadness…Now you understand     
Why my heart does not beat beneath your touch.
–Anna Akhmatova, 1915

Anna Akhmatova

Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 2006