Yes I loved them, those gatherings late at night

"Yes I loved them, those gatherings late at night,—" 

Yes I loved them, those gatherings late at night,—
the small table, glasses with frosted sides,
fragrant vapor rising from black coffee,
the fireplace, red with powerful winter heat,
the biting gaiety of a literary joke,
and the first helpless and frightening glance of my love.

"Yes I loved them, those gatherings late at night,—" by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Jane Kenyon. Copyright © 2005 by the estate of Jane Kenyon. Reprinted from Collected Poems with the permission of Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota.