There is a sacred, secret line in loving

which attraction and even passion cannot cross,—

even if lips draw near in awful silence

and love tears at the heart.

Friendship is weak and useless here,

and years of happiness, exalted and full of fire,

because the soul is free and does not know

the slow luxuries of sensual life.

Those who try to come near it are insane

and those who reach it are shaken by grief,

So now you know exactly why

my heart beats no faster under your hand.

- Anna Akhmatova

Picture: Illustration by Robert Fawcett (Cosmopolitan, 1954)