Fortuitous Poem by Joseph Brodsky

Of the eighty-one years of her life,
Nadezhda Mandelshtam
Spent nineteen as the wife
Of Russia’s greatest poet in this century
And forty-two as his widow.

The rest was childhood and youth.

In educated circles,
Especially among the literati,
Being the widow of a great man
Is enough to provide an identity.

This is especially so in Russia,
Where in the thirties and forties
The regime was producing writers’ widows
With such efficiency, that in the middle of the sixties
There were enough of them around
To organize a trade union.