How do you interpret this poem by Olga Nicolaievna?

She wrote this and dedicated it to her mother, the empress, on 23 April 1917:

You are filled with anguish For the suffering of others. And no one's grief Has ever passed you by. You are relentless Only toward yourself, Forever cold and pitiless. But if only you could look upon Your own sadness from a distance, Just once with a loving soul- Oh, how you would pity yourself. How sadly you would weep.

I would cry if my daughter wrote that about me.  It troubles me.

Maybe Olga was only trying to tell her mother that she didn't care for herself enough?

[Mathematic, art and history in ♥]

Might be. I adore Olga's honest minds.

Might be. I adore Olga's honest minds.

Me too.

Ditto , and mostly because i ve been there. I adore and love to death to my mum ,  but we , for some time in my teen days, hadnt a good relationship.

Are we sure Olga actually wrote this poem, and didn't just copy it down from somewhere, like she did with the poetry in their imprisonment ( and this poem is also from their imprisonment)? I thought Sarushka once posted that we don't actually have any original poems by Olga, the only ones that survive are ones she wrote down from somewhere for her use, but not ones she actually wrote herself.

[Mathematic, art and history in ♥]

I think she indeed did, but only one. I saw photo of that her notebook.

I love the poem, how well it describes Alexandra - IMO

Attention "imperial angel" and your reply # 5:   Your questioning of the origin of this "poem" is good.   The reference that you are thinking of is by "Sarushka," Reply # 1 under "Olga's Prayers," October 1, 2008.   Please note the last sentence of that reply.  (IMO, the "poem'  is absolutely TOO "lliterary-sounding" in its expression and composition. Particularly look at the odd capitalization of words, seemingly indicating individual phrasing breaks in the ORIGINAL (?) composition. Potentially someone in COPYING this, writing it out in a "run-on" style (possibly to save accessible paper), and retaining a faithful copyist's style, would copy EXACTLY how the original letters were formed.  In what language does it appear in the GD ON's' handwriting and is it written in a "run-on" style?  We could also be dealing with a translation interpretation-affect.)   Regards,  AP

Attention "imperial angel" and your reply # 5:   Your questioning of the origin of this "poem" is good.   The reference that you are thinking of is by "Sarushka," Reply # 1 under "Olga's Prayers," October 1, 2008.   Please note the last sentence of that reply.  (IMO, the "poem'  is absolutely TOO "lliterary-sounding" in its expression and composition. Particularly look at the odd capitalization of words, seemingly indicating individual phrasing breaks in the ORIGINAL (?) composition. Potentially someone in COPYING this, writing it out in a "run-on" style (possibly to save accessible paper), and retaining a faithful copyist's style, would copy EXACTLY how the original letters were formed.  In what language does it appear in the GD ON's' handwriting and is it written in a "run-on" style?  We could also be dealing with a translation interpretation-affect.)   Regards,  AP

I believe you're referring to my original post - correct me if I'm wrong - but if you are, I just want to clarify that I copied the poem from a page here on the Alexander Palace site, and that is how it was written.

Might be. I adore Olga's honest minds.

So do I.  That's why I would cry if I received this poem, or it was dedicated to me - I would think that's how my daughter thought of me.

It just struck me.

Att.  "History Fan " and Reply # 9:  Thanks for your response.  I was referring to the original as it allegedly written/copied by the GD Olga N.  I am satisfied that YOU copied it correctly from your source, but was the so-called "original/copy" written in precisely the same fashion, i.e.  one "run-on-type" string of words, or was it originally in metered (blocked) style, which would account for the odd occurances of capitalization when the GD Olga N.  COPIED it?    Frankly, I agree essentially with "Sarushka," in that we appear to have no original poems written by the GD ON.  I believe that the GD Olga N. copied this "poem" verbatim (odd capitalization and all) from another source as she did with other "inspirational" things, and wrote it out in a "letter/note" form rather than metered style.      Best regards,  AP

Oh, I see.

Well, I suppose I still feel the same way about the poem as I did when I thought she wrote it.  Disturbed.  It's a very emotionally-appealing verse, imo.

Thank you, "historyfan," for your kind response.   Best wishes to you and yours for the remainder of this New Year!  Regards,  AP

Even if it was something she copied rather wrote, as seems to be the case, she still identified with the words, and wouldn't have copied it down if she hadn't. So the idea of the original poster is a good one.