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Going to Heaven! I don't know when, Pray do not ask me how, - Indeed I'm too astonished To think of answering you! Going to Heaven! - How dim it sounds! And yet it will be done As sure as flocks go home at night Unto the shepherd's arm! Perhaps you're going too! Who knows? If you should get there first Save just a little place for me Close to the two I lost! The smallest "robe" will fit me, And just a bit of "crown"; For you know we do not mind our dress When we are going home. 1 I'm glad I don't believe it For it would stop my breath, And I'd like to look a little more At such a curious earth! I am glad they did believe it Whom I have never found Since the mighty autumn afternoon I left them in the ground.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 Copland adds here "Going to Heaven!"
Text Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990), "Going to Heaven!", c1949, published 1951 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, no. 11 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Valerie Saalbach (b. 1951), "Going to Heaven!" [ voice and piano ], from Poems of Emily Dickinson, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Me’n vaig al cel!", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Je monte au ciel !", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 27
Word count: 147
In den Himmel kommen! Weiß nicht, wann, bitte frag nicht, wie, - gewiss bin ich zu erstaunt, darüber nachzudenken! In den Himmel kommen! - Wie vage, wie naiv dies klingt! Und doch wird es geschehn, so sicher wie die Herden ziehen heim zur Nacht im Schutze ihres Hirten! Vielleicht auch du! Wer weiß? Solltest du zuerst dort sein, dann schau, dass ich ein Plätzchen habe, nah den beiden Lieben, die ich hab verlor'n! Das kleinste „Gewand“ wird mir wohl passen und auch ein bisschen „Krone“; denn du weißt, dass wir uns nicht ums Äuß’re kümmern, wenn wir heimgehen. Ich bin froh, nicht dran zu glauben: Es nähme mir den Atem, und gerne würd’ ich noch ein wenig auf eine solch seltsame Erde schaun! Ich bin froh, die beiden glaubten dran, die ich nie mehr getroffen seit jenem gewaltigen Nachmittag im Herbst an dem ich sie in der Erde Schoß entließ.
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Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891
This text was added to the website: 2015-06-10
Line count: 27
Word count: 148