by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
I Should not dare to leave my friend
Language: English
Available translation(s): GER
I Should not dare to leave my friend, Because, because if he should die While I was gone, and I too late Should reach the heart that wanted me, If I should disappoint the eyes That hunted, hunted so to see And could not bear to shut until They noticed me, they noticed me. If I should stab the patient faith So sure I'd come, so sure I'd come, It listening, listening went to sleep Telling my tardy name. My heart would wish it broke before, Since breaking then, since breaking then Were useless as next morning's sun Where midnight's frosts had lain!
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Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text not yet checked 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 Gordon Getty (b. 1933), "I should not dare to leave my friend" [soprano and piano], from The White Election - A Song Cycle for soprano and piano on 32 poems of Emily Dickinson, Part 1 : The Pensive Spring, no. 8. [text verified 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller
This text was added to the website: 2011-01-12
Line count: 16
Word count: 103