Es treibt umher! Ein kleines Boot! | Es treibt umher! Ein kleines Boot!

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Adrift! A little boat adrift!

Language: English

Our translations: FRE GER

Adrift! A little boat adrift!
  And night is coming down!
Will no one guide a little boat
  Unto the nearest town?

So Sailors say -- on yesterday--
  Just as the dusk was brown
One little boat gave up its strife
  And gurgled down and down.

So angels say -- on yesterday --
  Just as the dawn was red
One little boat -- o'erspent with gales --
Retrimmed its masts -- redecked its sails --
  [Exultant, onward sped!]¹

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ another version of Dickinson: "And shot -- exultant on!"

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written c1858 [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 Libby Larsen (b. 1950), "Adrift! A little boat adrift!", 1999 [satb chorus a cappella], from By a departing light, no. 4. [
text not verified
]
by Daniel Rogers Pinkham (1923 - 2006), "A little boat adrift", from Called Home, no. 1. [
text not verified
]

Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , title 1: "Es treibt umher! Ein kleines Boot!", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-09-21
Line count: 13
Word count: 71

Es treibt umher! Ein kleines Boot!

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Es treibt umher! Ein kleines Boot!
Rasch rückt die Nacht heran!
Und niemand, der das kleine Boot
zum Hafen lotsen kann?

So sprachen Seeleut’ über gestern:
Als braun die Nacht begann -
ein kleines Boot den Kampf aufgab
und gurgelnd sank und sank.

So sprachen Engel über gestern:
Als rot der Tag begann -
ein kleines Boot, vom Sturm erschöpft,
aufs Neue Mast und Segel richt’
frohlockend eilt hinan.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2016 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, written c1858
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-03-01
Line count: 13
Word count: 67