I sing to use the waiting,
My bonnet but to tie,
And shut the door unto my house;
No more to do have I,
Till, his best step approaching,
We journey to the day,
And tell each other how we sang
To keep the dark away.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Donald Bohlen (b. 1934), "I sing to use the waiting", 1997 [ soprano, clarinet, and piano ], from Five Movements: Songs and Doubles, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Gordon Getty (b. 1933), "I sing to use the waiting" [ 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. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Gordon Getty (b. 1933), "I sing to use the waiting " [ soprano and piano ], from The White Election - A Song Cycle for soprano and piano on 32 poems of Emily Dickinson, Part 4 : My Feet Slip Nearer, no. 32, second setting [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "I sing to use the waiting", 1999, first performed 2001 [ soprano and piano ], from Paradise - 7 songs for Soprano and Piano, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Ton van der Steenhoven
This text was added to the website: 2010-03-03
Line count: 8
Word count: 46
Ich sing, vertreib das Warten,
bind’ meinen Schutenhut
und schließe hinter mir das Tor -
mehr hab ich nicht zu tun
bis seine lieben Schritte nah’n.
Wir wandern durch den Tag,
erzählen, wie einst unser Sang
die Dunkelheit hielt ab.
