Den Freund verlassen darf ich nicht

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

I Should not dare to leave my friend

Language: English

Our translations: 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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Text 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

Den Freund verlassen darf ich nicht

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Den Freund verlassen darf ich nicht,
denn sollt, denn sollt er vor mir gehn,
und ich wär fort und käm zu spät
zum Herzen, das mich hat ersehnt, -

sollte das Aug enttäuschen ich,
das suchte mich, das suchte mich,
und das nicht brechen konnt, eh’ es
gewahrte mich, gewahrte mich, -

sollt’ töten ich Geduld und Glaub’ 
die sicher, sicher war’n, ich käm
und horchend, horchend schliefen ein
murmelnd, ich käm zu spät.

Bräch’ doch mein Herz, eh dies geschieht,
denn hinterher, denn hinterher
wär’s nutzlos, da die Morgensonn
Nachtfrost vertreibt nicht mehr.

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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
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Based on:

a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-05-04
Line count: 16
Word count: 92