A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live - that day.
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 Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "A word", 195-? [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gloria Coates (b. 1938), "A word is dead", from 15 Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Logan Skelton , "A word is dead", 2008 [ soprano and piano ], from Dickinson Songs, Book 2: The Unknown Peninsula, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Una parola è morta", copyright © 2009, (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: 5
Word count: 19
Ein Wort ist tot,
wenn man es sagt,
sagt man.
Ich sag, just dann
fängt es zu leben an.
