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Have you got a brook in your little heart, Where bashful flowers blow, And blushing birds go down to drink, And shadows tremble so? And nobody knows, so still it flows, That any brook is there; And yet your little draught of life Is daily drunken there. Then look out for the little brook in March, When the rivers overflow, And the snows come hurrying from the hills, And the bridges often go. And later, in August it may be, When the meadows parching lie, Beware, lest this little brook of life Some burning noon go dry!
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Text Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890 [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 George Frederick Boyle (1886 - 1948), "The silent brook", published 1937 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Clarence Dickinson (1873 - 1969), "Have you got a brook in your little heart", published 1897 [ voice, piano ], from Six Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "Have you got a brook in your little heart", 1975 [ soprano and piano ], from Four Poems by Emily Dickinson, no. 3, Southern/Texas [sung text not yet checked]
- by Henry Mollincone (b. 1946), "Have you got a brook", published 1966 [ SSAA chorus and piano or harp ], from Five Poems of Love [sung text not yet checked]
- by Etta Parker , "Have you got a brook in your little heart", published 1896 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2019, (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: 16
Word count: 98
Hast du einen Bach tief im Herzen drin, wo scheue Blumen blühn, und schüchtern Vögel trinken gehn, und Schatten schwankend ziehn? ’s ist niemand gewiss - so stille er fließt -, dass er im Herzen rinnt; doch dieser Lebensbach es ist, aus dem du täglich trinkst. Im Märzen beacht’ diesen kleinen Bach, wenn die Flüsse treten aus, und der Schnee stürzt von den Bergen herab, und mit Brücken oft geht’s aus. Und später, im August vielleicht, wenn versengt die Aue liegt, gib acht, dass dieses Bächlein nicht in Mittags Glut versiegt!
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2019 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, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890
This text was added to the website: 2019-01-15
Line count: 16
Word count: 90