Schönheit ist ohn' Grund, - sie ist;

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Beauty be not caused, ‑ it is

Language: English

Our translations: GER ITA

Beauty [be]¹ not caused, - it is;
Chase it and it ceases,
Chase it not and it abides,
Overtake the creases
in the meadow
when the wind
runs its long fingers through it?
Deity will see to it
that you never do it.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• C. Dougherty

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Dougherty: "is"

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1929 [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 Henry Leland Clarke (1907 - 1992), "Beauty be not caused, - it is", 1965 [ medium voice and violin or viola ], from Emily Dickinson Canons [sung text not yet checked]
by Celius Dougherty (1902 - 1986), "Beauty is not caused", published 1948 [ medium voice, piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by George Perle (1915 - 2009), "Beauty be not caused - it is" [ voice and piano ], from Thirteen Dickinson Songs, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

This text was added to the website: 2004-05-27
Line count: 9
Word count: 43

Schönheit ist ohn' Grund, ‑ sie ist;

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Schönheit ist ohn' Grund, - sie ist;
jagst du ihr nach, enteilt sie,
jagst du sie nicht, verweilt sie:
der Halme Wogen einzuhol'n,
wenn Wind 
durch Wiesen 
streicht?
Ein Gott wird dich bewahr'n,
dies jemals zu erfahr'n.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2011 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 Further poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1929
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2011-01-17
Line count: 9
Word count: 36