15 Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson

Song Cycle by Gloria Coates (b. 1938)

Translated to:

French (Français) — 15 chants sur des poèmes d'Emily Dickinson (Guy Laffaille)
German (Deutsch) — Fünfzehn Lieder auf Gedichte von Emily Dickinson (Bertram Kottmann)

1. After great pain [sung text checked 1 time]

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions 'was it He, that bore,'
And 'Yesterday, or Centuries before'?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written 1862, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]

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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) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , no title, copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Confirmed with THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON: READING EDITION, edited by Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Bertram Kottmann

2. I held a jewel in my fingers [sung text checked 1 time]

I held a jewel in my fingers
And went to sleep.
The day was warm, and winds were prosy;
I said: "'T will keep."

I woke and chid my honest fingers, -
The gem was gone;
And now an amethyst remembrance
Is all I own.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

See other settings of this text.

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. Wild nights! Wild nights! [sung text checked 1 time]

Wild nights! -- Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile -- the [Wind]¹ --
To a heart in port, --
Done with the Compass, --
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden --
Ah! the Sea!
Might I but moor -- Tonight --
In thee!

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

See other settings of this text.

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

CHI Chinese (中文) (Mei Foong Ang) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "Sturmnacht! - Sturmnacht!", copyright © 2008, (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) , "Notti selvagge! Notti di tempesta!", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ note: sometimes "Winds". Hoiby, Leisner, Rusche, A. Thomas: "Winds"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. Mine by the right of the white election [sung text checked 1 time]

Mine by the right of the white election!
Mine by the royal seal!
Mine by the sign in the scarlet prison
Bars cannot conceal!

Mine, here in vision and in veto!
Mine, by the grave's repeal
Titled, confirmed, - delirious charter!
Mine, while the ages steal!

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]

See other settings of this text.

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. A word is dead [sung text checked 1 time]

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live - that day.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

See other settings of this text.

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]

6. I'm nobody [sung text checked 1 time]

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!
They'd [banish us]¹, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell [your]² name the livelong [day]³
To an admiring bog!

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

See other settings of this text.

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "Ich bin ein Niemand! Wer bist Du?", copyright © 2006, (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) , "Io non sono nessuno, e tu?", copyright © 2006, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Bacon, G. Coates: "advertise"
² Bacon, G. Coates: "one's
³ Bacon, G. Coates: "June"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

7. Vitality begun [sung text checked 1 time]

A death blow is a life blow to some,
Who till they died, did not alive become.
Who had they lived, had died but when
They died, vitality begun.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

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 raffica di morte", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

8. Bride of the Holy Ghost [sung text checked 1 time]

Given in marriage unto Thee
Oh thou celestial host,
Bride of the Father and the Son
Bride of the Holy Ghost.
Other betrothal shall dissolve
Wedlock of will, decay,
Only the keeper of this ring
conquer mortality.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

9. In falling timbers buried [sung text checked 1 time]

In falling timbers buried
There breathed a man.
Outside the spades were plying,
The lungs within.

Could he know they sought him,
Could they know he breathed,
Horrid sand partition,
Neither could be heard.

Never slacked the diggers,
But when spades had done,
Oh reward of anguish,
It was dying then.

Many things are fruitless,
'Tis a baffling earth,
But there is no gratitude
Like the Grace of death.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Bolts of Melody [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

10. On the death of a child [sung text checked 1 time]

Now I lay thee down to sleep,
I pray the Lord thy dust to keep,
and if thou live before thou wake,
I pray the Lord thy soul to make.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

See other settings of this text.

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) , "Auf eines Kindes Tod", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

11. Armistice [sung text checked 1 time]

They dropped like flakes,
They dropped like stars,
Like petals from a rose,
When suddenly across the June
A wind with fingers goes.

They perished in the seamless grass
No eye could find the place,
But God can summon every face
Of His repealless list.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

12. Bind me - I still can sing [sung text checked 1 time]

Bind me -- I still can sing
Banish -- my mandolin
Strikes true within --.

Slay -- and my Soul shall rise
Chanting to Paradise --
Still thine.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Bolts of Melody [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

See other settings of this text.

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

Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Eric Saroian

13. I've seen a dying eye [sung text checked 1 time]

I've seen a dying eye
Run round and round a room
In search of something, as it seemed,
Then cloudier become;
And then, obscure with fog,
And then be soldered down,
Without disclosing what it be,
’T were blessed to have seen.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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

Confirmed with Dickinson, Emily, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Boston: Little, Brown, 1924; Bartleby.com, 2000. www.bartleby.com/113/4015.html

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

14. If I can stop one heart from breaking [sung text checked 1 time]

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

See other settings of this text.

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

15. Will there really be a morning? [sung text checked 1 time]

Will there really be a morning?
Is there such a thing as day?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?

Has it feet like water-lilies?
Has it feathers like a bird?
Is it brought from famous countries
Of which I have never heard?

Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor!
Oh, some wise man from the skies!
Please to tell a little pilgrim
Where the place called morning lies!

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

See other settings of this text.

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Total word count: 673