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)

Language: English

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 –

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written 1862, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson

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) (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

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

2. I held a jewel in my fingers
(Sung text)

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891

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)

Language: English

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

Futile -- the Wind --
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!

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. Mine by the right of the white election
(Sung text)

Language: English

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!

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890

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)

Language: English

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

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

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)

Language: English

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

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell one's name the livelong June
To an admiring bog!

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

7. Vitality begun
(Sung text)

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

Go to the general single-text view

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)

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

Go to the general single-text view

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)

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Bolts of Melody

Go to the general single-text view

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)

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

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)

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

Go to the general single-text view

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)

Language: English

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

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

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Bolts of Melody

See other settings of this text.

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

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

13. I've seen a dying eye
(Sung text)

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

Go to the general single-text view

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

14. If I can stop one heart from breaking
(Sung text)

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890

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)

Language: English

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!

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891

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: 669

15 Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson

Song Cycle by Gloria Coates (b. 1938)

Translated to:

1. After great pain (Sung text)

2. I held a jewel in my fingers (Sung text)

3. Wild nights! Wild nights! (Sung text)

4. Mine by the right of the white election (Sung text)

5. A word is dead (Sung text)

6. I'm nobody (Sung text)

7. Vitality begun (Sung text)

8. Bride of the Holy Ghost (Sung text)

9. In falling timbers buried (Sung text)

10. On the death of a child (Sung text)

11. Armistice (Sung text)

12. Bind me ‑ I still can sing (Sung text)

13. I've seen a dying eye (Sung text)

14. If I can stop one heart from breaking (Sung text)

15. Will there really be a morning? (Sung text)

1. After great pain
(Sung text)

2. I held a jewel in my fingers
(Sung text)

3. Wild nights! Wild nights!
(Sung text)

4. Mine by the right of the white election
(Sung text)

5. A word is dead
(Sung text)

6. I'm nobody
(Sung text)

7. Vitality begun
(Sung text)

8. Bride of the Holy Ghost
(Sung text)

9. In falling timbers buried
(Sung text)

10. On the death of a child
(Sung text)

11. Armistice
(Sung text)

12. Bind me ‑ I still can sing
(Sung text)

13. I've seen a dying eye
(Sung text)

14. If I can stop one heart from breaking
(Sung text)

15. Will there really be a morning?
(Sung text)