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Drei Emily Dickinson Lieder
Translations © by Bertram Kottmann
Song Cycle by William Keith Rogers (b. 1921)
View original-language texts alone: Three Songs from Emily Dickinson
Lightly stepped a yellow star To its lofty place, Loosed the Moon her silver hat From her lustral face. All of evening softly lit As an astral hall - "Father," I observed to Heaven, "You are punctual."
Text Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in The Single Hound, first published 1914
See other settings of this text.
Sacht betrat ein gelber Stern seinen Himmelsfleck, Luna zog das Silbertuch vor ihrem Lächeln weg. Abendhimmel matt erhellt wie ein Sternensaal - „Vater“, sagte ich hinauf, „pünktlich, Dein Signal.“
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2018 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
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in The Single Hound, first published 1914
Go to the general single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2018-05-09
Line count: 8
Word count: 28
I like to see it lap the miles, And lick the valleys up, And stop to feed itself at tanks; And then, prodigious, step Around a pile of mountains, And, supercilious, peer In shanties by the sides of roads; And then a quarry pare To fit its [sides]1, and crawl between, Complaining all the while In horrid, hooting stanza; Then chase itself down hill And neigh like Boanerges; Then, punctual as a star, Stop - docile and omnipotent - At its own stable door.
Text Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Getty, Perle: "ribs"
Gern seh ich, wie sie Meilen frisst und leckt die Täler auf und hält an Tanks, Wasser zu ziehn; hernach - gewalt’ger Schritt umfährt sie Berg und Hügel, hochnäsig blickt sie dann in Hütten längs der Bahn, gräbt sich drauf in den Fels, so breit sie ist, und kriecht hindurch, klagt schon die ganze Zeit ihr gräulich heulend Lied; dann donnert sie bergab wiehert wie Boanerges*; dann, pünktlich wie ein Stern hält sie, fügsam, allmächtig, an ihrem Schuppen dann.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2017 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
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891
Go to the general single-text view
Translation of title "The railway train" = "Die Eisenbahn"* Mk 3, 17
This text was added to the website: 2017-09-22
Line count: 16
Word count: 79
The heart asks pleasure - first, And then excuse from pain. And then those little anodynes That deaden suffering. And then, to go to sleep; And then, if it should be The will of its Inquisitor, The liberty to die.
Text Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890
See other settings of this text.
Erst sucht das Herz die Lust, hernach Freiheit von Schmerz; und dann die kleinen Mittelchen, die töten jeden Schmerz. Dann sucht es seinen Schlaf; und dann, falls dies sollt’ sein der Wille dessen, der's vernimmt, die Freiheit heimzugehn.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2014 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
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890
Go to the general single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2014-08-16
Line count: 8
Word count: 38