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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

The hummingbird
 (Sung text for setting by J. Philips)
 See original
Language: English 
Our translations:  FRE GER
Within my Garden, rides a Bird
Upon a single Wheel --
Whose spokes a dizzy Music make
As 'twere a travelling Mill --

He never stops, but slackens --
Above the Ripest Rose -
Partakes without alighting --
And praises as he goes,

Till every spice is tasted --
And then his Fairy Gig
Reels in remoter atmospheres --
And I rejoin my Dog,

And He and I, perplex us
If positive, 'twere we --
Or bore the Garden in the Brain
This Curiosity -

But He, the best Logician,
Refers my clumsy eye --
To just vibrating Blossoms!
An Exquisite Reply!

Composition:

    Set to music by Julian Philips (b. 1969), "The hummingbird", 1997/2002, published 2007 [ high voice and piano ], from An Amherst Bestiary, no. 8, Peters Edition

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) , appears in Kinder-Lieder, in 2. Lieder und Bilder aus der Natur, copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) , "Der Kolibri", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2014-08-28
Line count: 20
Word count: 93

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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