So wenig wahrnehmbar wie Leid

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Summer's lapse

(Sung text for setting by E. Bacon)

See original

Language: English

Our translations: FRE GER ITA

As imperceptibly as grief
The Summer lapsed away --
Too imperceptible, at last,
To seem like Perfidy -- 

A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon --

The Dusk drew earlier in --
The morning foreign shone --
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest, who would be gone --

And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.

Composition:

Ernst Bacon

Text Authorship:

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

See other settings of this text.

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 70

So wenig wahrnehmbar wie Leid

(Sung text translation for setting by E. Bacon)

See original

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

So wenig wahrnehmbar wie Leid
verging des Sommers Blühn -
zu wenig wahrnehmbar zuletzt
als dass er treulos schien -

Ruh’ träufelte herab,
längst Zwielicht überm Land -
Natur den ganzen Nachmittag 
in Stille zu sich fand -

Die Dämmerung fiel früher ein -
fremder das Morgenrot -
anmutig, höflich, - schmerzlich doch -
ein Gast, der alsbald fort -

und solcherart, ganz flügellos
und ohne einen Kiel
entfloh der Sommer, mühelos,
ins schönere Exil.

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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
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Based on:

a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, first published 1891
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This text was added to the website: 2017-05-21
Line count: 16
Word count: 66