Sie erspäht einen Vogel - sie lacht in sich hinein

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs, Maria M. Schnepp

She sights a Bird ‑ she chuckles

Language: English

Our translations: FRE GER GER

She sights a Bird - she chuckles -
She flattens - then she crawls -
She runs without the look of feet -
Her eyes increase to Balls -

Her Jaws stir - twitching - hungry -
Her Teeth can hardly stand -
She leaps, but Robin leaped the first -
Ah, Pussy, of the Sand,

The Hopes so juicy ripening -
You almost bathed your Tongue -
When Bliss disclosed a hundred [Toes]¹ -
And fled with every one.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
Confirmed with The Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. R.W. Franklin, Volume 1, Cambridge, MA and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998, Poem 351.

¹ In one of the earlier published versions this word was "wings"

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written c1862, first published 1945 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Derek Healey (b. 1936), "She sights a Bird", op. 146 no. 2 (2015) [ soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Bianco's Delight: a bakers dozen cat songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Julian Philips (b. 1969), "The cat", 1997/2002, published 2007 [ high voice and piano ], from An Amherst Bestiary, no. 9, Peters Edition [sung text checked 1 time]

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le chat", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) (Maria M. Schnepp) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2014-04-15
Line count: 12
Word count: 66

Sie erspäht einen Vogel ‑ sie lacht in...

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Sie erspäht einen Vogel - sie lacht in sich hinein -
Sie duckt sich - dann kriecht sie heran -
Sie läuft, ohne dass man ihre Füße bemerkt -
Ihre Augen vergrößern sich zu Bällen -

Ihr Kiefer bewegt sich - zuckend - hungrig -
Ihre Zähne können es kaum erwarten -
Sie springt, aber [Amsel]¹ springt als erstes -
Ach, Pussy des Sandes,

Die Hoffnungen, so saftig reifend -
Du has dir schon die Lippen geleckt,
Als das Glück hundert [Zehen]² enthüllte -
Und mit jedem einzelnen davonlief -

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Translation of title "The cat" = "Die Katze"

¹ "Rotkehlchen" wäre zwar richtig für "Robin", wenn es sich hier um einen „English Robin“ ( Erithacus rubecula) handeln würde. Emily Dickinson war aber Amerikanerin, und sie hatte den „American Robin“ (Turdus migratorius) im Sinn. Dieser Vogel ist eher mit einer Amsel (Turdus merula) verwandt. Beide haben die gleiche Größe und einen ähnlichen Gesang, nur dass der amerikanische Robin eine rote Brust hat.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2014 by Sharon Krebs and Maria M. Schnepp, (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.
Maria M. Schnepp. We have no current contact information for the copyright-holder.
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Based on:

a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written c1862, first published 1945
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2014-08-28
Line count: 12
Word count: 77