by
Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
She sights a Bird ‑ she chuckles
Language: English
Available translation(s): 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 -
And fled with every one.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available 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.
Authorship:
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: 80
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 springt als erstes -
Ach, Pussy des Sandes,
Die Hoffnungen, so saftig reifend -
Du has dir schon die Lippen geleckt,
Als das Glück hundert Zehen enthüllte -
Und mit jedem einzelnen davonlief -