Kein Schiff | Kein Schiff bringt uns - so wie ein Buch

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

There is no frigate like a book

Language: English

Our translations: GER

There is no frigate like a book
  To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
  Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
  Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
  That bears [a]¹ human soul!

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• G. Bachlund

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Poems by Emily Dickinson. Third Series, ed by Mabel Loomis Todd, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896.

¹ Bachlund: "the"

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), "A Book", appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, in 1. Life, no. 16 [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "No frigate", 2011 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2011-12-28
Line count: 8
Word count: 42

Kein Schiff

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Kein Schiff bringt uns - so wie ein Buch -
an einen fernsten Ort,
kein schnelles Ross der Seite gleicht,
wo tänzelt Dichters Wort.
Der Ärmste selbst reist ohne Last,
wenn diesen Weg er wählt -
wie preiswert doch der Wagen fährt,
der unsre Seele trägt.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2016 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), "A Book", appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, in 1. Life, no. 16
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-02-09
Line count: 8
Word count: 43