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After great pain, a formal feeling comes – The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs – The stiff Heart questions 'was it He, that bore,' And 'Yesterday, or Centuries before'? The Feet, mechanical, go round – A Wooden way Of Ground, or Air, or Ought – Regardless grown, A Quartz contentment, like a stone – This is the Hour of Lead – Remembered, if outlived, As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow – First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON: READING EDITION, edited by Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Authorship
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written 1862, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson [author's text checked 2 times 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 Gloria Coates (b. 1938), "After great pain", from 15 Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson, no. 1. [ sung text verified 1 time]
- by Scott Gendel (b. 1977), "After great pain", 2005 [voice and piano], from Forgotten Light, no. 7. [ sung text not verified ]
- by Sylvia Glickman (1932 - 2006), "After great pain" [ sung text not verified ]
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , no title, copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Bertram Kottmann
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 83
Nach großem Leid flieht man in Förmlichkeit -- Nerv liegt an Nerv wie Grab an Grab gereiht -- benommen fragt das Herz „Litt Er so schwer?“ „War’s gestern oder ist’s schon ewig her?“ Die Füße trotten wie von selbst im Rund hölzernen Gangs aus Pflicht, auf schwankend, festem Grund trotz allem drein in quarzenem Zufriedensein. Wie Blei ist solche Zeit -- der denkt dran, der ihr trotzt, wie jenen, die erfriern, der Schnee präsent -- erst Kälte -- Starre -- dann der Fall ins End.
About the headline (FAQ)
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:
- a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written 1862, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson
This text was added to the website: 2016-11-26
Line count: 13
Word count: 79