by
Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
After great pain, a formal feeling comes...
Language: English
Our translations: FRE GER GER
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.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (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 page: 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...
Language: German (Deutsch) after the English
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)
Text Authorship:
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2016-11-26
Line count: 13
Word count: 79
