by
Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
A word is dead
Language: English
Our translations: FRE GER ITA
Chosen for Diff
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• G. Coates About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Poems by Emily Dickinson. Third Series, ed by Mabel Loomis Todd, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896.
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):
- by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "A word", 195-? [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gloria Coates (b. 1938), "A word is dead", from 15 Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Logan Skelton , "A word is dead", 2008 [ soprano and piano ], from Dickinson Songs, Book 2: The Unknown Peninsula, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
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) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Una parola è morta", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 6
Word count: 19
Ein Wort ist tot
Language: German (Deutsch) after the English
Chosen for Diff
Ein Wort ist tot,
wenn man es sagt,
sagt man.
Ich sag, just dann
fängt es zu leben an.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2016-11-28
Line count: 5
Word count: 19
