Una cosa solenne sarebbe | Una cosa solenne sarebbe, io dissi

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Ferdinando Albeggiani

A solemn thing it was, I said

Language: English

Our translations: ITA

A solemn thing it was, I said,
  A woman white to be,
And wear, if God should count me fit,
  Her hallowed mystery.

A timid thing to drop a life
  Into the purple well,
Too plummetless that it comes back
  Eternity until.

About the headline (FAQ)

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

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), "Wedded", appears in Poems: Third Series, in 2. Love, no. 22, first published 1896 [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 Henry Mollincone (b. 1946), "A solemn thing it was", published 1966 [ SSAA chorus and piano or harp ], from Five Poems of Love [sung text not yet checked]

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

ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Una cosa solenne sarebbe", 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: 8
Word count: 42

Una cosa solenne sarebbe

Language: Italian (Italiano) after the English

Una cosa solenne sarebbe, io dissi,
essere una donna in bianco,
e indossare, se Dio mi stimasse degna,
il suo santo mistero.

Una cosa segreta gettare una vita
dentro il pozzo purpureo,
troppo insondabile perché torni indietro
fino all'Eternità.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2009 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), "Wedded", appears in Poems: Third Series, in 2. Love, no. 22, first published 1896
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2009-11-19
Line count: 8
Word count: 39