La bellezza non ha origine, - esiste

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Ferdinando Albeggiani

Beauty be not caused, ‑ it is

Language: English

Our translations: GER ITA

Beauty [be]¹ not caused, - it is;
Chase it and it ceases,
Chase it not and it abides,
Overtake the creases
in the meadow
when the wind
runs its long fingers through it?
Deity will see to it
that you never do it.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• C. Dougherty

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Dougherty: "is"

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1929 [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 Leland Clarke (1907 - 1992), no title, 1965 [ medium voice and violin or viola ], from Emily Dickinson Canons [sung text not yet checked]
by Celius Dougherty (1902 - 1986), "Beauty is not caused", published 1948 [ medium voice, piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by George Perle (1915 - 2009), "Beauty be not caused - it is" [ voice and piano ], from Thirteen Dickinson Songs, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

This text was added to the website: 2004-05-27
Line count: 9
Word count: 43

La bellezza non ha origine, ‑ esiste

Language: Italian (Italiano) after the English

La bellezza non ha origine, - esiste;
la insegui e svanisce
non la insegui, rimane.
Acchiappi forse le onde
nel prato
che il vento,
con le sue dita, accarezza?
Dio farà in modo
che non ti riesca.

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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), no title, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1929
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2009-12-07
Line count: 9
Word count: 36