Nach großem Schmerz, Gefühl verflacht zu Form

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Walter A. Aue

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:

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 checked 1 time]
by Scott Gendel (b. 1977), "After great pain", 2005 [ voice and piano ], from Forgotten Light, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
by Sylvia Glickman (1932 - 2006), "After great pain" [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) (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 Schmerz, Gefühl verflacht zu...

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Nach großem Schmerz, Gefühl verflacht zu Form --
die Nerven sitzen steif, wie Grabesnorm;
das starre Herz fragt: War es 'Er, der trug'?
Und gestern -- oder im Jahrhundertflug?

Der Fuß, mechanisch, geht im Rund --
des Holzwegs Pfad --
von Pflicht, von Brauch, von Grund --
gewachsen drein:
Ein steinernes Zufriedensein.

Von Blei ist solche Stund' --
erlebt, falls überlebt,
wie Frierende den Schnee erfassen --
Erst -- Frost -- dann Starre -- dann das Fallenlassen --

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2010 by Walter A. Aue, (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.
Walter A. Aue. Contact: waue (AT) dal (DOT) ca
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written 1862, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2010-01-12
Line count: 13
Word count: 67