Once more, my now bewildered Dove by Emily Dickins

Вновь - горлицы моей крылам
стряхнуть смущенье прочь,
Вновь - в бездну - любящим рукам
послать тревог вопрос...

К плывущей створке трижды Ной
голубки принял весть,
Смелей! Колумбовой мечтой!   
Здесь, может, твердь и есть...




[David Preest:
The poet knows that columba is the Latin word for ‘dove,’
and that the dove returned three times to the patriarch
Noah in Genesis 8: 8-12. But Emily, if she is the speaker
of the poem, is hoping that her dove may bring good news
the third time after two failures, whereas in Genesis
the dove returned the first time with nothing, the second
time with an olive leaf, but the third time ‘returned not
again unto him any more.’
All that can be guessed about the identity of the messenger
or the nature of the question is that the messenger is
someone close and trusted, and that the question is an
urgent one. Is she perhaps asking her sister, Vinnie,
to bring back a message of affection from Sue?]

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Once more, my now bewildered Dove by Emily Dickinson

Once more, my now bewildered Dove       
Bestirs her puzzled wings               
Once more her mistress, on the deep      
Her troubled question flings --         

Thrice to the floating casement         
The Patriarch's bird returned,          
Courage! My brave Columbia!               
There may yet be land