Tis my first night beneath the Sun by Emily Dickin

Впервые в ночь под Солнцем лечь,
коль здесь приму его...
Сколь высота мала над ним
барометру того,
кто вешним ветром полнит грудь,
надеждами дыша,-
лишь тем вверяет даль восторг,
чей в гости к ветру шаг...




(Эмили, не знавшая пока мужчин, -
о предстоящей ночи с Сэмом Боулзом.)
[David Preest:
The first two lines make no sense if taken literally,
but some sense is obtained by the bold hypothesis that
‘the Sun,’ as in poem 106, stands for Samuel Bowles.
Emily had already in poem 190 fantasised about just failing
to make love with a man, and here also she ultimately
chooses abstinence. It would be her first night in bed
with Samuel Bowles, if she should spend it thus. But such
is her expectation and so much does she wish to take
the wind of passion at its beginning, that there is not
enough height above him for her expectation to register
on her barometer. So it is better to enjoy the sure
delights that ‘Distance’ between them provides. Whenever
she writes Bowles a letter or thinks of him, she,
as it were, is visiting ‘Distance.’
On this reading of the poem, ‘for his’ in line 4 will
mean ‘for one, whose’ and not be specifically masculine.]

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'Tis my first night beneath the Sun by Emily Dickinson

'Tis my first night beneath the Sun   
If I should spend it here --         
Above him is too low a height         
For his Barometer               
Who Airs of expectation breathes      
And takes the Wind at prime --         
But Distance his Delights confides    
To those who visit him --


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