Give little Anguish by Emily Dickinson

Дай мало мук -
и жизнь не в лад,
дай крах обвалов -
ниц склонят...
Прямись - ловя дыханье их,
молчи - как смерть, когда ей лечь,
являет лишь гранитный лик -
то - выше путь, чем речь...



(Мало бед - жить пресно, а много - худо.)

[David Preest:
If we have little to worry about, we will complain and fret,
because life is too bland. But if we are submerged in avalanches
of woe, we are knocked sideways at first, but then we straighten
up and get our breath back, though we utter no words. In this
dumbness we are like death whose ‘Marble Disc’ has no need
of speech. (In her copy of this poem to Sue Emily changed
‘marble disc’ to ‘granite face.’) The structure of this poem
is reminiscent of the last four lines of poem 252, although
the conclusion seems less optimistic. The dumbness of this
poem is like the motionless despair of poem 305.]

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Give little Anguish by Emily Dickinson

Give little Anguish --               
Lives will fret --               
Give Avalanches --               
And they'll slant --               
Straighten -- look cautious for their Breath --   
But make no syllable -- like Death --               
Who only shows the Marble Disc --               
Sublimer sort -- than Speech --