It knew no lapse, nor Diminution by Emily Dickinso

Ни уменьшалось, ни спадало,
разлив небес...
До растворения пылало,
в миру слабев... 

Не то, чтоб гасли притяженья силы
совсем,-
лишь места перемену допустили
иль сфер...



(И сколь же мал повод - для такого...
Не удержался от иллюстрации, поскольку
это всё время с ней, даже если она говорит
об отношениях между людьми. Скорее всего,
она складывает это, глядя на закат.)
[David Preest:
The second stanza of this poem, with
the first four words slightly changed to ‘I did
not deem that’ and with the whole stanza
written out as prose, begins the first letter
(L280) Emily wrote to Thomas Higginson
after reading in the Springfield Republican
that he was leading troops in the Civil
War in South Carolina. The letter, dated
February 1863, continues, ‘I should have
liked to see you, before you became
improbable. War feels to me an oblique place -
Should there be other Summers,
would you perhaps come?
I found you were gone by accident.’
The letter clearly shows that Emily was
disappointed in her hope of a visit from
Higginson in the summer of 1862. The ‘It’
of this poem is presumably the summer of
1862 together with her hopes, and Emily
is saying in effect, ‘The summer, with my
hopes of a visit from you, burned on with
no diminution until its final ending. All that
time I presumed that the planetary forces
which produce summer were not making
your visit to Amherst (= ‘an Exchange of Territory’)
impossible, but giving it the
chance to happen.’]

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It knew no lapse, nor Diminution -- by Emily Dickinson

It knew no lapse, nor Diminution --               
But large -- serene --               
Burned on -- until through Dissolution --         
It failed from Men --               

I could not deem these Planetary forces       
Annulled --               
But suffered an Exchange of Territory --            
Or World --