Perhaps they do not go so far by Emily Dickinson

Авось, уплыть им вдаль не столь,
как нам, на бреге, счесть...
Авось, прихлынут, для исток
из рубищ их телес...

Быть может, внятно различим,
сколь кратко ведом страх,
что, постиженьем предварим,
там, в счёт нам на весах...




[David Preest:
Emily sent the first stanza of this poem in a letter (L517)
to Thomas Higginson on his wife’s death in September 1877.
The letter begins, ‘Dear Friend. If I could help you?’
Then comes the poem. Finally she ends the letter by saying,
‘Did she know she was leaving you? The Wilderness is new – to you.
Master, let me lead you.’
She also sent the whole poem in a letter (L518) to the sisters
of her uncle, William Dickinson, to console them for the death
of their father. In the second stanza Emily wonders if, in the
different time scale of the dead, it may be so short a time
before we join them that they regard us as being already there.]

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Perhaps they do not go so far by Emily Dickinson

Perhaps they do not go so far               
As we who stay, suppose --               
Perhaps come closer, for the lapse         
Of their corporeal clothes --               

It may be know so certainly               
How short we have to fear               
That comprehension antedates               
And estimates us there --