The Show is not the Show by Emily Dickinson

Спектакль не спектакль,
снуют лишь, так...
Зверинец мне -
сосед в окне...
Распах игры -
обоим зрим...



(Эмили - к Хиггинсону.)
[David Preest:
On his first visit to Emily in August 1870 Thomas Higginson
had asked her if she did not feel a lack of contact with society,
and Emily had replied, ‘I never thought of conceiving that I could
ever have the slightest approach to such a want in all future
time (L342a).’ Despite this strong assertion, Higginson seems
to have suggested to her in a letter of 1872 that it might be good
for her to visit him at his new home at Newport (Rhode Island).
Emily concludes her reply (L381) to this letter with the
words,
‘Thank you for the “Lesson.”
I will study it though hitherto
Menagerie to me
My neighbour be.

Your Scholar

In other words Emily is saying in the whole poem,
‘I don’t wish to visit the Show at Newport, because the Menagerie
of the Show is basically just the people that go, and I can see
from my bedroom window my own Menagerie of the neighbours who walk
past. Newport visitors and people who stay at Amherst are both
studying the ‘Fair [amusing] Play’ of human beings.’
It is just possible that Emily may have remembered an article
in the Springfield Republican of 14 September 1864 which satirised
the social season at Newport under the heading ‘The Human Menagerie.’]

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The Show is not the Show by Emily Dickinson

The Show is not the Show   
But they that go --         
Menagerie to me            
My Neighbor be --          
Fair Play --               
Both went to see --