To hear an Oriole sing by Emily Dickinson

Внять иволгину песнь -
что проще, чем та есть...
Иль разве что с Небес.

Хоть птичья,- ни стопы,
что вторима в распыл,
как для толпы...

Настрой вниманья к ней
одет во что слышней,-
темней, светлей...

Ничем не стань она,
иль стань за письмена -
изнесена.

"Песнь - в ветках..." Их показ
от скептика - мне даст:
"Нет, сударь! В Вас!"





[Ruth Miller offers a convincing interpretation of this poem.
The golden oriole of poems 31 and 1466 here stands for the
poet herself. Her songs, she maintains, remain the same
whether heard by a crowd or by no one. And those who do
hear them must use their own Ear to judge whether they are
common or divine, dingy brown or fair, true poetry (= ‘Rune’)
or not. The listeners she particularly has in mind may be
Samuel Bowles, who only ever published two of her poems in
his newspaper, or Thomas Higginson, who had suggested in a
letter of this year that her poems were ‘wayward’ and lacked order
(L271). Emily replies that the ‘Tune’ of her poems is not
in ‘the Tree’ (= the versification), but in the listener.
Or as she puts it in poem 685, which was part of a letter
(L280) to Higginson of the following year:
Not ‘Revelation’ - tis - that waits,
But our unfurnished eyes...
(Не "Откровение" ждёт нас,-
лишь неоткрытость наших глаз...)]

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To hear an Oriole sing by Emily Dickinson

To hear an Oriole sing            
May be a common thing --          
Or only a divine.               

It is not of the Bird               
Who sings the same, unheard,       
As unto Crowd --               

The Fashion of the Ear             
Attireth that it hear               
In Dun, or fair --               

So whether it be Rune,             
Or whether it be none               
Is of within.               

The "Tune is in the Tree --"       
The Skeptic -- showeth me --         
"No Sir! In Thee!"