Unworthy of her Breast by Emily Dickinson

Презревшись грудью той,
хоть режет чернотой,
чьей снесть душе?
Вняв строгий её свет,
как мне подделать цвет,
что бел уже!




(Вот здесь без Приста не разобраться.)
[David Preest:
Emily is unworthy of some woman who judges others so
severely that she regards even Emily’s ‘white’ as a sham.
The woman may by Sue or Kate Anthon. The ‘white’ may
be literally Emily’s habitual dress of white but also a metaphor
for Emily’s essential innocence and goodness, which the
woman regards as put on. A sentence in a letter of 1859 to
Kate Anthon may be relevant to this poem. Emily says to her,
‘[In your absence] I hold your black in strong hallowed remembrance,
and trust my colours to you are tints slightly beloved (L209).’]

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Unworthy of her Breast by Emily Dickinson

Unworthy of her Breast                       
Though by that scathing test             
What Soul survive?                           
By her exacting light                           
How counterfeit the white                   
We chiefly have!