When I was small, a Woman died by Emily Dickinson

Той смерть - где я была мала,
а нынче - сыну той
с Потомака взойти,- чела
победной высотой,-

взглянуть на мать... Сколь долго
тянулись бы лета,
да пулям срезать угол,
и в дух один - он там...

В Раю ли верх для славы -
про то не нам судить,
их благородных нравов
никто не подтвердил...

Но всё ж, в очах высоки,
та мать и с нею сын
проходят перед взором
как будто в небеси...

Я верю,- крикам "Браво!"
навечно дали рвать
для кличей битв, как тот, далёк,
где Мэриленд кровав...




(Эмили - о солдате из её города, с её фамилией,
о первом павшем из их города на Гражданской войне.)
[David Preest:
Thomas Johnson in his variorum edition tells us that
on 21 October 1861 an Amherst soldier called Francis H. Dickinson
was killed at the battle of Balls’ Bluff, Virginia on the Potomac
river near the Maryland border. He was the first Amherst man to die
in a Civil War battle.
Emily imagines the killed soldier ascending to heaven ‘to look at’
his mother, who had died some years before. She also imagines how
for the mother in heaven the seasons must have turned slowly, until
‘Bullets clipt’ the angle between life and death, and her son passed
over quickly. We do not know if the ‘imperial conduct’ of heaven
allows its inhabitants to feel pride, but Emily feels pride as she
pictures the meeting of mother and son, and she is confident that
such bravery is at least applauded in heaven.]

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When I was small, a Woman died -- by Emily Dickinson

When I was small, a Woman died --      
Today -- her Only Boy               
Went up from the Potomac --            
His face all Victory               

To look at her -- How slowly            
The Seasons must have turned            
Till Bullets clipt an Angle            
And He passed quickly round --         

If pride shall be in Paradise --       
Ourself cannot decide --               
Of their imperial Conduct --            
No person testified --               

But, proud in Apparition --            
That Woman and her Boy               
Pass back and forth, before my Brain   
As even in the sky --               

I'm confident that Bravoes --          
Perpetual break abroad               
For Braveries, remote as this          
In Scarlet Maryland --