Избранное. 632. The Brain is wider than the Sky

Обширнее небес —  наш ум —
И он — сравненья для —
Способен без труда вместить
И небо — и тебя —

И глубже моря этот ум —
Где ход — волны — един —
Как заполняют влагой прут
Плетельщики корзин —

По фунтам взвесить на весах —
Он то есть, что и Бог —
Отличье в том их, как звучат —
Звук и ударный слог —


632

The Brain—is wider than the Sky—
For—put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease—and you—beside—

The Brain is deeper than the sea—
For—hold them—Blue to Blue—
The one the other will absorb—
As sponges—Buckets—do—

The Brain is just the weight of God—
For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—
And they will differ—if they do—
As Syllable from Sound—

                Emily Dickinson


From the Internet

<< In John 1:1 it says, "In the beginning was the Word." In this reading, the brain, as the "sound" that evolved from that first syllable, would be an echo of the divine. Thus, there is this syntactic ambiguity here.

Biographer Cynthia Griffin Wolff shares that, "Syllables are concocted from sound and contain them; the brain has been created by God, but nonetheless contains Him" (462).

Charles Anderson reads the poem as contemplating that nature as a well as God may prevail only in the mind. For him, "The effect of the poem is not to minimize the importance of God, or nature, but to magnify the value of the consciousness" (300). Even between the two critics is this unknowing and this ever seeing syntactic ambiguity towards the poem and its true meaning>>.

                Melanie Murphy
               
                Стихи.ру 23 февраля 2015