Жизнью владеть Эмили Дикинсон

Эмили Дикинсон

1294

Жизнью владеть -
От Жизни добиваться -
Но никогда вместилища не касаться              коснуться

Перевод с английского Сергей Лузан

Оригинал

1294
Of Life to own --
From Life to draw --
But never tough the reservoir --

Poem 1294 F1327 ‘Of Life to own’
In a letter (L413) to Thomas Higginson of late May 1874 Emily highly praises
Higginson’s new poem called Decoration. She ends the praise with the words, ‘You
have experienced sanctity. To me it is untried’ and then follows the poem, in which she is presumably saying that, unlike Higginson, she has not yet touched the deepest things at the bottom of the reservoir of life, such as writing a comparable poem herself.

Dickinson’s poems work in this system especially well because she does not answer the questions about the things that matter most to us in a dated way, using clich;s or being too specific to her time, place, and personal experience, but rather in as diverse a manner as the questions themselves. She makes the ideas human and reachable, connecting them to the individual but in a broad, rather than a detailed way, so they do not lose their timeless universality. In this manner, she strikes a balance, presenting the old, quintessential ideas in unique new ways, and, as mentioned previously, in quotable, eloquent simplicity. For example, the poem below captures the essence of a very large idea in only a few lines, a powerful promise of meaning fulfilled in potent miniature:
30
Of Life to own—
From life to draw—
But never touch the reservoir—
(no. 1294)
Here is a place where life and its meaning have become solid and real—enough to fill a reservoir—but we as humans must seek for and never reach it. It is not for us, being beyond our understanding. Although the poem contains a great deal for its size, by necessity as well as by design many details are left out. This leaves the reader’s imagination with many places to go from here. It is a little completeless piece left open to our interpretation.

Completeless Show
Kathleen Raymond-Judy
2015
Sponsor:
Professor Harry Brown
Committee:
Professor Joseph Heithaus
Professor Kevin Moore