Ik ben niemand! Wie ben jij?
ben jij ook - niemand-?
dan zijn er een paar van ons!
Zeg het niet! Ze zouden ons verbannen-weet je!

Hoe saai - om iemand- te zijn!
Hoe openbaar - als een Kikker -
Je naam te vertellen - de levenslange dag -
Aan een bewonderend Moeras!

Als trouwe bezoeker van The Morgan Library & Museum in New York wil ik graag hun tentoonstelling met de bovenstaande titel en aangevuld met ‘The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson’ gebruiken om vooral met enkele van de gedichten uit hun tentoongestelde handschrift-collectie belangstelling voor deze wonderbare vrouw te wekken.

One of the most popular and enigmatic American writers of the nineteenth century, Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) wrote almost 1,800 poems. Nevertheless, her work was essentially unknown to contemporary readers since only a handful of poems were published during her lifetime and a vast trove of her manuscripts was not discovered until after her death in 1886. 

Dit zijn de drie kinderen uit een Amerikaans welstellend advocaten-gezin. Emily links laat niet vermoeden dat ze een erg teruggetrokken leven zou leiden dat zich in de laatste jaren zou beperken tot de leefruimte in haar slaapkamer waarvan hierboven het fraaie rozen-behang dat ook in de tentoonstelling als achtergrond dient. Vergis je niet, ook dat teruggetrokken leven betekende niet dat ze geen contacten had met de buitenwereld. Integendeel. Ze correspondeerde met talrijke vrienden en vriendinnen, besprak open en direct wat er in de toenmalige wereld gebeurde maar mengde zich steeds minder in het openbare leven.

She was a deeply sensitive woman who questioned the puritanical background of her Calvinist family and soulfully explored her own spirituality, often in poignant, deeply personal poetry. She admired the works of John Keats and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but avoided the florid and romantic style of her time, creating poems of pure and concise imagery, at times witty and sardonic, often boldly frank and illuminating the keen insight she had into the human condition. At times characterised as a semi-invalid, a hermit, a heartbroken introvert, or a neurotic agoraphobic, her poetry is sometimes brooding and sometimes joyous and celebratory. Her sophistication and profound intellect has been lauded by laymen and scholars alike and influenced many other authors and poets into the 21st Century.(Online-literature.com/dickinson)

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air –
Between the Heaves of Storm –

The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset – when the King
Be witnessed – in the Room –

I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable – and then it was
There interposed a Fly –

With Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz –
Between the light – and me –
And then the Windows failed – and then
I could not see to see –

This poem—one of Dickinson’s most famous—exists in no other drafts; it is included in a in a fascicle, or hand-sewn manuscript booklet, which she probably began in the summer of 1863 and which was not discovered until after her death.

Blazing in Gold – and
Quenching – in Purple!
Leaping – like Leopards the sky –
Then – at the feet of the old Horizon –
Laying it's spotted face – to die!

Stooping as low as the kitchen window –
Touching the Roof –
And tinting the Barn –
Kissing it's Bonnet to the Meadow –
And the Juggler of Day – is gone!


Vlammend in Goud - en
blakend - in paars!
Springend - als luipaarden de hemel -
Dan - aan de voeten van de oude Horizon -
Legt het zijn gevlekte gezicht - om te sterven!

Bukkend zo laag als het keukenraam -
Raakt het dak -
en de schuur kleurt...
Kust het zijn hoed naar de weide...
En de jongleur van de dag - is weg!

Of our deepest delights there is a solemn shyness
The appetite for silence is seldom an acquired taste

Van onze diepste genoegens is er een plechtige verlegenheid
De honger naar stilte is zelden een aangeleerde smaak

***

Hope is the Thing with Feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

This is one of 295 poems Dickinson wrote in 1863, her most productive year. She kept this copy, along with a later draft from 1865.

Light is sufficient to itself –
If others want to see
It can be had on Window panes
Some hours of the day –

But not for Compensation –
It holds as large a Glow
To Squirrel in the Himmaleh
Precisely – as to me –

****


Dat haar leven ook de hedendaagse bewoner van deze planeet aanspreekt, bewijst de televisieserie op Apple-TV (Dickinson') die nu haar tweede jaar ingaat. 

 This Is My Letter To The World

    This is my letter to the world,
    That never wrote to me,--
    The simple news that Nature told,
    With tender majesty.
    Her message is committed
    To hands I cannot see;
    For love of her, sweet countrymen,
    Judge tenderly of me!

bezoek: https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/emily-dickinson

Some keep the Sabbath going to church,
I keep it staying at home,
With a bobolink for a chorister,
And an orchard for a dome.

Some keep the Sabbath in surplice,
I just wear my wings,
And instead of tolling the bell for church,
Our little sexton sings.

God preachesa noted clergyman,
And the sermon is never long;
So instead of going to heaven at last,
I'm going all along