Showing posts with label Emily Dickinson 372 After Great Pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emily Dickinson 372 After Great Pain. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Emily Dickinson: After Great Pain...(372)/Después de gran dolor...(372)


After great pain, a formal feeling comes – 
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs – 
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’ 
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’? 

The Feet, mechanical, go round – 
A Wooden* way – 
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought – 
Regardless grown, 
A Quartz contentment, like a stone – 

This is the Hour of Lead – 
Remembered, if outlived, 
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow – 
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

Emily Dickinson


Después de gran dolor (372)

Después de gran dolor
llega un sentimiento formal--
Los nervios permanecen rituales como tumbas--
El corazón se pregunta:
"¿Fue él que lo estaba sosteniendo?”
Y “¿Ayer o hace siglos?”

Los pies mecánicamente dan vueltas en círculos--
Un camino de madera y selvático--
De la tierra o del aire o de lo debido--
Crecido a pesar de todo.
Alegría de cuarzo como una piedra.

Esto es la hora del plomo,
Recordada si has sobrevivido a ella,
Como aquellos que se están congelando se acuerdan de la nieve:
Primero escalofrío, luego estupor, finalmente sumisión.

Tr. EAC
___________________________________________________________
*"Wooden", though limited to "made of wood" in many areas and usages
also means "having to do with woods", synonymous with the now archaic
"treen".  A "wooden walk", on the other hand, also has a figurative meaning
close to a  "mechanical"  one, somewhat like pies de madera in Spanish.. What
 follows shows Dickinson was using it in the first sense but obviously with
 considerable ambiguity, including a play on the less common usage 
and on "Boardwalk" as well, which stands almost as a pun within
a pun. Capitalization emphasizes the play.