Translation / Übersetzung
by / von Walter A. Aue




Emily Dickinson:

"Faith" is
a fine invention

"Faith" is a fine invention
For gentlemen who see,
But Microscopes are prudent
In an emergency!


Surgeons must be
very careful

Surgeons must be very careful
When they take the knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the culprit - Life!



Why a concrete nail as the poet's frame? Well, this frail little lady in her white dress always hit it on the head! Concretely - and, more often than not, smack into society's concrete - or should I say pillars...




Emily Dickinson:

Der Glaube,
der ist dienlich

Der Glaube, der ist dienlich
Den Herrn, die alles sehn,
Doch Mikroskope helfen
Den Ernstfall überstehn!


Vorsicht ziemet
dem Chirurgen

Vorsicht ziemet dem Chirurgen,
Der das Messer hebt!
Unterm feinen Schnitt die schuld'ge
Ursach - Leben! - lebt.



Vergleiche Erich Kästner:

"Seien wir ehrlich:
Leben ist immer
lebensgefährlich."


...



Other poems by Emily Dickinson

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First posted: September 2004
Last updated: October 2006

N.B.: The frame around the poems
shows a nail on our roof.

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