Emily Dickinson citations

Page 3

“Les Étais soutiennent la Maison
Jusqu'à ce que la Maison soit achevée
Puis les Étais se retirent
Et adéquate, droite,
La Maison se tient seule
Et ne se souvient plus
Du Foret et du Charpentier -
Telle est exactement l'expérience rétrospective
D'une Vie accomplie -
Un Passé de Planche et de Clou
Et de lenteur - puis tombent les échafaudages
Et s'affirme une Âme”

“Nous fuyons son Visage d'autant plus que nous l'apprécions
De peur que l'ineffable disgrâce de la vision
Entache Notre Adoration”

“Se remémorer
Un Plaisir qui nous fut Retiré -
Offre une Félicité comparable à un Meurtre -
Omnipotente - Aiguë -

Nous ne lâcherons pas le Poignard -
Car Nous aimons la Blessure
Que le Poignard Commémore - c'est Lui
Qui Nous rappelle que Nous avons péri”

“Certains trop fragiles pour les vents d'hiver
La tombe prévenante les enserre -
Les bordant tendrement, les protégeant du gel
Avant que leurs pieds ne prennent froid -

Jamais de son nid
La tombe prudente n'expose ses trésors
Construisant là où les écoliers n'osent regarder,
ni les chasseurs s'aventurer.

Cet abri à tous les enfants
D'âge tendre, souvent glacés,
Les moineaux négligés par le Père -
Les agneaux pour qui le temps n'a pas eu de bercail.”

“L'Herbe a si peu à faire,
Une Sphère de simple Vert -
N'ayant qu'à couver les Papillons,
Et tenir compagnie aux Abeilles -

Et se balancer tout le jour sur de jolies chansons
Que les brises vont chercher,
Et tenir le Soleil, dans son giron,
Et faire des courbettes à tout,

Et enfiler les Rosées toute la nuit, comme des Perles,
Et se faire si belle
Qu'une Duchesse, serait trop ordinaire
Pour qu'on la remarque comme elle,

Et même quand elle meurt, périr
En odeurs si divines -
Comme d'humbles épices, couchées, endormies -
Ou comme le Nard indien qui expirant s'exhale -

Et puis habiter dans Granges Royales,
Occuper ses Journées à rêver,
L'Herbe a si peu à faire,
Je voudrais être - Foin”

“Ma Rivière coule vers Toi -
Mer bleue - Veux-tu m'accueillir?

Ma Rivière attend une réponse.
Ô Mer - montre-toi bienveillante!

J'irai te chercher des Ruisseaux
Dans des vallons diaprés -

Allez Mer - tu me prends?”

“Un Mot gribouillé sans réfléchir sur une Page
Peut stimuler un Œil
Quand enveloppé dans les plis de l'éternité
Son Auteur Ridé reposera

L'Infection se développe dans la phrase
Nous pouvons inhaler le Désespoir
Comme, venant du fond des Siècles,
La Malaria”

“I tasted life.”

“Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.”

“The sun just touched the morning;
The morning, happy thing,
Supposed that he had come to dwell,
And life would be all spring.”

“She died--this was the way she died;
And when her breath was done,
Took up her simple wardrobe
And started for the sun.
Her little figure at the gate
The angels must have spied,
Since I could never find her
Upon the mortal side.”

“Who has not found the Heaven — below —
Will fail of it above”

“My love for those I love -- not many -- not very many, but don't I love them so?”

“Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
’T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,—you ’re straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.”

“Tis not that dieing hurts us so- tis living- hurts us more.”

“He ate and drank the precious words,
His spirit grew robust;
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was dust.
He danced along the dingy days,
And this bequest of wings
Was but a book. What liberty
A loosened spirit brings!”

“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.”

“Anger as soon as fed is dead-
'Tis starving makes it fat.”

“The possible's slow fuse is lit by the Imagination.”

“That love is all there is, Is all we know of love.”

“There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.”

“Dying is a wild night and a new road.”

“My friends are my "estate."”

“To be alive──is Power.”

“They say that God is everywhere and yet we always think of him as somewhat of a recluse.”

“The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.”

“I am nobody! Who are you? Are you a nobody, too?”

“I have been bent and broken, but -I hope- into a better shape.”

“People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.”

“in this short life
that only lasts ah hour
how much-how little-is
within our power.”

“I can wade Grief --
Whole Pools of it --
I'm used to that --
But the least push of Joy
Breaks up my feet --
And I tip -- drunken --
Let no Pebble -- smile --
'Twas the New Liquor --
That was all!”

“I'll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.
The hills untied their bonnets,
The bobolinks begun.
Then I said softly to myself,
"That must have been the sun!”

“"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see —
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.”

“I cannot live with you,
It would be life,
And life is over there
Behind the shelf”

“My best Acquaintances are those
With Whom I spoke no Word”

“To see her is a picture-
To hear her is a tune-
To know her an Intemperance
As innocent as June-
To know her not-Affliction-
To own her for a Friend
A warmth as near as if the the Sun
Were shining in your Hand.”