Two more poems by Emily Dickinson translated into Catalan.

I do it because it pleases me, and because my mother tongue adapts particularly well to this poet’s work (and to the English language in general, for its concision and richness in monosyllabic words).

Poem 409 refers to the American Civil War; most probably to the Battle of Gettysburg, a terrible three-day fight with 51,000 casualties, which occurred in the same year as she wrote the poem.

Poem 56 expresses the poet’s uneasiness -and perhaps guilt- about her own custom of looking for (“robbing”) plants in the woods to bring to her home and garden, and she wonders just what the woods thought about that…

 

409  [1863]

 

They dropped like Flakes –
They dropped like stars –
Like Petals from a rose –
When suddenly across the June
A wind with fingers — goes —

They perished in the Seamless Grass –
No eye could find the place –
But God on his repealless List –
Can summon every face.

 

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Caigueren com Flocs –
Caigueren com estels –
Com Pètals d’una rosa –
Quan creuant de sobte el Juny
Un vent amb dits – rebufa –

Moriren en l’Herba sense Escuma-
Cap ull trobaria a on –
Però Déu, en sa irrevocable Llista –
Pot evocar el rostre de cadascú.

[Traducció de Linus Fontrodona, 2013]

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56  [1859]

 

Who robbed the Woods –
The trusting Woods?
The unsuspecting Trees
Brought out their Burrs and mosses –
His fantasy to please.
He scanned their trinkets – curious –
He grasped – he bore away –
What will the solemn Hemlock –
What will the Fir-tree – say?

___________________________

Qui va robar els Boscos –
Els Boscos confiats?
Els Arbres, sense sospita,
Tragueren llurs Eriçons i molses –
Per a plaure-li el desig.
Ell regirà – xafarder – les galindaines –
N’engrapà – se n’endugué –
Què dirà la Pícea solemne –
Què caram dirà – l’avet?

[Traducció de Linus Fontrodona, 2013]

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This post continues a previous one with other translations to Catalan of poems by this American author : Dues versions en català d’Emily Dickinson, poetessa de clausura.

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