Кражи Времени пронзают,
но, хоть смертью ждут,
хищник есть лютее вора -
"Безвестью" зовут...
Ни угроз и ни нападок,-
не расслышишь ног.
Но из свежей грозди жизни
выдавит весь сок.
(Эмили - о пропавшем без вести.
Вышел из дому - и ни слуху, ни духу...)
[David Preest:
Edward Dickinson’s sister Katie married Joseph Sweetster
of New York in 1835. On 21 January 1874 her husband walked
out of his house and was never seen again. Emily sent this
poem as a message to her aunt after her husband’s
disappearance. It is the whole of the letter (L408)
apart from the first sentence which reads, ‘Saying
nothing, my Aunt Katie, sometimes says the Most.’
Her poem says that the Silence of his disappearance
was worse than Death, for, unlike Death, there is no
‘Assault’ or ‘Menace’ to signify that Silence is about
to happen. It just at one stroke removed ‘the Balm’
from the ‘Cluster’ of the things which made up her
aunt’s life.]
*********************************
Death's Waylaying not the sharpest by Emily Dickinson
Death's Waylaying not the sharpest
Of the thefts of Time --
There Marauds a sorer Robber,
Silence -- is his name --
No Assault, nor any Menace
Doth betoken him.
But from Life's consummate Cluster --
He supplants the Balm.