Better than Music! For I who heard it by Emily Dic

Выше, чем музыка! Мне, кто расслышал...
Свыкшейся - с пеньем - птиц...
Было иным... Пресуществленьем -
Звуков, мелодий... границ...

То не вмещалось иной строфою...
Ей для повтора - игра ничья...
Автор бы лишь... совершенный Моцарт...
Пал вместе с тем... стихом без ключа!

Дети, реча ручьями в Эдеме...
Выпели - лучший - мотив...
Вывод причудлив: повинной Евы
Лётом бессилен ступней порыв...

Дети, взрослея - мудрели обычно...
Рай, как преданье - невнятно рёк...
Ева... и муки... старушечья сказка...
Вторила я лишь мелодией строк...

Церковь - не с той нарекает силой,
Там, где восходит последний святой...
Стих не вот так - покой нарушает,
Где искупленья трезвонит бой...

Пусть не прольюсь и каденцией меньшей...
Гулом сулясь, одинокой главой...
Гулом - до пробы моей, чуть слышной,
В лад зазвучать - у престола Его...






[David Preest:
In a letter (L146) of 1853 to her friend
Emily Fowler Ford Emily had said of her
friend’s recent marriage, which she had attended,
that the actual ceremony ‘seemed to
me translation, not any earthly thing, and if
a little after you’d ridden on the wind, it
would not have surprised me.’
Similarly at the beginning of this poem
Emily tells of a ‘translation’ to heaven of
her own. She can only describe it in terms
of music (lines 21-4), but it was ‘better _
than Music’ and the tunes she knew. Whatever
the experience was exactly, it was
unrepeatable by any man, as it was sent to
her by God, the ‘perfect Mozart.’
It reminded her of children, before they
are grown up and leave the story to their
Grandparents, telling of the ‘better Melody’
of Eden before Eve strangely surrendered
and ate the apple, thus causing the flight
of Adam from the paradise which he had no
wish to leave. But this tune which ‘translated’
her was emphatically not such a strain
as the Church will ever baptise its children to,
even in the last days, or sing when a
sinner is redeemed.
All Emily can do is to try to keep the
experience alive in her mind, humming its
tune until eventually it becomes part of
the tune sung around the throne of God.]

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Better -- than Music! For I -- who heard it -- by Emily Dickinson

Better -- than Music! For I -- who heard it --    
I was used -- to the Birds -- before --
This -- was different -- 'Twas Translation --
Of all tunes I knew -- and more --               

'Twasn't contained -- like other stanza --
No one could play it -- the second time --
But the Composer -- perfect Mozart --
Perish with him -- that Keyless Rhyme!

So -- Children -- told how Brooks in Eden --
Bubbled a better -- Melody --               
Quaintly infer -- Eve's great surrender --         
Urging the feet -- that would -- not -- fly --

Children -- matured -- are wiser -- mostly --
Eden -- a legend -- dimly told --
Eve -- and the Anguish -- Grandame's story --
But -- I was telling a tune -- I heard --

Not such a strain -- the Church -- baptizes --
When the last Saint -- goes up the Aisles --
Not such a stanza splits the silence --
When the Redemption strikes her Bells --

Let me not spill -- its smallest cadence --
Humming -- for promise -- when alone --
Humming -- until my faint Rehearsal --
Drop into tune -- around the Throne --