My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -

In Corners - till a Day

The Owner passed - identified -

And carried Me away -

And now We roam in Sovreign Woods -

And now We hunt the Doe -

And every time I speak for Him

The Mountains straight reply -

And do I smile, such cordial light

Opon the Valley glow -

It is as a Vesuvian face

Had let it’s pleasure through -

And when at Night - Our good Day done -

I guard My Master’s Head -

’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s

Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To foe of His - I’m deadly foe -

None stir the second time -

On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -

Or an emphatic Thumb -

Though I than He - may longer live

He longer must - than I -

For I have but the power to kill,

Without - the power to die – 

Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) je gotovo največja ameriška pesnica. Za časa življenja ni izdala nobene pesniške zbirke, danes pa ima kultni status med mnogimi bralkami in bralci po svetu. Živela in ustvarjala je v odmaknjenosti. Strastno je prebirala knjige in časopise, si dopisovala z znanci, prijatelji in sorodniki. Njena pesniška zapuščina obsega 1800 pesmi. O moči poezije pravi: “Če preberem knjigo, ob kateri moje telo oledeni in ni več ognja, ki bi me lahko ogrel, vem, da je to poezija. Če fizično čutim, kot bi mi nekdo odrezal vrh glave, vem, da je to poezija. Le po tem dvojem jo prepoznam. Jo je mogoče prepoznati kako drugače?”

/prevod IZ ŠOLSKIH ZVEZKOV, 1963/