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Emily Dickinson's poems in translation/Polish/Hope is the Thing with Feathers/Ludmiła Majańska's translation

< Emily Dickinson's poems in translation‎ | Polish‎ | Hope is the Thing with Feathers

The translation edit

Translation by Ludmiła Marjańska (website in Polish)[1] A back translation The original poem

Nadzieja - pierzaste stworzenie -

Mości się w duszy na grzędzie -

Śpiewa piosenkę bez słów -

I zawsze śpiewać będzie -


Najsłodsza - w nawałnicę -

Srogi sztorm musiałby się zerwać -

By spłoszyć małego ptaka,

Który tylu rozgrzewał -


Słyszałam go w mroźnej krainie -

Na morzu obcym i głuchym -

Lecz nigdy - w największej potrzebie -

Nie prosił - mnie - o okruchy -

Hope – the feathered creature –

Snugs in the roost in the soul –

Sings a song without words –

And will always sing –


The sweetest – in the gale –

A harsh storm would have to break –

To startle the little bird

That was keeping so many warm –


I heard it in the chill land –

On the sea strange and deaf –

But never – in the biggest need–

Asked – me – for crumbs –

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -


And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -


I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.[2]

Source edit

  1. ↑ https://poema.pl/publikacja/260-hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers
  2. ↑ http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171619
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