Вода познаётся жаждой,
Сушь - гладью морской,
Радость - Огромной Болью.
Мир - прошедшей Войной.
Любовь - Сохраненной Улыбкой
А Птицы - Зимой.
Emily Dickinson
135
Water is taught by thirst
Land, by the oceans passed
Transport — by throe —
Peace, by its battles told —
Love, by memorial Mold —
Birds, by the snow.
1859
Manuscript: About 1859, in packet 7 (H 28b).
By "Mold" (line 5) ED means a Pictorial representation. In the first months of their correspondence, Higginson had evidently asked her for a photograph. She replied in her letter of July 1862 that she had none: It often alarms Father -- He says Death might occur, and he has Molds of all the rest -- but has no Mold of me.