Без пиршества иного
сама себя займу,
сперва - негодной пищей,-
ни сердцу, ни уму,-
приправ же тонких ростом
вовсю размах почтив,-
весьма роскошный для меня,-
насытив им почти
малиновку, чья грудка
как наш с ней путь ала,
ей кроху - ягодку в запас -
дав с моего стола...
Прист в помощь.
[David Preest:
Emily’s strategy for survival in deprivation
is to rely upon herself, gradually building
up a sufficiency which is almost enough for
a robin’s famine as well. She and the robin are
fellow pilgrims on the journey through life,
and can even reserve from their table a berry
for charity. Emily does not identify the Banquet
of which she was deprived. She had also been
‘hungry, all the Years’ in poem 579, but the
possible sexual references in that poem do not
seem to apply here. Perhaps she refers here to
being deprived of normal society and then building
up her inner resources in writing poems, but with
a berry left over to share with the occasional
visitor or the people to whom she wrote letters.]
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Deprived of other Banquet, by Emily Dickinson
Deprived of other Banquet,
I entertained Myself --
At first -- a scant nutrition --
An insufficient Loaf --
But grown by slender addings
To so esteemed a size
'Tis sumptuous enough for me --
And almost to suffice
A Robin's famine able --
Red Pilgrim, He and I --
A Berry from our table
Reserve -- for charity --