"I biets / och fjärilens / och vindens namn, amen". Så diktar poeten Emily Dickinson, men den yttre älskligheten är bedräglig hos denna frustrerade hemmadotter som alltid gick klädd i vitt. Hennes konst har gadd, och liksom biet suger näring ur ogräs och de vackraste blommor om vartannat hämtade hon inspiration ur såväl sorg och glädje som de nära vardagliga tingen. Vid sin död 1886 hade Emily Dickinson inte publicerad mer än en handfull dikter och var totalt okänd utanför en snäv krets av vänner. Det dröjde långt in på 1900-talet innan berömmelsen kom, och först i våra dagar har hela hennes produktion nått trycket: 1 775 mestadels korta dikter. Urvalet i denna volym har sammanställts av Lennart Nyberg som också står för den svenska tolkningen. All lyrik är i princip oöversättlig, och även de bästa tolkningar bör ses som hjälpmedel att närma sig originalen. Därför återges engelsk och svensk text här sida vid sida. I en inledande essä diskuterar Staffan Bergsten gåtorna kring Emily Dickinsons livsöde och hennes poetiska särart.
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Emily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century. Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence. Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends. Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content. A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet. For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
