Эмили Дикинсон
381
Рассказанный Секрет -
Перестаёт Секретом быть - тогда -
Секрет - сохранённый -
Что - может ужаснуть кроме Одного -
Лучшее в нём - продолжать быть в ужасе -
Чем это -
А Кому ты его рассказал - кроме -
Перевод с английского Сергей Лузан
Оригинал
381
A Secret told --
Ceases to be a Secret -- then --
A Secret -- kept --
That -- can appal but One --
Better of it -- continual be afraid --
Than it --
And Whom you told it to -- beside --
Poem 381 F643 ‘A Secret told’
Emily claims that it is better to keep a secret and be appalled by it yourself than to tell
it to somebody and then to be afraid both of the secret and the somebody as well.
This is unusual advice. Mike Leigh in his film Secrets and Lies argues the
opposite, as does Molly Gibson, who, in ch. 43 of Mrs Gaskell’s Wives and
Daughters says to her friend Cynthia that she would feel much better if she told her
secret both to herself and to Molly’s father.