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??rnson, Bj??rnstjerne, 1832-1910

"Poems and Songs"


Winning good victories gives us the power
To own a brief hour
The land that shall be.


YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN, STRONG AND SOUND
Young men and women, strong and sound,
Adorn with beautiful excess
Of play and song and flower-dress
Our fatherland's ancestral ground.
They dream great deeds of ages older,
They long to lead to battles bolder.
Young men and women, strong and sound,
Our nation's honor are, in whom
Our whole life has its better bloom,
Rebirth upon our fathers' ground
Of them of yore. Anew there flower
The old in young folks' summer-power.
Young men and women, strong and sound,
Can doubly do our deeds and fill
With higher hope for all we will,--
Are growth in character's deep ground,
To larger life drawn by the spirit
They from our forefathers inherit.


NORWAY, NORWAY
(See Note 76)
Norway, Norway,
Rising in blue from the sea's gray and green,
Islands around like fledglings tender,
Fjord-tongues with slender,
Tapering tips in the silence seen.
Rivers, valleys,
Mate among mountains, wood-ridge and slope
Wandering follow. Where the wastes lighten,
Lake and plain brighten
Hallow a temple of peace and hope.
Norway, Norway,
Houses and huts, not castles grand,
Gentle or hard,
Thee we guard, thee we guard,
Thee, our future's fair land.


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