In thy clearness our Norse flags aye
With song and honor afar thou wavest.
Thou spirit all knowing,
Our mother-tongue,
The ages foregoing,
The future now growing,
The present glowing,--
We hallow thee!
O'er the ocean unrollest thou
Thy carpet of flowers, a bridge that nigher
Can bring dear friends to meet even now,--
While faith grows greater and heaven higher.
Thou treasure of treasures,
Our mother-tongue,
In pain as in pleasures
Our home and our tower,
With God our power,--
We hallow thee!
Best of friends that I found wert thou;
Thou waitedst for me in the eyes of mother.
And leave me last of them all wilt thou,
Who knewest me better than any other.
Thou spirit all knowing,
Our mother-tongue,
The ages foregoing,
The future now growing,
The present glowing,--
We hallow thee!
NOTES
PREFATORY
Bj?rnstjerne Bj?rnson was born in 1832 and died in 1909. The last
edition of his Poems and Songs in his lifetime is the fourth, dated
1903. It is a volume of two hundred pages, containing one hundred
and forty-one pieces, arranged in nearly chronological order from
1857, or just before, to 1900. Of these almost two-thirds appeared
in the first edition (1870), ending with Good Cheer and including
ten pieces omitted in the other editions, eight poems and two
lyrical passages from the drama King Sverre; the second edition
(1880) added the contents in order through Question and Answer and
inserted earlier The Angels of Sleep; the third (1900) extended the
additions to include Frederik Hegel.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157