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At Michael Sars's Grave
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 44)
Ever he would roam
Toward th' eternal home;
From the least life deep in ocean
To each gleam of stars in motion,
Worth of all he weighed.
Now the Lord lends aid.
Still he passed beyond,
Softly dreaming; fond
Nature met him as her lover.
God with strength his soul shall cover
'Mid the starry throng
Through the spheres' pure song.
Even here on earth
Harmony's sweet birth -
When discovery new truth sunders,
When the small reveals its wonders -
Filled his soul with song
For the ages long.
Where his watch he kept,
Eyes a hundred swept.
Where millenniums sand assembled,
Where the tiniest life-pulse trembled,
There he sought the clue,
Silent, wise, and true.
In a water glass
Searching he saw pass
All the ocean's life; his thinking
To unfathomed deeps was sinking;
Where lay riddles locked,
There he came and knocked.
Fair our fatherland,
While such faith shall stand!
With an eye so true and tender,
With a sense so fine for splendor
In the small and still, -
Great ends we fulfil!
Extra Info:
TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN IN THE ORIGINAL METERS BY ARTHUR HUBBELL PALMER
Professor of the German Language and Literature In Yale University
Note 44.
AT MICHAEL SARS'S GRAVE. He was born in Bergen, August 30, 1805,
and died in Christiania, October 22, 1869. In 1823 he became a
student of the University in Christiania, where for a time he
devoted himself to natural science, continuing his boyhood's lively
interest. But the necessity for self-support turned him to
theology. In 1830 he was appointed pastor at Kinn in the Söndfjord,
married in 1831 a sister of Welhaven, and in 1839 was transferred to
Manger, near Bergen. Both the places mentioned were very convenient
for zoölogical study, which Sars resumed at once and continued
unbrokenly. His earliest published work appeared in 1829; it was of
first-rate importance, and his reputation was soon established
everywhere in the world of learning. In 1853 he sought retirement
from the Church, and in 1854 was professor of zoölogy in the
University, where he continued his remarkable researches until his
death. He was a pioneer in his special field, the lower marine
fauna, and his aim from the beginning was not merely to discover new
species, but to trace the physiological processes and the
development of these lower, minuter forms of life, - ovology,
embryology, organology. It was his work that led to the deep-sea
expeditions of The Challenger and other similar voyages.
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