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In A Heavy Hour
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 13)
Be glad when danger presses
Each power your soul possesses!
In greater strain
Your strength shall gain,
Till greater vict'ry blesses!
Supports may break in pieces,
Your friends may have caprices,
But you shall see,
The end will be,
Your need of crutches ceases.
- 'T is clear,
Whom God makes lonely,
To him He comes more near.
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 13.
IN A HEAVY HOUR. Written in Italy rather late in 1861, after
Björnson received tidings of the sharp criticism of his drama King
Sverre and of its lack of success on the stage in Christiania, where
it was first performed on October 9. In a letter from Hans
Christian Andersen Björnson wrote on December 10, 1861: "At a time
when I was in a mood to write the following verses, which perhaps
tell so much that I need not tell more [the poem is quoted], - at a
time when I, the man, nay, the product of friendship, was in a mood
to write this, it came just like a Christmas hymn among strangers,
to hear that you had dedicated to me your last four Tales. You ...,
you had a heart to remember me, when many friends from tested times
did not."
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