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A Meeting
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 71)
... O'er uplands fresh swift sped my sleigh ...
A light snow fell; along the way
Stood firs and birches slender.
The former pondered deep, alone,
The latter laughed, their white boughs shone; -
All brings a picture tender.
So light and free is now the air;
Of all its burdens stripped it bare
The snow with playful sally.
I glimpse behind its veil so thin
A landscape gay, and high within
A snow-peak o'er the valley.
But from the border white and brown,
Where'er I look, there's peeping down
A face ... but whose, whose is it?
I bore my gaze 'neath cap and brim
And see the snowflakes swarm and swim; -
Will some one here me visit?
A star fell on my glove ... right here ...
And here again ... its unlike peer; ...
They will with riddles pose me.
And smiles that in the air abound
From eyes so good ... I look around ...
'T is memory besnows me.
The stars spin fine their filigree,
Can hidden spirits in it be?
There haunts me something awing ...
You finer birch, you snow unstained,
You purer air, - a soul you've gained?
Who is it here now drawing
His features dear in nature's face,
In all this fascinating grace,
In falling stars that cheat me, -
In these white gleams that finely glance,
In all this silent rhythmic dance? ...
Hans Brecke! - comes to meet me.
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 71.
A MEETING. Hans Thorvald Brecke was born December 1, 1847, and died
June 9, 1875. As student from 1864 to 1870 he wrote several witty
student comedies, and is described as a remarkably charming
personality. In 1871 he became judge's clerk in Molde, and here had
one bright and happy year. Against the disease which showed itself
in the fall of 1872 he contended in vain. This poem was probably
written in the latter part of 1875.
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