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The Meeting (At The Student Meeting Of 1869)
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 38)
Thoughts toward one another coursing
To their pole must run,
Hearts that meet, all bonds are forcing,
Like the springtime sun.
Though to-day too heavy sorrow
Dull the mind of youth,
Higher on the meeting's morrow
Roll the tides of truth.
Though each man with courage fired
Hundreds forward bore,
Though a thousand died inspired,
There is need of more.
May a Northern Spring come blowing
Over wood and field,
Wake the hundred thousands, knowing
Meeting-hour revealed!
Hail! A Northern day is written
In the brightening sky;
Darksome dread, that erst had smitten,
Flees, now dawn is nigh.
After Gjallar-horn blasts hollow,
Tears and shame and blood,
As so often, now shall follow
Full the spirit's flood.
In our people's life deep-seated
This is felt each day:
Who grows stronger when defeated,
Victor stands for aye.
Our Spring-meeting's fullness swells now,
Bearing prophecy
Of the Spring whose hope upwells now:
Hail, the Northern three!
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 38.
THE MEETING. The Student Meetings, i.e., conventions of university
students in the three countries, were originally an important part
of "Scandinavism". The first was held in 1843; that of
1862 was the last to have a distinctly political character.
After 1864 the chief aim of these gatherings was to improve the
position and strengthen the influence of the student in the
community. In 1869 Christiania invited the Danish students to meet
there with their Swedish and Norwegian comrades, in the interest of
culture, better acquaintance with one another, people, and land, and
cooperation in general for the future of the kingdoms.
Gjallar-horn, Heimdall's horn, to be blown especially at the
beginning of Ragnarok, symbolical here of the painful passing of the
old order, which ushers in a new world.
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