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Our Language (1900)
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 80)
Thou, who sailest Norse mountain-air,
And Denmark's songs by the cradle singest,
Who badest in Hald the war-flames flare,
And, heard in our children's joy, gently ringest, -
Thou treasure of treasures,
Our mother-tongue,
In pains as in pleasures
Our home and our tower,
With God our power, -
We hallow thee!
Whispering secrets that Holberg stored,
Thou borest him home to a brighter morning,
Didst serve him with armor and whet his sword
For satire's assaults and for laughter's warning.
Thou spirit all knowing,
Our mother-tongue,
The ages foregoing,
The future now growing,
The present glowing, -
We hallow thee!
Kierkegaard thou to the deeps didst bring,
Where life's full currents in God he sounded.
For Wergeland wert thou the eagle's wing,
That lifted him sunward to heights unbounded.
Thou treasure of treasures,
Our mother-tongue,
In pain as in pleasures
Our home and our tower,
With God our power, -
We hallow thee!
Radiant warmth of a May-day
Thou to the spring of our freedom gavest.
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!
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 80.
OUR LANGUAGE. Written in defense of the Norwegian-Danish speech
of the cultured classes and of the cities in Norway, the result of
development and tradition through several centuries, the so-called
Riksmaal (language of the kingdom) or Bymaal (city-language). This,
and with it the higher spiritual interests of the nation, seemed to
Björnson to be endangered by the agitation in behalf of the
Landsmaal (rural language). The Landsmaal arose from a movement
after 1814, to make Norway independent of Denmark in language also.
The rural dialects were regarded as more purely Norwegian; on them
and the Old Norse as a basis was constructed somewhat artificially
this standard rural language. It has been gradually perfected, and
is now, in fact, spoken and written a good deal. Björnson advocated
rather the natural process of making the language of the country
more national by gradually introducing dialect words and reforming
the orthography. He thought that the Riksmaal thus modified alone
could preserve, increase, and transmit the treasures of culture.
Kierkegaard. Sören Aaby Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was the most
subtle and profound thinker produced by Denmark, with a prose
style noble, poetic, and eloquent. His writings deal with religion,
ethics, and esthetics, and present his individual, ideal conception
of Christianity.
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