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To Erika Lie
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 43)
When Norse nature's dower
Tones will paint with power,
There is more than mountain-heights that tower, -
Plains spread wide-extending,
Whereon at their wending
Summer nights soft dews are sending.
Forests great are growing,
And in long waves going
Glommen's valley fill to overflowing, -
There are green slopes vernal,
Glad with joy fraternal,
Open to the light supernal.
For revealing wholly
All things fine and holy -
As in sunshine birds are soaring slowly,
Or, their spells transmitting,
Northern Lights are flitting, -
None but maiden-hands are fitting.
Your hands came, and playing,
O'er their secrets straying
Picture after picture are portraying,
As the poet dreamed them,
In soul-travail teemed them,
Till your artist hands redeemed them.
Now their light far-flinging
We see flashing, swinging,
Sparks as from your father's humor springing;
Now there meets us nigher,
Mirroring the higher,
Mother's eye of softer fire.
Child-heart tones are holding
All our minds and molding,
So its faith the wide world is enfolding,
While your sweet sounds sally,
Truth to tell and rally,
Maiden blonde from Glommen's valley.
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 43.
TO ERIKA LIE (-NISSEN) (1847-1903). One of the great pianists in
Norway, she was born in Kongsvinger on the river Glommen, where her
parents resided also when this poem was written in 1869. She gained
European fame by her concerts from 1866 on, married the physician
Oskar Nissen in 1874, and after 1876 resided in Norway. She was
distinguished for the poetic quality of her playing, for warmth and
fullness of tone, and for faultless technique.
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