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To Johan Dahl, Bookdealer (On His Sixtieth Birthday)
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 31)
Our glasses we lift now and drink to our host!
"Hurrah!"
Give heed to our ditty, we sing you our toast!
"Aha!"
The first thing appearing is what he was nearing,
When uproar not fearing he came for a hearing
'Fore skerry-bred eagle
And Wergeland regal.
Oh! Ha!
He came like an innocent spring-lambkin ewe-born,
Oh, woe!
So neat and so fine in his guilelessness new-born
Like snow.
The flesh so delicious was chopped up to farce-meat,
And later by Wergeland found for a farce meet,
And gayly 't was swallowed,
And all the bones hollowed
And strown.
But swift as Thor's he-goats to life again skipping,
He sprang
Whole skinned together, and gave them a whipping
That rang.
This made him seem worthy to join the gay party,
At once they received him in fellowship hearty!
And soon was no other
More loved as a brother
Than Dahl.
The light from his shop spread afar and made brighter
Our day.
His drawing-room gathered so many a fighter
In play.
Our taste there was made and our critical passion,
The shop was a power, new Norway to fashion.
Though little, its story
Shall some time in glory
Be writ.
For what you have kindled, endured, and aspired,
Our thanks!
For hearts you have gladdened and souls you have fired,
Our thanks!
For all your good faith in your fervor and ranting,
Yes, for your whole-heartedness free from all canting,
You whimsical, queer one,
Old fellow, you dear one,
Our thanks!
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 31.
TO JOHAN DAHL, BOOKDEALER. Johan Fjeldsted Dahl was born in
Copenhagen, January 1, 1807, and died in Christiania, March 16,
1877. He came to Christiania in 1829, and established in 1832 a
business of his own, both publishing and selling. In the mercantile,
social, literary, and artistic life of the city he came to have an
important place and influence. Dahl had published Norway's Dawn, by
Welhaven, and in the time of the Wergeland-Welhaven conflict (see
Note 36, and as to Wergeland, Note 78) a violent personal quarrel
developed between Wergeland and Dahl about an entirely unimportant
matter. Dahl had provided his porter with a green livery having red
borders. Wergeland, who regarded Dahl as the leading representative
of the "Copenhagenism" (Danish, anti-Norwegian tendencies) he was
contending against, had an epigram printed, The Servant in Livery,
and insulted the porter on the street. This led to a slashing
newspaper feud between Wergeland and Dahl. After everybody's
feelings had grown calmer, Wergeland wrote about the burlesque
occurrence in a farce entitled The Parrot, and Dahl had humor
enough, himself to publish this satirical skit.
The light from his shop. Wergeland derisively styled Dahl's store
"the first slander-shop of the city;" it was, in face, the meeting-
place of the "party of intelligence," those interested in European
culture and esthetic criticism, i.e., it was the resort of those
opposed to Wergeland.
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