THE COLLECTED POEMS OF HENRIK IBSEN Translated by John ...

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But one that craves the word’s strong-winged oration
To celebrate, full-voiced, the whole land’s cheer.
It signifies our love, the hope that’s ours,
Our faith in intellect’s baptismal powers
That have inspired you to your lofty mission.
And how Time’s dice that dictate our condition
May yet fall out — we sense, we know full surely:
On you North’s brotherhood can rest securely!
Our greeting, Prince! For you have comprehended
The times’ demands, the people’s heartfelt needs,
In you a crop of gold may be portended,
A ripened harvest from your forebears’ seeds.
Hence this our joy in you as one that leads,
To you a manly spirit has descended, —
Should duty summon you to martial deeds,
The sword you have will prove not vainly tended!
You clearly comprehend the North’s prime vision,
The spirit wherein lies our noblest life,
The bloom whence we derive our future seeding!
And boldly, as a man protects his wife,
You will o’ersee the fair vine’s supervision
And to triumphant ripeness tend its breeding.
Though as you scale your lofty destination
There’s many a crisis that’s to be expected,
Yet shall your strength of will not grow dejected, —
For one day you shall reap rich compensation;
Reward more apt than stone’s cold ostentation, —
The tree of Memory, that thrives protected
Within the folk’s breast, freshly recollected,
Its golden crop stamped with your reputation.
Accept, then Prince, as the whole people’s greeting
The welcome here expounded at this meeting,
Which we make bold to lay before you here.
Our best of thoughts go with you, ever-loyal,
Heir to a king’s estate right truly royal,
The North’s united thrones, its love sincere!
The Viceroy was, in 1856, the Crown Prince Charles, son of the then ailing King Oscar, ruler
of the joint kingdom of Sweden-Norway. Oscar himself had visited Norway as Viceroy.
Prince Charles succeeded him as Charles XV.