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

13
Ha, you spot some earthly Miss,
Do you, in my loved-one’s features,
Think I took some earthly creature’s
Charms to make her what she is! —
Took from one the pensive forehead,
From another one that torrid
Sea of passion in the glance
My beloved one would bestow me? — — —
No, it’s not to earth I owe the
Attributes that I advance! — — —
Come, o come, my heart’s ideal!
At your side I’ll service render,
From your glance, so kind, so tender,
I shall seek cool balms to heal
The desires that so devour me,
That my day-dreams nourish hourly,
That will, never quenched it seems,
Only learn to glow discreetly
When I chance on earth to meet thee,
Spirit-bride of all my dreams! — — —
THE SOUL’S GLIMPSE OF THE SUN
O my heart is so stirred!
The same voice I have heard
That I know from my reverie-land,
When I, slumbering light
In the glimmering night,
Heard the whisper of waves on the strand!
I have seen now the gaze
That my soul-bride displays
In the fictions love weaves in my dreams!
Through the depths of my soul
Like a hurricane roll
My presentiments’ quivering streams!
And the pang of desire
My ideal set on fire
In the depths of my aspirant breast,
From a wild, blazing flame
All-devouring, became
A sweet warmth, o so calm and unstressed!