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

177
He waved his sou’wester and sprang aboard
Then hoisting the jib he left the fjord
For home, the old eagle, in sun.
In Fjære churchyard I saw a grave
That lay in a weathered spot;
Unkempt, it was shallow, decrepit, save
For the headboard that marked the plot.
It read “Thærie Wiighen” in white, the year
He went to his rest shown too.
He lay to the winds and the suns that sear,
So stiff and tough was the grass growing near,
But wild flowers were showing through.
Henr. Ibsen
Terje Vigen written probably during 1861. The English blockade of Norway was undertaken
because Denmark/Norway had agreed with France and Russia to close its ports against
English commerce. Skagan, Fladstrand, on the northern tip of Denmark. Prisoners such as
Terje Vigen were kept on hulks at Chatham; Lyngør, a harbour north of Grimstad where in
1814 British ships sank Norway’s last frigate. Fjære, Terje Vigen’s reputed burial spot, is
near Grimstad.
EPILOGUE AT MR BUCHER’S BENEFIT APPEARANCE
IN THE NORWEGIAN THEATRE
(14 th January 1861)
I made my first appearance
A stranger here, and new,
By fjord and fell divided
From home, from kinfolk too.
Hence I approached faint-hearted
The narrow strip of stage,
For shrewd eyes were observing
The unknown’s pupilage.
The space here was restricted
And low beneath the roof,
And thought, when it went groping,
Met many a sharp reproof;
But out of the shrewd eyes watching
Beamed a kindness, bright and clear;
No longer as a stranger
The stranger now stood here.
Here friendship’s hands were proffered,
A compact nought can harm,
I grew as much at home here
As on my mother’s farm —
I felt then my youthful powers! —
I would, nay I must succeed!
My new-found home’s advancement