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

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A chuckle from the priest, then, like a laughter
that died away before it reached the lips;
a hint on his fine mouth of scornful quips
as he took up the argument thereafter:
“O yes, this folk’s a double personage!
A race of heroes when the toasts are ringing,
when songs and speeches free the spirit’s winging
and thought goes flying from its work-day cage.
“It is a folk of memories that are peerless;
it is a folk so mighty, once, and strong;
it is a folk of men and women fearless —
when the bard has been commissioned for a song.
It is a folk so stout, so undismayed;
it is a folk defies an eastward nation;
it is a folk that southward stands arrayed —
in speeches uttered at the celebration.
“It is a folk where everyone’s so great
that all the world can learn by emulation
each noble trait deserving veneration, —
as someone wrote once, truth’s own advocate.
A folk convinced it’s no more than its due
to lead the world from rock-bound isolation,
that while the time’s soul flagged, its stature grew; —
such is our folk — in its own estimation.
“But when it’s time to dress for storms and hazards,
to hush the talk for action truly brave,
when it’s a case of wielding sword, not stave,
of left thighs wearing only emptied scabbards —
what is this folk — men, women it relies on?
A folk that has a flaw for every strength;
a folk that’s made itself so small at length
it almost sinks beneath its own horizon.
“The man then draws aside, the woman screeches;
the ear’s then stopped to all demand, each call;
we style ourselves the poor folk by the beaches,
with, God be praised, God’s penny mark, that’s all.
What’s our concern when mighty powers wrestle?
What can it count for there, the hill-folk’s mite?
Its task has been assigned it, wrong or right:
to steer the plough-share and to sail its vessel.
“For what can we do if the foe advances?
It is for others to make sacrifice.
It was for show, mere visionary fancies,
that Norway’s flag was slashed with tongued device.
No, Great-World-Power cheeks can do the glowing