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

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of your substance, rich and free,
to the form the folk’s eye yearning
seeks for its own poesy;
that is living —
myth-begetting,
fairy-like in presentation,
one with current aspiration,
one with current needs and setting, —
and behold the praise you’re getting
while still living.
In an age that’s starved for charm
I was soothed to be observer
of your passage in full fervour
to fair winds, the sun’s bright balm, —
soothed to gaze upon the calm
where in night’s cool-shining glory
saga wove your journey’s story.
For the vision granted me,
hear my grateful prophecy.
You shall live for generations
wondrous, merged with Denmark’s reaches, —
with a night, the Sound’s tall beeches
under Memory’s constellations.
Johanne Louise Heiberg, widow of J. L. Heiberg — the “sage” — had had a distinguished
career as actress, producer and director at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. The letter was
prompted by the great success, shortly before, of her production of ‘The Pretenders’. Her
house, Rosenvænget, where Ibsen had visited her the previous year, stood on the Øresund.
Geronimus and Magdelena are middle-aged characters from Holberg’s comedies. Felucca, a
small Mediterranean two-master.
THANKS
Her distress showed when sorrows
impeded my way, —
her delight was the morrow’s
creative display.
Her home is far yonder,
on freedom’s high seas,
where poet-craft wander
sea-mirrored, at ease.
Her kin, my creations
whose varying throng
in bannered formations
stride forth in my song.