cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

MEMORY OF LEAVE-TAKING
(At O. Schulerud's departure.)
When ways part and friends walk separated in the tumult of life, we gaze so gladly
towards the bright blue heaven of memory.
The memories of bygone days shine there like friendly little stars, time's veiling clouds
are not able to dim that light so fair.
Yet among those friendly little stars our eye searches so gladly for one; it twinkles in
mournfully shimmering gleam and still is our most precious star!
Its name is melancholy; since in leave-taking's hour we mention it, spoken seriously, yet
gently from the blue background it illuminates each of our treasured memories of
friendship!
AUTUMN EVENING
See, it is growing dark, the rain strikes pattering against the windowpane, mingling with
the howling of the wind, while across the sky pass cloud-shapes, like spirits from death's
silent kingdom; amid the rumble of distant thunder they come, they go, and disappear,
like the memory of the newly beloved in a faithful maiden's breast.
I sit close by the stove, gazing engrossed into the fire, which only half lights the room; but
it is a world for me, where in the coals' dark fissures my dream's airy figures build
themselves a fire-palace (the equal is not easy to find; since within its halls I can see
maidenly fidelity!).
Ah, what scenery is there! Is it then my childhood's vanished days, bound to my heart,
which appear again here? Or (I wish it were so!) is the veil in front of that vague
distance, in a wild confused haste, drawn fluttering aside, does Skulda 20 beckon with her
gentle or ominous smile?
Nevertheless, I am awakened from my dream to cold reality; the rain is still falling in a
stream, my palace is toppled down. Oh, how sad it is and desolate, such a moment can
give birth to dejection, can bring the heart, anxiously, really to feel what it lacks:
company? No, that is of little profit for a mind disposed to dejection!
20 One of the Norns (goddesses of fate) of Norse mythology.`
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