Love

They Have Found Each Other

by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1832–1910

Translated by Arthur Hubbell Palmer (1915) · From Poems and Songs (1870; Palmer 1915)

Love

Mute they wander,
Meeting yonder,
In the wondrous Spring new-born,
That though old as Time's first morn,
Brings fresh youth to all the living,
Now held fast, now far retreating,
But through hearts in oneness beating
Ever fullest bloom is giving.
Mute they wander. E'en the eye
Speaks no thought. For from on high
To their souls sweet strains have spoken
From the wide world's harmony,
Born of light, the darkness broken,
In the dawn of things to be.
Power crowned--
Earth around
Like a sun-song rolled the sound.
Mute they wander. Sweet strains ending--
Eye nor tongue dares yet the lending
Speech to thought.
But lo! quick blending,
All things speak! They sound and shimmer,
Bloom in fragrance, ring and glimmer,
Tint and tone combining, nearer,
Meet as one-with all their thinking
In one beauty, higher, clearer,--
Heaven itself to earth is sinking.

But in this great hour of trysting
Life is opened, its course brightened,
Growth eternal calls, enlisting
Every spirit-power heightened.

✦ ✦ ✦

From the drama The King (third interlude)

MLA

Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne. “They Have Found Each Other.” Translated by Arthur Hubbell Palmer. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/bjornson/110/.

Chicago

Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne. “They Have Found Each Other.” Translated by Arthur Hubbell Palmer. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/bjornson/110/.

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