Tuesday 26 April 2016

A Norwegian classic 'Pigen paa Anatomikammeret' (1836) by Henrik Wergeland

Pigen paa Anatomikammeret

– – Jo det er Hende! O lys hid!
Og slip ei Kniven end paaglid
       i denne Armes Hjerte!
O, der er rædsom Vittighed
i Lampens Blik, som stirrer ned
       paa denne døde Smerte.

Saa kold, dengang den aanded, saae
den stolte Verden jo derpaa?
       Og frække Øine skar
det Slør igjennem tidligt, som
den stakkels Piges Fattigdom
       af gyldne Drømme bar.

Som Blomst i Isen frossen ind
jeg seer et Træk paa denne Kind,
       som vel jeg bør at kjende.
Thi Fryden i min Barndomsleeg,
før altfor høit min Skulder steeg,
       – o var den ikke Hende.

Tversover boed’ hun for os,
i Armod født, som i sit Mos
       paa Taget Stedmorsblommen.
Fornemme Folk kun fatted’ svært,
at Blod saa fagert og saa skjært
       af Fattigfolk var kommen.

Ak, mangt sligt Aasyn dog jeg saae
som Maanedsrosens Pragt forgaae,
       som Sommerfuglestøvet!
Dem Skjebnens Haand for haardt vel tog,
og Syndens Spor dem overjog
       som Sneglens Sliim paa Løvet.


The girl in the dissection room

– – Yes, it is her! Oh light here, quick!
Let not the knife yet even flick
       across this poor girl’s heart!
Oh, what cruel irony does glow
in this lamp’s gaze that stares down so
       on dead pain set apart.

So cold, yet when it breathed did not
the proud world gaze at it a lot?
       And bold eyes soon sliced through
the veil of golden dreams that she
the poor girl against poverty
       wore when as child she grew.

Like flower frozen in the ice
this cheek bears traits that in a trice
       should be well-known to me.
For childhood games that brought me joy,
before I was no longer boy,
       – Oh surely it was she.

She lived just opposite from us,
of humble birth, like in its moss
       the roof’s heartsease could thrive.
Fine folk could hardly contemplate
that blood so fair and delicate
       from paupers could derive.

Ah, many a face as this saw I
like monthly rose’s splendour die,
       as butterfly-dust brief!
Fate’s hand too firmly must have grasped,
and sin’s trace to such lives have clasped
       like snail’s slime on the leaf.


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