Grundtvig - Jeg gik mid ud en sommerdag

In the early 1840s, Grundtvig was actively involved in promoting the Danish language. King Christian had given the language official status in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, and this led to rallies being held in Jutland by Danish-minded people. This poem, along with a second one, 'Velkommen i den grønne lund', are absolute classics of the Folk High School Song Book. All Danes can - and often do - sing them. In both, Grundtvig uses a bird singing in a beech wood to symbolise the new voice that should be heard throughout Denmark, a voice linked to the values of the Folk High School and the ideals of popular education:

I walked abroad...

I walked abroad one summer’s day to hear

song of bird that through my heart might sear,
in the deep, green dales,
midst the nightingales
and each bird that now my heart regales.
 
A little bird sat in the beech-tree grove,

sweet it sang in summer’s twilight mauve,
in the leafy vales,
midst the nightingales
and each bird that now my heart regales.
 
It sang so sweet of meadows lush and low,

where like grass forgetmenots do grow.
 
It sang so sweet of waves both blue and white

out at sea where Danish vessels glide,

It sang of everything one fain would hear,
most of all what through the heart can sear,
 
It sang as no bird else has ever sung,

played so grandly with my mother tongue,

It sang as if my heart itself did speak,

pain and joy were notes from its small beak,
 
And then I murmured in the twilight mauve:
Fly, Gold Crest! fly round your beech-tree grove,
 
Oh, fly from north to south, from west to east,

sing at Danish school, church, dance and feast,
 
In common Danish, in our mother tongue,

sing aloud like no bird else has sung,
 
Then all who hold their mothers dear will know

Denmark is a place where hearts can grow,

Then all will gleam that’s lit up by the sun,

like red gold upon our mother tongue,

in the deep, green dales,
midst the nightingales
and each bird that now my heart regales.

For both poems in parallel text versions, go to here and here.
To see what Klaus Høeck does with the song in his collection 'In Nomine', go to here