Dorothea Engelbretsdatter: 'Aftensalme'

 

AFTENSALME (1678)

 

Dagen viker og går bort,

luften bliver tykk og sort,

solen alt har dalet platt,

det går ad den mørke natt.

 

Tiden sakte lister seg,

glasset rinner hastelig,

døden oss i hælen går,

evigheten forestår.

 

 

EVENING HYMN

 

Day is slowly on the wane

Thick and dark air’s spreading stain,

Sun’s descent has doused its light,

Dusk now deepens into night.

 

Time on tiptoe slips away

Hour-glass sands brook no delay

death is at our heels, intent,

life eternal’s imminent.

 

 

And here a free translation by the Dutch-language poet Anton van Duinkerken

 

AANDACHTIG LIED (1930)

 

Vrij naar Dorothea Engelbretsdatter (1635-1716).

 

Straks is de dag voorbij,

sluiers van zwarte zij

hullen de wereld zacht

in deze nieuwe nacht.

 

De tijd is lopensmoe,

het stilstaand uurglas zegt ons, hoe

de dood ons op de hielen gaat

en 't eeuwig leven openstaat.

 

Comments: AvD has chosen a six-syllable line, instead of seven, but changes to an eight-syllable line for the last three lines (this sort of shift is typical of his own poetry). He introduces ‘veils’ in line 2, where the original only speaks of ‘air’. He stays pretty close to the Norwegian except in line 6, where he says that the hour-glass is motionless, e.g. the sand has run through. The original contrasts time’s slow advance in line 5 with the swiftness with which sand runs down the glass.