Kai Hoffmann: 'Den Danske Sang' (1924)

 

Den Danske Sang

 

Den danske sang er en ung, blond pige,

hun går og nynner i Danmarks hus,

hun er et barn af det havblå rige,

hvor bøge lytter til bølgers brus.

Den danske sang, når den dybest klinger,

har klang af klokke, af sværd og skjold;

imod os bruser på brede vinger

en sagatone fra hedenold.

 

Al Sjællands ynde og Jyllands vælde,

de tvende klange af blidt og hårdt,

skal sangen rumme for ret at melde

om, hvad der inderst er os og vort.

Og tider skifter, og sæder mildnes,

men kunst og kamp kræver stadig stål:

det alterbål, hvor vor sjæl skal ildnes,

det flammer hedest i Bjarkemål.

 

Så syng da, Danmark, lad hjærtet tale!

thi hjærtesproget er vers og sang,

og lære kan vi af nattergale,

af lærken over den grønne vang.

Og blæsten suser sin vilde vise,

og stranden drøner sit højtidskvad;

fra hedens lyng som fra stadens flise

skal sangen løfte sig ung og glad.

 

 

The Danes’ true song

 

The Danes’ true song is a young blond maiden

who hums contented in Denmark’s land,

a child is she of the sea-blue kingdom

where beech trees listen as waves meet strand.

The Danes’ true song, when it’s deepest ringing,

with sounds of bells, sword and shield will soar;

the strains of sagas towards us winging

that tell of Denmark in days of yore.

 

All Zealand’s charm, Jutland’s strong dominion,

the mild and hard in the same refrain,

must both be sung should our real opinion

of us and ours be made clear and plain.

And customs mellow with time’s rephrasing,

but art and battle for steel still call:

the altar fire where our soul’s set blazing

burns at its brightest in Bjarkemål.

 

So Denmark, sing, let the heart speak freely!

for heart’s true language is verse and song,

from nightingales we can learn this clearly,

from larks o’er meadows with call so strong.

And wind’s wild ballad breaks loose its tether,

the mighty lay of the waves is sung;

from city pavement and moorland heather

the song shall rise up, both glad and young.

 

Kai Hoffmann (text 1924), Carl Nielsen (music 1926)

 

 

I doubt if many Danes have any idea of what Bjarkemål is. It is a modern Danish/Norwegian spelling of Bjarkamál, an Old Norse poem from around the year 1000. The main reason it is referred to is perhaps that King Olav had the poem recited to rouse his outnumbered army the morning before an important battle. In this song there is, then, a call to mental battle reminiscent of the call made in Denmark after their great territorial losses of 1864 to the Prussians, and made topical by the recovery of Danish territory in Southern Jutland in 1922. The famous quotation ‘For every loss a replacement is to be found, what is outwardly lost must be inwardly won’ made in that context comes from the Danish writer J.P. Holst. The British equivalent is when people sing ‘I shall not cease from mental strife’ at the last night of the Proms.

 

For further information about Bjarkamál (= the beserker’s call), go to here.