Customer Reviews

The Dream We Carry: Selected and Last Poems of Olav Hauge (Norwegian Edition)

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These poems are small gems in the style of the Japanese and Chinese masters, written by a Norwegian farmer-poet with a clear eye, a musical ear, and deep feeling. This lovely bilingual edition (Norwegian/English) is fun even if you don't know more than how to pronounce the Norwegian since you can get a sense of the poet's careful use of sound that's always lost in translation. If I were to assemble a "catechism for writers", some of these poems would be right up front. Try this one:

Don't come to me with the entire truth.
Don't bring the ocean if I feel thirsty,
nor heaven if I ask for light;
but bring a hint, some dew, a particle,
as birds carry drops away from a lake,
and the wind a grain of salt.

I am indebted to Robert Bly for introducing me to Hauge through his anthology "The Winged Energy of Delight." From there, I purchased two collections of Hauge's poems: this one translated by Bly and Robert Hedin, and a larger compilation translated by Robin Fulton. The translations by Bly and Hedin, presented along with the original Norwegian, might be of particular value to scholars, or perhaps qualify as more precise literal translations, but Fulton's translations are poems in their own right. I have learned many of them by heart and recite them with much delight. I sense Hauge's voice in Fulton's offerings, as well as Hauge's love of the Chinese poets. The translations by Bly and Hedin don't speak so vividly to me. You might have a different preference.

Unfortunately, neither of the publishers of these volumes opted to use Amazon's Look Inside feature, so you can't readily sample their two different styles. A few poems are included in both collections, including this short, light-hearted one. I copied both versions here to serve as an example of the different flavors offered by these translators. Choose the flavor that you prefer.


New Tablecloth
[tr. Robert Hedin]

A new tablecloth, yellow!
And fresh white paper!
Words will have to arrive,
because the cloth is so fine
and the paper so delicate!
When ice forms on the fjord, we know
birds do come and land on it.


New Table-Cloth
[tr. Robin Fulton]
New yellow cloth on the table.
And clean white pages!
Here the words must come,
such a fine new cloth here
and such fine paper!
The ice settled on the fjord,
the birds came and alighted.

Olav Hauge (1908-1994)was a farmer and orchardist who lived his entire life in the fjord region of western Norway. He was also one of the most important Scandanavian poets of the 20th century. Robert Bly and Robert Hedin have performed a great literary service in bringing these spare, quirky, and luminous poems into English. This is a beautiful collection with poems inspired by Li Po, Emily Dickinson, even the Norwegian speed skater from the 1960s. Tim Nolan

I'm guessing that if you are considering this book the terms Deep and Dark won't be scare you off. This is a wonderful bilingual translation. My first exposure to Olav Hauge has left me wanting more.

Olav H. Hauge lived for most of his life in his native Ulvik in Western Norway, where he worked as a gardener in his own orchard. But his interests were universal. He translated the poetry of writers such as Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Trakl and Celan into Norwegian and in his own work was influenced by classical Chinese poetry. This edition is all the more excellent for being bilingual.