Hear us, O age-laden singer! <br />Streams of your tones are returning, <br />Touching your heart! <br />Spirit of youth is their bringer, <br />Under your window with yearning <br />Called by your art. <br />Now our soul's echoes abounding <br />Soar in the blue, <br />In the sun-shimmering blue, <br />High where your silvery song-notes are sounding. <br /> <br />Smile on your labor now lightened, <br />You who in winter perfected <br />Seeds to be sown! <br />All that your courage has brightened, <br />All that your pity protected, <br />Now it is grown; <br />Over your shoulders upswinging, <br />Folds round your frame, <br />Bringing in roses your name, <br />Joyous the sprite of your poetry bringing. <br /> <br />Onward our life is now marching, <br />Banner-like high thoughts are flying, <br />Lifted to view. <br />One 'mid the foremost o'erarching <br />Leads where the pathway is lying,- <br />It came from you! <br />Runes of our past with their warning <br />Carved on its shaft, <br />Show us the spring you have quaffed, <br />Leading our land to the light of the morning.<br /><br />Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/norwegian-students-greeting-with-a-procession-to-professor-welhaven/
