I read once of a flower that lonely grew, <br />Apart, with trembling stem and pale of hue; <br />The mountain-world of cold and strife <br />Gave little life <br />And less of color. <br /> <br />A botanist the flower chanced to see <br />And glad exclaimed: Oh, this must sheltered be, <br />Must seed produce, renewing birth, <br />In sun-warmed earth <br />Become a thousand. <br /> <br />But as he dug and drew it from the ground, <br />Strange glitterings upon his hands he found; <br />For to its roots clung dust of golden hue; <br />The flower grew <br />On golden treasure! <br /> <br />And from the region wide came all the youth <br />To see the wonder; they divined the truth: <br />Here lay their country's future might; <br />A ray of light <br />From God that flower!- <br /> <br />This I recall now even while I mourn; <br />The Lord of life has lifted him and borne <br />From mountain-cold and wintry air <br />To fruitage fair <br />In warmth eternal. <br /> <br />For where the roots were of that life replete, <br />What gleams and glitters! See, they ran to meet <br />The shafts of wisdom's goodly mines, <br />The gold that shines <br />In veins of God's thought. <br /> <br />Now he is lifted up, to light are brought <br />The riches he to guard so faithful sought. <br />The treasures of our past are there, <br />And glintings rare <br />Of future riches. <br /> <br />Come, Norway's youth! Unearth to use the hoard <br />That round this heaven-borne flower's roots was stored! <br />To you his message! Hear and heed! <br />Achieve in deed <br />His dream and longing!<br /><br />Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lector-thaasen/
