POET IBSEN

The Miner

Great Mountain, with a racket collapse
To the tightened blows that my hammer releases!
I need an underground path to open
Up to the place where your ferrous hearts
Crumble and resound to the kisses of my iron!...

From the bottom of your gloomy insides
A maginificent treasure has called me;
A magnificent treasure where pearls and diamonds
Shine in purple branches of gold!

Peace, eternal rest reign in the throne of your breast!
Come, hammer! Come and open up a trail
Up to the very last, deepest heart of the mountain!..

Happy child, I lived in another time
Under the sky clear with stars,
And I wandered through the blooming lanes,
Sweet owner of the soul'd peaceful joy,..

I forgot after the bright days in the mine;
In the mine darker than the night...
I forgot, in my gloomy labyrinth,
Even the weeping of the sad trees on the coast...

Ah! When he comes down for the first time,
I believed, with my candid young soul
That the Geniuses of the earth would explain to me
The mysterious enigma of life...

And up to now, no Gnius has taughnt me
What my innocence yearned so much;
No ray has yet penetrated
Yo bathe those drak places with white luminescence...