The wisdom Thou gavest
Wearies me with guesswork.

The light Thou hast dealt me
Leads me to darkness.

Not me alone, moreover,

But millions and millions!

Space unending spans not all the questions From earth here and up toward heaven.

Weakness cowers in walls of cloisters,
But wills of power press onward,
And thronging, with longing,

They thrust one another out of the lands.

Whither? Before their eyes is night, "In Nazareth a light is set!" one says aloud, A hundred thousand say it;

All see it now: To Nazareth!

But the half-part perish from hunger by the wayside,

The other half by the sword of the heathen, The pest awaits the pilgrim in Nazareth,— Wast Thou there, or wast Thou not there?

Oh, where art Thou?

The whole world now awakens,
And on the way is searching

And seeking after Thee!

Or wast Thou in the hunger?

Wast Thou in the pest?

Wast Thou in the sword of the heathen?

Saltest Thou with the salt of wrath?

Refinest Thou with suffering's fire?

Hast Thou millions of millions hidden in Thy future,

Whom Thou thus wilt save to freedom?

Oh, to them are the thousands that now suffer

But one,

And that one I would beseech Thee for-
Nothing!

I follow a little brook

And find it leads to an ocean,

I see here a little drop,

And swelling in mist it mounts a mighty cloud.

See, how I'm tossed so will-less

By troublous waves of doubt,

The wind overturned my little boat,

The wreck is all my refuge.

Lead me, lead me,

I see nowhere land!

Lift me, lift me,

I nowhere footing find!

MAGNUS THE BLIND

(FROM SIGURD SLEMBE)

“Он, let me look once again and see
Starlight the heavens o'ersweeping!"
Begged young Magnus on bended knee,
It was sore to see.

All the women afar were weeping.

"Oh, till to-morrow! The mountains to see And ocean its blue displaying,

Only once, and then let it be!”

Thus he bent the knee,

While his friends for mercy were praying.

"Oh, in the church let God's blood so bright Be the last blessing that greets me!

It shall bathe with a flood of light
Through eternal night

My eyes, when the darkness meets me!"

Deep sank the steel, and each seeing eye Lightning-like night had swallowed. "Magnus, King Magnus, good-by, good-by!" -"Oh, good-by, good-by,

You who eighteen summers me followed!"

SIN, DEATH

(FROM SIGURD SLEMBE)

SIN and Death, those sisters two,
Two, two,

Sat together while dawned the morning.
Sister, marry! Your house will do,
Do, do,

For me, too, was Death's warning.

Sin was wedded, and Death was pleased,
Pleased, pleased,

Danced about them the day they married;
Night came on, she the bridegroom seized,
Seized, seized,

And away with her carried.

Sin soon wakened alone to weep,
Weep, weep.

Death sat near in the dawn of morning:
Him you love, I love too and keep,
Keep, keep.

He is here, was Death's warning.

FRIDA, I knew that thy life-years were counted.

If but before thee a lifting thought mounted,

Upward thy gaze turned all wistful to view it,
As wouldst thou pursue it.

Eyes that so clear saw the wonderful vision
Looked far away beyond earth's indecision.
Snow-white unfolded the pinions that later
Bore thee to the greater.

Speaking or asking thou broughtest me sorrow;
Eyes thine and words thine seemed wanting to borrow
Clearness more pure and thoughts, victory gaining

Beyond my attaining.

When thou wert dancing in all a child's lightness,
Shaking thy locks like a fountain in brightness,
Laughing till heaven was opened in gladness
Over thy gladness,—

Or when affliction in sternness had spoken,
So that thy heart in that moment seemed broken,
Far from thy thoughts in thy suffering riven
Were both earth and heaven,-

Then, oh, I saw then: thy joy and thy grieving
Ever the bounds of the mortal were cleaving.
All seems so little where silent we ponder,-
But room they have yonder.