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Henrik Ibsen

(1828-1906)

With a water-lily

See, dear, what thy lover brings;

‘Tis the flower with the white wings.

Buoyed upon the quiet stream

In the spring it lay adream.

Homelike to bestow this guest,

Lodge it, dear one, in thy breast;

There its leaves the secret keep

Of a wave both still and deep.

Child, beware the tarn-fed stream;

Danger, danger, there to dream!

Though the sprite pretends to sleep,

And above the lilies peep.

Child, thy bosom is the stream;

Danger, danger, there to dream!

Though above the lilies peep,

And the sprite pretends to sleep.

(Translation by Fydell Edmund Garrett and reprinted from the Westminster Gazette of May 6, 1903)

Henrik Ibsen poetry

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