I recently came a cross a Norwegian poet who I must get to know better. I visited Norway once when I was 16, I went with my cousins and had a most memorable holiday travelling around Scandinavia but the country which made the greatest impression was Norway.
I remember friendly handsome people, stunningly blue skies, a sculpture park, a sweet brown cheese, narrow shadowed mountain roads, the sun twinkling off water, happy times, happy times… I would love to visit again even though I’m sure that my memories are seen through the pinkest of pink rose-coloured spectacles!
The poet I came across, which no doubt many people will know and be surprised that I ( a poetry lover) haven’t come across him before is Olav H. Hauge. He was born in 1908 and died peacefully in 1994; he sounds an amazingly self-sufficient man, living off what he produced as a farmer and gardener. You can find out more about him on this interesting page which has some wonderful photographs to accompany the article and poems.
http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=PoemArticle&PoemArticleID=78
I loved this poem,translated by Robin Fulton, and it had many resonances to me, echoing thoughts I have had while studying the Dhammapada:
Your Way
No-one has marked out the road
you are to take
out in the unknown
out in the blue.This is your road.
Only you
will take it. And there’s no
turning back.And you haven’t marked your road
either.
And the wind smooths out your tracks
on desolate hills.
Lois Elsden 
hmm, cannot aappreciate him in translated form… but brunost tastes just as great all over the world! 🙂
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Perhaps I should learn Norwegian! Thanks for reminding me of the name of the cheese… for some reason I thought it began with ‘f’! I certainly did like it though!
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hmmm… cannot think of a word for it in f… common names are brunost (general term), Gudbrandsdalsost, Geitost… OH: Fløytemysost!! That’s in F. That’s a very mild variant of it. 🙂
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Ooh, that sounds nice… I did find quite strong in flavour and I was taken aback by it being sweet, so maybe I should accustom myself to it with something milder and work my way up to brunost!
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Lois, thank you for the link to Hauge’s poetry. I really enjoyed it. I can find it difficult to get into poetry, but he really resonated with me. He sounded like the sort of guy you would love to sit by the fire with, have a cup of tea and smoke a pipe!!!
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Doesn’t he just!
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