The English version of "Vaar-von" as translated by Finn Tømmerberg. 

 

Hopes of Spring

(Per Sivle, tr. Finn Tømmerberg)

At close of day in a thoughtful mood
- So far and wide the migrant birds fly -,
I strolled through the forest in solitude.
The evening weather was lovely and dry,
Clear skies were arching above - and how
The springtime was laughing from every bough:
   "Oh Per, oh Per,
   Oh hey! Hello! and are you now there!
   Why aren't you happy this very night,
   And why can't you feel that life is all right?"

And all the new flowers and grass so green
I saw wherever I walked around,
They cleared themselves space everywhere between
The leaves of last year lying on the ground;
They peeped and they nodded. - I thought, you see,
It was as if they would whisper to me:
   "Oh Per, oh Per,
   Look here! Look here! — and are you now there!
   Why aren't you happy this very night,
   And why can't you feel that life is all right?"

While breezes were blowing occasionally,
The setting sun gleamed red in the west.
And cuckoo and thrush called so wonderfully,
While rising skylarks their gladness expressed.
And as I was wandering there, I must tell,
I thought I discerned what they all meant so well:
   "Now Per, now Per,
   Cuck-oo! Tu-whit! Chirpy cheep! - are you there!
   Why aren't you happy this very night,
   And why can't you feel that life is all right?"

And then I unburdened my heart so sore
Of all dark thoughts of death and decay.
I breathed the enlivening air once more,
And drank to all life that is living today.
I nodded to leaf and to flower and bird,
I sang so the echoes in woodlands were heard.
   "That Per, that Per,
   Oh hey! Hooray! Tra-la-la! - he is here!
   And now he is happy this very night,
   After all he can feel that life is all right!"