Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/104

This page needs to be proofread.

ting with crazy wenches:-

lies and accursed stuff!
[Gazes long upwards.]
Yonder sail two brown eagles.
Southward the wild geese fly.
And here I must splash and stumble
in quagmire and filth knee-deep!
[Springs up.]
I'll fly too! I will wash myself clean in
the bath of the keenest winds!
I'll fly high! I will plunge myself fair in
the glorious christening-font!
I will soar far over the saeter;
I will ride myself pure of soul;
I will forth o'er the salt sea waters,
and high over Engelland's prince!
Ay, gaze as ye may, young maidens;
my ride is for none of you;
you're wasting your time in waiting-!
Yet maybe I'll swoop down, too.-
What has come of the two brown eagles-?
They've vanished, the devil knows where!-
There's the peak of a gable rising;
it's soaring on every hand:
it's growing from out the ruins;-
see, the gateway is standing wide!
Ha-ha, yonder house, I know it;
it's grandfather's new-built farm!
Gone are the clouts from the windows;
the crazy old fence is gone.
The lights gleam from every casement;
there's a feast in the hall to-night.
There, that was the provost clinking
the back of his knife on his glass;-
there's the captain flinging his bottle,
and shivering the mirror to bits.-