the top of the hill

Frans Hogenberg's 1570 view of Stockholm from the heights of Söder.

[Image source: http://www.wikiwand.com/sv/Panoramabilder_%C3%B6ver_Stockholm_fr%C3%A5n_Katarinaberget]

AT THE WAY'S END


Wisdom for you comes first
when you make it in the evening cool
to the summit top, which oversees the earth.
Sovereign, turn at the way's end,
rest there for a moment and look back!
All is explained and all is atoned,
far off the land of your youth glimmers once more
quick with light and the morning dew.

VID VÄGENS SLUT.

Vis, o människa, det blir du först,

när du hinner till de aftonsvala

höjders topp, där jorden överskådas.

Konung, vänd dig om vid vägens slut,

vila där en stund och se tillbaka!

Allt förklaras där och allt försonas,

och din ungdoms riken hägra åter,

strödda än med ljus och morgondagg.

AT THE END OF THE ROAD


Not till thou comest to the mountain's crest,
At cool of eve, with Earth spread wide below thee --
Not till then, O Man, shalt thou get wisdom.
Tarry there an hour and gaze behind thee !
Turn thee round, O King, where the road ends:
All is made clear, all issues reconciled.
There once more thy youth's bright kingdom glimmers,
Bathed afresh in light and morning's dew.




(Translation by C. D. Locock)






From the collection Nya dikter (1915). Von Heidenstam was awarded the Nobel Prize in the following year.




Article on Verner von Heidenstam by Charles Wharton Stork in The Nation, November 30th, 1916.


http://www.unz.org/Pub/Nation-1916nov30-00509?View=PDF






Swedish Poems website (good source for e.g. Dan Andersson and Edith Södergran, but currently there are only two poems by Verner von Heidenstam...)


http://svenskadikter.com/