LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,200)
  • Text Authors (19,687)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,115)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Arne Garborg (1851 - 1924)

Elsk
Language: Norwegian (Nynorsk) 
Our translations:  CAT FRE GER
Den galne Guten min Hug hev daara;
eg fanga sìt som ein Fugl i Snòra;
den galne Guten, han gjeng so baus;
han veit at Fuglen vil aldri laus.

Aa gjev du batt meg med Bast og Bende;
aa gjev du batt meg so Bandi brende!
Aa gjev du drog meg so fast til deg,
at heile Verdi kom burt for meg!

[Ja kunde rett eg mi Runelekse]1,
eg vilde inn i den Guten vekse;
eg vilde vekse meg i deg inn,
og vera berre [hjaa]2 Guten min.

             *

Aa du som bur meg i Hjarta inne,
du Magti fekk [yvi]3 alt mitt Minne;
kvart vesle Hùgsvìv som framum dreg,
det berre kviskrar um deg, um deg.

Um Soli lyser paa Himlen blanke,
no ser ho deg, det er all min Tanke;
um Dagen dovnar og Skùming fell:
skal tru han tenkjer paa meg i Kveld?

Um Vinden strid yvi Heidi susar,
det gule Haare ditt visst han krusar;
um Regne dryp med sin døyvde Graat,
so stakars Guten, no vert du vaat.

Aa berre Timane vilde skride,
og berre Dagane vilde lide!
Men eg vil kveda og vera glad;
for um Sundag kjem han, trala, trala!

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   E. Grieg 

E. Grieg sets stanzas 1-5
C. Elling sets stanzas 1-3

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Elling, Grieg: "Ja kund' eg trolla og kund' eg heksa"
2 Grieg: "hos"
3 Grieg: "yver"

Modernized spelling of first three stanzas:

Den galne guten min hug hev dåra,
eg fangen sit som ein fugl i snåra;
den galne guten, han gjeng so baus;
han veit, at fuglen vil aldri laus.

Å gjev du batt meg med bast og bende,
å gjev du batt meg so bandi brende!
Å gjev du drog meg so fast til deg,
at heile verdi kom burt for meg!

Ja kund’ eg trolla og kund eg heksa,
eg vilde inn i den guten veksa;
eg vilde veksa meg i deg inn
og vera berre hjå guten min.


Text Authorship:

  • by Arne Garborg (1851 - 1924), "Elsk", appears in Haugtussa, in 9. Sumar i Fjelle, no. 9 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Catharinus Elling (1858 - 1942), "Elsk", op. 52 no. 1, published 1896, stanzas 1-3 [ voice and piano ], from Sex Digte af Arne Garborg's Haugtussa = Sechs Gedichte aus A. Garborg's Haugtussa, no. 1, Leipzig, W. Hansen, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907), "Elsk", op. 67 no. 5 (1895), published 1898, stanzas 1-5 [ voice and piano ], from Haugtussa, no. 5, Copenhagen [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Eugen von Enzberg (1858 - 1908) ; composed by Catharinus Elling.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Manuel Capdevila i Font) , "Amor", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Amour", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Liebe", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 29
Word count: 201

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris