Det første Mødes Sødme,
det er som Sang i Skoven,
det er som Sang paa Voven
i Solens sidste Rødme, --
det er som Horn i Uren
de tonende Sekunder,
hvori vi med Naturen
forenes i et Under.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
Confirmed with Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne. Fortællinger, Jubilæumsudgave, Fortællingerne og Digteren af Moltke Moe, Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, Kristiania, København : 1907 p. 329.

Alternate version (note the spelling), from Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne. Samlede Værker, Mindeutgave, Første bind, Kristiania og Kjøbenhavn, Gyldendalske Boghandel Nordisk Forlag, 1910, p. 80:

Det første møtes sødme,
det er som sang i skogen,
det er som sang på vågen
i solens siste rødme, --
det er som horn i uren,
de tonende sekunder,
hvori vi med naturen
forenes i et under.

Note: The scores consulted for Grieg and White employ spellings from both versions (in White's, the nouns are capitalized as above). Here is the text:

Det første mødes sødme,
det er som sang i skogen,
det er som sang på vågen
i solens sidste rødme, --
det er som horn i uren
de tonende sekunder,
hvori vi med naturen
forenes [i et]1 under.

¹ White: "Inett" [sic]

Authorship

• by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832 - 1910), no title, appears in Fiskerjenten [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 Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907), "Det første Møde", op. 21 (Fire Dikt fra Fiskerjenten) no. 1 (1870), published 1873, see the footnotes section above [sung text checked 1 time]
• by (Johan Gustaf) Emil Sjögren (1853 - 1918), "Det förste Möde Södme", op. 1 (Fyra dikter af Ibsen och Björnson) no. 3 (1873?6) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "Det første mødes sødme", published 1888? [ voice and piano ], from New Albums of Songs with German and English Words, Volume 1, no. 4, London: Pitt & Hatzfeld ; see the footnotes section above, also set in English [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in English, a translation by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937) , "Love's first awak'ning sweetness" ; composed by Maude Valérie White.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• ENG English (Nigel Parker) , "The sweetness of a first meeting", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "La première rencontre", copyright © 2012, (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: 8
Word count: 37

The sweetness of a first meeting,
It's a song from the forest,
It's a song from the harbour
in the last ray of sundown,
It's a horn call from the mountainside
for those echoing seconds
when we and Nature
are united in wonder.