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  • Rødstrupe (Erithacus Dandalus rubecula)
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Rødstrupe (Erithacus Dandalus rubecula)

Arne Ruste

Gulsanger,
hagesanger, måltrost,
sangvinske svarttrost, spraglete
stær og fluesnapperen; et kor,
en fortumlet polyfoni,
temmelig fortersket, sant å si,
det pubertale bruset I sansene,
mens vi venter på gjøken
midt i onnestria,
og sporadisk lytter
etter rugestillheten

Men plutselig, en lett
rørelse, en nett bevegelse
under busk og kratt,
forstiktige
flytt fra gren til kvist til spadeskaft
til mosesten,
på saktmodig fot,
på varlig vinge

Og så er det robin,
rødstrupen, som er vendt
tilbake
og forflytter lydløst
fra gren til gren
sitt vinrøde flagg, et løv
fra i fjor, løftet omkring
av vindblaff, et modig hjerte
i sherryfarget bryst, og som
prikler ut usynlig stakitt,
ringer inn sitt rom
av stillhet.

Vite, plutselig,
det var dette, bare
dette vi ventet på


Arne Ruste

from Indre krets (Tiden Norsk Forlag, 1999)

Reproduced by permission of the author and translator.

Tags:

birds Norwegian Translations

Translations of this Poem

Robin (Erithacus Dandalus rubecula)

Translator: Kenneth Steven


Goldcrest,
garden warbler, song thrush,
bright-hearted mavis, piebald
starling and flycatcher; a choir,
a tumbled-together polyphony,
rather worn, admittedly,
that adolescent tingling in the senses,
as we wait for the cuckoo
in the middle of the spring labour,
an occasional listening
in the stillness after hatching

But then, suddenly, a slight
disturbance, a neat movement
beneath bush and brushwood,
careful
from branch to twig to spade
to mossed stone,
on delicate feet,
on watchful wings

And it’s a robin
the redbreast, that’s come
back
which flits soundless
from branch to branch
its wine-red flag, a leaf
from last year, blown about
by breeze, a plucky heart
with sherry-coloured breast, that
stakes out its invisible paling,
rings in its room
of quiet

Know, suddenly,
it was this, just
this we awaited

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Arne Rusteb.1942

Arne Ruste lives in Son, a small fishing village in the neighbourhood of Oslo. One of the most prominent contemporary Norwegian poets, he is also a translator and reviewer.
More about Arne Ruste

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