Bibliotheca Polyglotta

Fru Inger til Østråt (Lady Inger of Östråt)

Complete text

ELINE.
Det er som I formoded; – eders rygte er gået forud for eder selv, til Østråt, som over det hele land. Nævnes Nils Lykkes navn, så nævnes det altid sammen med en kvinde, som han har besnæret og forstødt. Nogle nævner det med harme, andre med latter og kåd spot over hine svagsindede skabninger. Men gennem harmen og latteren og spotten klinger visen om eder, overdøvende og æggende, lig en fiendes sejers-sang. Dette er det alt tilhobe, som har avlet mit had til eder. Idelig stod I for mine tanker; og det drog mig tilmødes som en længsel, at stilles ansigt til ansigt med eder, for at I kunde erfare, at der gives kvinder, hos hvem eders smidige tale er spildt – dersom I agter at bruge den.

ELINA.
’Tis as you guessed:--your fame has gone before you to Östråt, even as over all the land. Nils Lykke’s name is never spoken save with the name of some woman whom he has beguiled and cast off. Some speak it in wrath, others with laughter and wanton jeering at those weak-souled creatures. But through the wrath and the laughter and the jeers rings the song they have made of you, masterful and insolent as an enemy’s song of triumph. ’Tis all this that has begotten my hate for you. Your were ever in my thoughts, and I longed to meet you face to face, that you might learn that there are women on whom your soft speeches are lost--if you should think to use them.

NILS LYKKE.
I dømmer mig uretfærdigt, dersom I dømmer efter, hvad rygtet har sagt eder. Muligt, at der er sandhed i alt, hvad I har hørt; – men årsagerne dertil kender I ikke. – Som syttenårig junker begyndte jeg min lystige færd. Jeg har levet fulde femten år siden den tid. Lette kvinder skænked mig, hvad jeg ønsked – endnu før ønsket var blevet til bøn; og hvad jeg bød dem, det greb de med glade hænder. I er den første kvinde, som foragteligt har slængt min gave tilbage for min egen fod. Tro ikke, at jeg beklager mig. Nej, tvertimod, – jeg ærer eder derfor, således, som jeg endnu aldrig har æret nogen kvinde. Men hvad jeg klager over, og hvad der nager mig som en stor sjælevé, det er, at skæbnen ikke tidligere har ført mig eder imøde. – – Eline Gyldenløve! Eders moder har fortalt mig om eder. Medens livet gik sin urolige gang fjernt herfra, da vandred I på det ensomme Østråt, stille, med eders digten og eders drømme. Se, derfor vil I forstå, hvad jeg har at sige eder. – Vid da, at også jeg engang har levet et liv, som I her. Jeg tænkte mig, at når jeg trådte ud i den store vide verden, da vilde der komme mig imøde en ædel og herlig kvinde, som skulde vinke ad mig og vise mig vejen til et berømmeligt mål. – Jeg bedrog mig, Eline Gyldenløve! Kvinder kom mig imøde; men hun var ikke iblandt dem. Endnu før jeg fuldt var bleven mand, havde jeg lært at foragte dem alle tilhobe. Er det da min skyld? Hvorfor var ikke de andre ligesom I? – Jeg véd, eders fædrelands skæbne hviler eder tungt på sinde. I kender den andel, jeg har i forholdene – –. Det siges om mig, at jeg skal være falsk som havskummet. Nok muligt; men er jeg det, da har kvinderne lært mig at være det. Havde jeg tidligere fundet, hvad jeg søgte, – havde jeg truffet en kvinde, stolt, ædel og højsindet som I, da var visselig min vej blevet en hel anden. Kan hænde, at jeg da i dette øjeblik havde stået ved eders side som talsmand for alle de forurettede i Norges rige. Thi det tror jeg: en kvinde er det mægtigste i verden, og i hendes hånd står det at bøje en mand didhen, hvor Gud Herren vil have ham.

NILS LYKKE.
You judge me unjustly, if you judge from what rumour has told of me. Even if there be truth in all you have heard,-- you know not the causes that have made me what I am.--As a boy of seventeen I began my course of pleasure. I have lived full fifteen years since then. Light women granted me all that I would--even before the wish had shaped itself into a prayer; and what I offered them they seized with eager hands. You are the first woman that has flung back a gift of mine with scorn at my feet. Think not I reproach you. Rather I honour you for it, as never before have I honoured woman. But for this I reproach my fate-- and the thought is a gnawing pain to me--that I did not meet you sooner---- ---- Elina Gyldenlöve! Your mother has told me of you. While far from Östråt life ran its restless course, you went your lonely way in silence, living in your dreams and histories. Therefore you will understand what I have to tell you.--Know, then, that once I too lived even such a life as yours. Methought that when I stepped forth into the great world, a noble and stately woman would come to meet me, and would beckon me to her and point me the path towards a lofty goal.--I was deceived, Elina Gyldenlöve! Women came to meet me; but she was not among them. Ere yet I had come to full manhood, I had learnt to despise them all. Was it my fault? Why were not the others even as you?--I know the fate of your fatherland lies heavy on your soul, and you know the part I have in these affairs---- ---- ’Tis said of me that I am false as the sea-foam. Mayhap I am; but if I be, it is women who have made me so. Had I sooner found what I sought,--had I met a woman proud and noble and high-souled even as you, then had my path been different indeed. At this moment, maybe, I had been standing at your side as the champion of all that suffer wrong in Norway’s land. For this I believe: a woman is the mightiest power in the world, and in her hand it lies to guide a man whither God Almighty would have him go.

ELINE
(for sig selv).
Skulde det være, som han siger? Nej, nej; der er løgn i hans øje og svig på hans læber. Og dog –; ingen sang er så liflig som hans ord.

ELINA
(to herself).
Can it be as he says? Nay nay; there is falsehood in his eyes and deceit on his lips. And yet--no song is sweeter than his words.

NILS LYKKE
(nærmere, dæmpet og mere fortroligt):
Hvor ofte har I vel ikke siddet her på Østråt, ensom, med eders vekslende tanker. Da er det blevet eder trangt om brystet; loft og vægge har ligesom skrumpet sig sammen og knuget eders sind. Da har I længtes udad; da har det lystet eder at flyve langt herfra, uden at I selv vidste hvorhen. – Hvor ofte har I ikke vandret ensom ved fjorden; et smykket skib, med riddere og damer ombord, med sang og strengeleg, har sejlet forbi, langt derude; – et dunkelt rygte om store begivenheder er nået til eder; – da har I følt en higen i eders bryst, en ubetvingelig længsel efter at vide, hvad der var hinsides havet. Men I har ikke forstået, hvad der fattedes eder. I har stundom ment, det var eders fædrelands lod, der fyldte eder med alle de urolige tanker. I bedrog eder selv; – en jomfru i eders unge år har andet at gruble over. – – Eline Gyldenløve! Har I aldrig tænkt eder hemmelige kræfter, – en stærk og løndomsfuld magt, som knytter menneskenes skæbner til hinanden? Når I drømte om det brogede liv derude i den vide verden, – når I drømte om ridderspil og lystige fester, – så I da aldrig i eders drømme en ridder, der stod med smil på læben og med græmmelse i hjertet midt i den larmende færd, – en ridder, der engang havde drømt fagert som I, om en kvinde, ædel og herlig, og som han forgæves søgte blandt alle dem, der omgav ham.

NILS LYKKE
(coming closer, speaks low and more intimately).
How often, when you have been sitting here at Östråt, alone with your changeful thoughts, have you felt your bosom stifling; how often have the roof and walls seemed to shrink together till they crushed your very soul. Then have your longings taken wing with you; then have you yearned to fly far from here, you knew not whither.--How often have you not wandered alone by the fiord; far out a ship has sailed by in fair array, with knights and ladies on her deck with song and music of stringed instruments;--a faint, far-off rumour of great events has reached your ears;--and you have felt a longing in your breast, an unconquerable craving to know all that lies beyond the sea. But you have not understood what ailed you. At times you have thought it was the fate of your fatherland that filled you with all these restless broodings. You deceived yourself;--a maiden so young as you has other food for musing---- ---- Elina Gyldenlöve! Have you never had visions of an unknown power--a strong mysterious might, that binds together the destinies of mortals? When you dreamed of knightly jousts and joyous festivals--saw you never in your dreams a knight, who stood in the midst of the gayest rout, with a smile on his lips and with bitterness in his heart,--a knight that had once dreamed a dream as fair as yours, of a woman noble and stately, for whom he went ever seeking, and in vain?

ELINE.
Hvo er I, der mægter at klæde mine lønligste tanker i ord? Hvorledes kan I sige mig, hvad jeg har båret inderst i mit bryst – uden selv at vide det? Hvoraf véd I –?

ELINA.
Who are you, that have power to clothe my most secret thought in words? How can you tell me what I have borne in my inmost soul--and knew it not myself? How know you----?

NILS LYKKE.
Hvad jeg har sagt eder, har jeg læst i eders øjne.

NILS LYKKE.
All that I have told you, I have read in your eyes.

ELINE.
Aldrig har nogen mand talt til mig som I. Jeg har kun dunkelt forstået eder; og dog – – alt, alt synes mig forandret siden – – (hen for sig.) Nu begriber jeg, hvorfor de sagde, at Nils Lykke er anderledes end alle andre.

ELINA.
Never has any man spoken to me as you have. I have understood you but dimly; and yet--all, all seems changed since---- (To herself.) Now I understand why they said that Nils Lykke was unlike all other.

NILS LYKKE.
Der gives en ting i verden, som kunde forstyrre et menneskes tanker, når vi grubler derover; og det er tanken om, hvad der kunde sket, hvis alt havde føjet sig så eller så. Havde jeg mødt eder på min vej, medens mit livstræ endnu var grønt og frodigt, så havde I måske i denne stund siddet som – – Men tilgiv mig, min ædle jomfru! Disse få øjeblikkes samtale har bragt mig til at glemme vor gensidige stilling. Det var som om en lønlig røst fra først af havde sagt mig, at med eder kunde jeg tale åbent, uden smiger og uden forstillelse.

NILS LYKKE.
There is one thing in the world that might drive a man to madness, but to think of it; and that is the thought of what might have been if things had fallen out in this way or that. Had I met you on my path while the tree of my life was yet green and budding, at this hour, mayhap, you had been---- ---- But forgive me, noble lady! Our speech of these past few moments has made me forget how we stand one to another. ’Twas as though a secret voice had told me from the first that to you I could speak openly, without flattery or dissimulation.

ELINE.
Det kan I.

ELINA.
That can you.

NILS LYKKE.
Nu vel; – og denne åbenhjertighed har måske allerede så halvt om halvt forsonet os med hinanden. Ja, – jeg er endnu dristigere i mit håb. Kanhænde den tid endnu kan komme, da I vil mindes den fremmede ridder uden had og uden harme i sjælen. Nå, nå, – misforstå mig ikke! Jeg mener ikke nu straks, – men engang, senere hen i tiden. Og for at gøre eder dette mindre svært, – og da jeg nu engang er begyndt at tale åbenhjertigt og ligefrem med eder, så lad mig sige jer –

NILS LYKKE.
’Tis well;--and it may be that this openness has already in part reconciled us. Ay--my hope is yet bolder. The time may yet come when you will think of the stranger knight without hate or bitterness in your soul. Nay,--mistake me not! I mean not now-- but some time, in the days to come. And that this may be the less hard for you--and as I have begun once for all to speak to you plainly and openly--let me tell you----

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