Translation of Fridtjof Nansen From Hunting and Adventure In the Arctic Into Poetry, By Tom Cook

What a wonderful fairy-tale Nature is the spring When we are young - this Awakening of life - After the long winter To see the earth emerge From the snow Day-by-day To drink in the scent Of the soil - The bursting buds - To hear the joyous paean Of the rollicking spring streams Then the first Blue anemones On the brown carpet Of the wood - The lark ascending Into the cloudless sky - The melody Of thrushes and robins In the twilight - Dearest of all The graceful birch Smiling radiantly Through her veil Of misty green What an irreparable loss That the whole of one Of these fairy-tales Should be cut out Of your young life