Hans Børli lyrical forest

Hans Børli is one of Norway's most famous poets, and we think he deserves a lyrical forest in his own home area. In conjunction with the local council, we have therefore made some of Børli’s most famous poems available to visitors through plaques, displays and activities along the public park’s many pathways.

Hans Børli was born in Eidskog in 1918. It gradually became clear that he was an extremely talented lyricist. He went on to become one of Norway's most famous poets. Børli spent his entire professional life as a lumberjack and was a major inspiration for the country's labour movement. His poems sprang from the forest and the life there, which is why he has been dubbed the “forest poet”. However, he was also concerned about politics and existential questions of faith and doubt. Børli received several awards, and he was granted a war pension for his help in guiding people across the border to safety in Sweden during WWII.

On the steps in the mist-blue evening

we sit in the cool June air.

And all that we see is seen double,

because it is something we share.

Look – the lake’s shining with scarlet

from the land of the sunsetting sky.

And bright as a piece of old silver

Is the diver’s red-throated cry.

And the bird-cherry’s burning in silence,

its blossoms alight by the gate.

A breeze makes their white clusters tremble

– as if there is something can’t wait...

Oh, move yourself closer against me,

here by the kitchen door!

We are given a short time together,

then given no more.

Hans Børli

from The Days, 1958